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Details:
- COIN
- R1 National Anthem
- Weight: 15gm
- Diameter: 32.70 Metal: Ag 925 Sterling
Description:
Enoch Sontonga, a Xhosa, was born in the city of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape Colony. He trained as a teacher at the Lovedale Institution and subsequently worked as a teacher and choirmaster at the Methodist Mission school in Nancefield, near Johannesburg for eight years. The first verse and chorus of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika was composed in 1897 and it was originally intended to be a school anthem. Some sources say he wrote the tune the same year, but others note that the tune (Aberystwyth) was written by Joseph Parry and Sontonga wrote new words. It was first sung in public in 1899 at the ordination of Reverend Mboweni, who was the first Tsonga Methodist minister. Later the Xhosa poet Samuel Mqhayi wrote a further seven verses. Sontonga died in 1905.
C J Langenhoven's most famous work is the original South African Anthem Die Stem, which he wrote in 1918. Parts of this anthem have been incorporated into the current national anthem, used since the abolition of apartheid in 1994. To celebrate the centenary of his birth, in 1973 the South African Post Office issued a series of stamps (in 4-cent, 5-cent and 15-cent denominations).
Langenhoven's writing career spanned almost every genre, from poetry to ghost and alien stories. He also translated several works into Afrikaans, amongst these was the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. He was instrumental in the movement for the acceptance of Afrikaans as a language, and for it to be taught as the first language in schools instead of Dutch. This culminated in the language officially being used in parliament in 1925, and by 1927 it was recognised as an official language of South Africa , together with English.
source: Wikipeadia
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