FINDING MOSES MPHAHLELE
Wrongly credited as the Sotho translator of Nkosi Sikelela, he published the hymn Morena Boloka, which was a separate offering to the former, writes Mike Siluma
The lyrics were inspired by a desire for world peace and are more poignant today when there are lots of wars’ Kgalema Motlanthe
On Wednesday the country will celebrate the demise of the apartheid republic and the arrival in 1994 of a new democratic order, which brought with it new symbols, including the national anthem. The founders of the new republic, led by Nelson Mandela, made a strong case, in the interests of nation-building and reconciliation, for the new national anthem to include both Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica and Die Stem.
Nkosi Sikelela had been the anthem of the liberation struggle, while Die Stem was the anthem of the apartheid state.
An early criticism of the new, hybrid anthem was its inordinate length. This moved Mandela himself, the chief proponent of national reconciliation, to complain that, at more than five minutes, it was too long.
The subsequent quest for brevity led, by definition, to the pruning of a line here and a stanza or two there, on account of their repetitiveness or their potential offensiveness for sections of the public.
What was also sacrificed was a few historical truths, perpetuating inaccuracies about the anthem, including about Moses Mankgatleng Mphahlele, publisher in 1942 of the hymn that gave us the Sotho portion of today’s national anthem.
As is widely known, Nkosi Sikelela was written in 1897, as a hymn, by Enoch Mankayi Sontonga, born in 1873. It was sung at the ANC’s founding conference in Bloemfontein in 1912.
Later in the anti-colonial struggle, it was decided that to promote the unity of the oppressed, Sontonga’s hymn (in Zulu and Xhosa) and Mphahlele’s Sotho chant would be combined into one anthem of liberation; both would be sung, inseparable and not in competition with each other. The anthem became the accompaniment to the thumbs-up salute of ANC followers; also to the clenched fist of the Black Consciousness Movement and the raised open palm of supporters of the Pan Africanist Congress of Robert Sobukwe.
Fast forward to today, and Morena Boloka is often cast as an add-on, a translation, or a mere Sotho iteration of Sontonga’s hymn. Even the government website, when relating the history of the national anthem, describes Mphahlele’s hymn as “a Sesotho version” of Nkosi Sikelela.
A closer exploration of Morena Boloka, however, reveals it to be a separate and independent offering, entreating God to “save our nation” and spare it from “wars and tribulation”. On the other hand, Sontonga’s song was a prayer for God to “bless Africa” and make it glorious.
As with Sontonga, Mphahlele’s contribution was firmly located in the same anti-colonial, pan-Africanist sentiment that was gathering pace in their day. Significantly, both Morena Boloka and Nkosi Sikelela called on God to save the African continent as a whole, reflecting an identification with the continent and its people, rather than a separate entity. In the post-1994 national anthem, the original reference to Africa in the Sotho portion is changed to SA.
On the same government site, the background to the national anthem mentions Mphahlele only once, cryptically, as the publisher of Morena Boloka. Beyond that it gives the reader no clue of who he was, while revealing that Sontonga was “a Methodist mission schoolteacher”.
This year, on the 80th anniversary of the publication of Morena Boloka, Mphahlele’s family is making a plea that the government lead the way in recognising his contribution to the struggle to end apartheid, and to our nation-building process since 1994.
On his gravestone, unveiled in 2011 by the then premier of Limpopo, Cassel Mathale, Mphahlele is described as “the translator and publisher of the Sesotho version of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika”.
Instead, his family wants his work to be acknowledged as original and separate from Sontonga’s hymn. “On the gravestone it says a translator of Nkosi Sikelela, when Morena Boloka was written by a different person. We raised the issue at the time of the unveiling, and [the government] said they would change the wording. But that has not happened,” said Mphahlele’s niece Mante, 81.
Born in 1875 at Seleteng Ga-Mphahlele near Polokwane, Mphahlele was the first of six children born to Kgoadiangoato and Raesibe Mphahlele.
Like many who would become influential figures in South African public life, he trained as a teacher at the famous Methodist
Church-run Kilnerton Training Institution in Pretoria. Among those attending Kilnerton was Lilian Ngoyi, destined to become one of the leaders of the 1956 women’s march. They were taught and politically influenced by, among others, Sefako Makgatho, who became the second president of the ANC.
Mphahlele and Ngoyi shared family bonds too, as their grandmothers were sisters.
Together with Makgatho, Mphahlele was delegated to represent the Bakgaga ba ga Mphahlele tribal authority at the founding conference of the ANC.
Over the years Kilnerton, as with many missionary-inspired institutions of the time, produced many famous leaders including Dikgang Moseneke, the former deputy chief justice and Robben Island prisoner; Dr Nthato Motlana, the anti-apartheid activist and former ANC Youth League president; Miriam Makeba, and Khabi Mngoma, the iconic music composer and teacher.
Mphahlele, who was an admirer of Jamaican political activist and pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, himself became the secretary of the Transvaal ANC in the 1920s.
By 1930, he had been recognised as one of the more influential individuals of his generation. TD Mweli Skota, the former ANC general secretary and prominent journalist and publisher, included Mphahlele in his African Yearly Register (described as a “Who’s Who of Black Folks in Africa”). Skota wrote that Mphahlele, “who is related to the late Chief Mphahlele of Mphahlelestad”, was “a good composer of music and a gifted poet”.
Besides working as an interpreter, Mphahlele was a prolific poet and composer. His works included The Dark Musician of the North and The Mendi, inspired by the sinking in the English Channel during World War 1 of the troopship of the same name, with the loss of more than 600 members of the South African Native Labour Corps.
The tragedy of the Mendi left a gaping wound in the black psyche at the time, and was immortalised by writers such as SEK Mqhayi with his epic, Ukutshona kukaMendi (The Sinking of the Mendi). After 1994, the South African Navy named one of its ships the SS Mendi.
There has been uncertainty about when Morena Boloka was written, before being published during World War 2, because archival recordings show the hymn to have been included in the repertoire of the Wilberforce Institute Singers in 1930.
Mphahlele, who never married or had children, died in 1957, aged 82. He is buried in the village where he was born.
His family’s bid to have Mphahlele’s place in history recognised is being supported by former president Kgalema Motlanthe. He said it was important to appreciate Mphahlele’s contribution to the national anthem and that Morena Boloka was as relevant now as it was when written. “The lyrics were inspired by a desire for world peace and are more poignant today when there are lots of wars,” Motlanthe said.
The family cause has been taken up by author and owner of Skotaville Publishers, Mothobi Mutloatse. He has written to both the presidency and the arts & culture ministry urging government intervention. He has, he says, so far received no response.
Presidential spokesperson Tyrone Seale said they had not received the communication and referred the Sunday Times to the ministry. It had not responded at the time of going to press.