Background and contestations

The song “Thina sizwe” was among the most morose ditties sung during the liberation struggle in South Africa. It reflected black pain on losing land to the white coloniser, admonishing the coloniser to give back the land to its rightful owners. Like many other struggle songs, choirs and singers of note have sung this song. It tells a story of the genesis of the liberation struggle. The song's lyrics are:

When the former State President, Jacob Zuma, sang this song at Nelson Mandela's funeral in December 2013, many people started a debate about it, and about the relevance of struggle songs today. Experts also started posing questions about historical consciousness in South Africa, pondering whether the song played a role in enhancing reconciliation. It was also no coincidence that Zuma repeated the song at the reburial of J. B. Marks in March 2015, in Ventersdorp, in the North-West province. Zuma led the song again in 2018 at Winnie Mandela's memorial in KwaZulu-Natal. The song resonated with many in the audience, as the land debate continues to pervade all levels of society.

This was the same song sung during the Rivonia Trial days in the mid-60s, before Mandela and his colleagues were ferried to Robben Island to face life imprisonment. The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) party was among the groups that wanted the singing of this protest song banned, as it was deemed inimical to reconciliation and the rainbow spirit. A predominant Afrikaner civil society organisation in South Africa, AfriForum, also opposed the singing of certain freedom songs because of their alleged divisive, racial nature. Numerous protest songs are deemed controversial or odious by certain formations in this country, which maintain that the songs may have to be muted eternally. Furthermore, the leader of the FF+ argued that the song incited racial polarisation (The Star, 2017). Countless struggle songs highlight the plight of the African after dispossession and oppression. The land has been central in songs since time immemorial.