Last modified: 2004-06-26 by bruce berry
Keywords: south africa | song |
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Oranje-blanje-blou (Afrikaans for Orange, white and blue) refers, of
course, to the old South African flag used between 1928 and 1994. This song was popular especially among Afrikaners
when this flag flew over South Africa. The tune is by Henry Hugh Pierson (they don't say whether it was
borrowed from this composer), and the lyrics are by an Afrikaans poet who wrote under the name Eitemal.
The
attribution for the text reads: "EITEMAL na: ,,O.D., hoch in Ehren''.
(There is a commonly used style of quotation marks, primarily German but often used
in Afrikaans, that opens a quote with commas rather than the more familiar
"inverted commas").
The title simply gives the colours of the 1928 South African flag, or, more strictly, the Dutch Princenvlag: orange, white and blue. (I am not
certain of the derivation of "blanje", since it is not used in ordinary
spoken Afrikaans, but I would guess that it is a form of the French "blanc",
white).
The text reads:
Die Hoogland is ons woning,
die land van son en veld,
waar woeste vryheidswinde
waai oor graf van meenge held.
Die ruimtes het ons siel gevoed,
ons kan g'n slawe wees,
want vryer as die arendsvlug,
die vlugte van ons gees.
Chorus:
Dis die tyd, (repeated)
dis die dag, (repeated)
om te handhaaf en te bou.
Hoog die hart, (repeated)
hoog die vlag, (repeated)
hoog Oranje-blanje-blou!
Ons gaan saam die donker toekoms in
om as een te sneuwel of oorwin,
met ons oog gerig op jou,
ons Oranje-blanje-blou!
(Note: In the sixth line [hoog Oranje-blanje-blou], there is an echo of "b