Biography of enoch sontonga

Enoch Mankayi Sontonga was born in Uitenhage, Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape) around 1873 as a member of the Xhosa-speaking Mpinga clan of the Tembu tribe.

He trained as a teacher at the Lovedale Training College after which he was sent to a Methodist mission school in Nancefield, near Johannesburg in 1896.

He taught here for nearly eight years.  

Sontonga was the choirmaster at his school, as well as an amateur photographer.

Biography of enoch sontonga in the bible

He married Diana Mgqibisa, the daughter of a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who passed away in 1929. They had a son.

Sontonga was a distinguished and productive poet and, on occasions, preached in his church.

As a choirmaster in his school, Enoch Sontonga composed the first two stanzas of democratic South Africa’s anthem in 1897. Although initially intended for his school choir, “Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika” was first performed in 1899 at an ordination service of Reverend Mboweni, the first Tsonga Methodist