Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

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"Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" ("God Bless Africa" in the Xhosa language) is a hymn composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a teacher at a Methodist mission school in Johannesburg, South Africa. The hymn is the national anthem of both Tanzania and Zambia, and was formerly the anthem of Zimbabwe and Namibia. Outside of Africa, the hymn is perhaps best known as the long-time (since 1925) anthem of the African National Congress (ANC), as a result of the global anti-Apartheid movement of the 1970s and 1980s, when it was regularly sung at meetings and other events. It became part of South Africa's national anthem in 1994, following the ANC's victory in the country's first multi-racial elections.

The words of the first stanza were originally written in Xhosa as a hymn. In 1927 seven additional Xhosa stanzas were added by the poet Samuel Mqhayi. Solomon Plaatje, one of South Africa's greatest writers and a founding member of the ANC, was the first to have the song recorded. This was in London in 1923. A Sotho version was published in 1942 by Moses Mphahlele. Rev. John L. Dube 's Ohlange Zulu Choir popularised the hymn at concerts in Johannesburg, and it became a popular church hymn that was also adopted as the anthem at political meetings. It has also been recorded by artists like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, [1], Boom Shaka and the Mahotella Queens.