Background From the late 1940s to the early 1990s, South Africa was governed by a system known as
apartheid, a widely condemned system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination that was based on
white supremacy and the repression of the
black majority for the benefit of the politically and economically dominant
Afrikaner minority and other whites. During this period, South Africa's national anthem was "
Die Stem van Suid-Afrika", also known as "Die Stem", an
Afrikaans-language song that chronicled the
Voortrekkers and the
Great Trek. "Die Stem" is a poem written by
C. J. Langenhoven in 1918 and was set to music by Marthinus Lourens de Villiers in 1921. "Die Stem" () was the co-national anthem with "
God Save the King" between 1938 and 1957, when it became the sole national anthem until 1994. "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" was composed of eight stanzas: the original four in Afrikaans and four in English - a translation of the Afrikaans with a few modifications. It was seldom sung in its entirety; usually, the first stanza was the most widely known and sung sometimes followed by the last stanza. When apartheid came to an end in the early 1990s, the future of "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" was called into question. It was ultimately retained as the national anthem, though "
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", a
Xhosa language song that was used by the
anti-apartheid movement, was also introduced and adopted as a second national anthem of equal standing. "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" was composed by a
Methodist school teacher named
Enoch Sontonga in 1897. It was first sung as a church
hymn but later became an act of political defiance against the
apartheid regime. The
South African government adopted both songs as dual
national anthems in 1994, when they were performed at
Nelson Mandela's inauguration. For the
1995 Rugby World Cup,
Morné du Plessis suggested that the
Springboks learn all the words of "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", and "they did so with great feeling", according to their instructor Anne Munnik.
Inception The practice of having two national anthems proved to be a cumbersome arrangement as performing both of them took as much as five minutes. This was rectified when South Africa's dual national anthems were merged in abridged forms in early 1997 to form the current national anthem. The new national anthem was performed at an opening of the South African parliament in February 1997, and was published in the South African
Government Gazette on 10 October 1997. with some such as the
Economic Freedom Fighters calling for the verse to be removed, supposedly because of this connection. Others defend the inclusion of the verse, pointing out that it is included in large part due to the wishes of the first post-apartheid South African president,
Nelson Mandela, who intended its inclusion as a reconciliatory measure for the post-apartheid future of South Africa. ==Lyrics==