Death of Enoch Sontonga
Enoch Sontonga
Date: 18 April, 1905
Enoch Mankayi Sontonga, writer and composer of the National Anthem Nkosi Sikelel' IAfrica (God Bless Africa) died at the age of thirty-two. He was twenty-four years of age when he wrote Nkosi Sikelel' IAfrica. There were uncertainties around the exact year of his death, but it was finally established that the exact date was 18 April 1905. Seven years after his death the African National Congress launched his hymn into prominence as an anthem of Black struggle against oppression.
After Braamfontein cemetery, where Sontonga was buried, was vandalised, the City of Johannesburg invited city officials, archaeologists and historians to locate his grave. His grave was identified, and Nelson Mandela called for the erection of a memorial to Sontonga on the first post-apartheid Heritage Day. On 18 April 2005 the Johannesburg City Parks planned an event to commemorate his death.
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