--- title: Google Doodle Marks South Africa Freedom Day, Enoch Sontonga description: New Google Doodle marks the date of South Africa's first post-apartheid election, and features the composer of 'Nkosi Sikekei' iAfrika'. canonical: https://time.com/4757080/google-doodle-south-africa-freedom-day-enoch-sontonga/ author: Kevin Lui article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-27T03:47:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:08.937Z og:title: Google Doodle Celebrates South Africa's Freedom Day og:description: Featuring Enoch Sontonga, who wrote the national anthem 'Nkosi Sikekei' iAfrika' og:url: https://time.com/4757080/google-doodle-south-africa-freedom-day-enoch-sontonga/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77b86bd82dc10a0a/6988caddbc6cfce6a93e1178/freedom-day-and-enoch-sontonga-5748739204448256-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=711&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 711 og:image:height: 400 og:image:alt: freedom-day-and-enoch-sontonga-5748739204448256-2x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Celebrates South Africa's Freedom Day twitter:description: Featuring Enoch Sontonga, who wrote the national anthem 'Nkosi Sikekei' iAfrika' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77b86bd82dc10a0a/6988caddbc6cfce6a93e1178/freedom-day-and-enoch-sontonga-5748739204448256-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=711&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Celebrates South Africa's Freedom Day with Doodle Honoring Composer Enoch Sontonga > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Apr 27, 2017 3:47 AM UTC  Google by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Apr 27, 2017 3:47 AM UTC Google is [marking the anniversary](https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-freedom-day-and-enoch-sontonga) of South Africa’s first post-apartheid election on Thursday with a Doodle honoring 19th century composer Enoch Sontonga, who wrote a song that is now part of the country’s current national anthem. Sontonga, who was also a choirmaster and poet, composed the song _Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika_ (God Bless Africa) in 1897\. It became popular over the years, according to Google, and was even recorded in a London studio in 1923. Singing the song became “an act of defiance” during apartheid, the South African government [notes on its website](http://www.gov.za/about-sa/national-symbols/national-anthem), and became the anthem for the African National Congress. Because of this connection the song was banned during apartheid, as the _Guardian_ [noted](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/06/nelson-mandela-protest-song-special-aka) in 2013\. In 1997, parts of _Nkosi Sikeleil’ iAfrika_ were fused with the country’s other anthem, _Die Stem_ (The Call of South Africa), to become the current national anthem of South Africa Freedom Day, on April 27, is a public holiday in South Africa. On this day in 1994, the country’s first democratic elections took place, in which people of voting age from all races and ethnicities could cast a ballot. With over 60% of the votes going to the ANC, [Nelson Mandela](http://time.com/3611911/nelson-mandela-year-later/) became the country’s first black, and first democratically elected, President. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4757080/google-doodle-south-africa-freedom-day-enoch-sontonga/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4757080/google-doodle-south-africa-freedom-day-enoch-sontonga/"},"headline":"Google Celebrates South Africa's Freedom Day with Doodle Honoring Composer Enoch Sontonga","datePublished":"2017-04-27T03:47:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:08.937Z","description":"New Google Doodle marks the date of South Africa's first post-apartheid election, and features the composer of 'Nkosi Sikekei' iAfrika'.","url":"https://time.com/4757080/google-doodle-south-africa-freedom-day-enoch-sontonga/","keywords":["Newsfeed","South Africa","Google Doodle","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77b86bd82dc10a0a/6988caddbc6cfce6a93e1178/freedom-day-and-enoch-sontonga-5748739204448256-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin Lui","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77b86bd82dc10a0a/6988caddbc6cfce6a93e1178/freedom-day-and-enoch-sontonga-5748739204448256-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"freedom-day-and-enoch-sontonga-5748739204448256-2x","caption":"","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4757080/google-doodle-south-africa-freedom-day-enoch-sontonga/","name":"Google Celebrates South Africa's Freedom Day with Doodle Honoring Composer Enoch Sontonga"}}]}] ```