Every nation has its land!
We live on the African shore;
for us, there is no better region
All around the world.
proud to carry the name
children of South Africa.
Our nation owns its language,
spoken from Cape to the Transvaal
Everyone can easily understand.
Words we talk, we talk like dad and grandpa,
Afrikaans language of South Africa.
Every nation has its law,
which includes good command, prevents evil;
and everyone’s code is by its character
and is associated with its environment:
So we also follow the morals,
which belongs within South Africa.
Every nation has its right,
though still weak and inadequate.
There is one God that signifies everything.
He puts the inequality to rest,
He looks after our oppressors
and watch for South Africa.
Every nation has its season
to develop and decline,
and as our dear Lord does,
so it is always wise and good.
A day is evolving for us, yes;
Trust in God, South Africa.
For all the nations have one God,
He rules the destiny of every nation;
He has his language for every people,
his land, his law, his time.
Whoever despises it will bear his punishment.
Oh, God, protect South Africa!
The first form of “Every nation has its land” was made by Arnoldus Pannevis even before the establishment of the Society of Rights Afrikaners, and published as “The African National Anthem” in “De Zuid-Afrikaan” of July 7, 1875, in Cape Town. Readers were invited to rate it and suggest possible improvements. S.J. du Toit, his brother D.F. (“Uncle Locomotive”) and C.P. Hoogenhout “improved” it, and the improved form appeared in the very first issue of “The Afrikaans Patriot” (January 15, 1876).
W. van Gorkom, provided this very first attempt to give the Afrikaners a national anthem in their language a melody, was between 1876 and 1878 director of education in the Z.A.R. and thus a predecessor in the post of S.J. du Toit. Van Gorkom returned to his native Netherlands in 1878.
