Showing posts with label afrikaans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label afrikaans. Show all posts
Monday, 09 February 2009
Friday, 06 February 2009
Nadine sings "Footprints in Africa"
South African artist, Nadine, sings a song she wrote about South Africa, and how she feels about her country.
The video starts with her words: "ek is baie trots op my land" (I am very proud of my country.)
Her message is a very positive one - of love for her country, and optimism about the future. Some may call it naïve, and it probably is.
However, if you take away hope - what remains?
Support her by buying her DVD, which can be found at kalahari.net
Translation of Nadine's song, "Footprints in Africa" (original Afrikaans title: "Afrika Spore")
Deur jou groot woestyn
-- Through your vast desert
Lê 'n reguit lyn
-- Runs a straight line
Loop my spore deur jou hart
-- My footprints reach through your heart
In jou hemelruim
-- Through your skies above
Teen die hoogste kruin
-- Across the highest peaks
Strek ons blydskap en ook ons pad
-- Reach our joy and our journey
As ek jou moes verruil
-- If I had to give you up
Sal ek ween, sal ek saggies huil
-- I will weep, I will shed silent tears
Afrika, jy sal in my agterbly
-- Africa, you will stay in my heart
REFRAIN:
Suid Afrika, ons sal staande bly
-- South Africa, we will remain standing
Suid Afrika, niks sal ons onderkry
-- South Africa, nothing will overcome us
Al sê die wêreld jy is verby
-- Even if the world says your time is over
Gee jy jou beste vir my
-- You give your best for us
Suid Afrika, dis die land van my
-- South Africa, it is the land of mine
AFFIRMATION:
Ons sal onthou waar ons vandaan kom
-- We will remember where we came from
En ons sal weet waarheen ons gaan
-- And we will know where we are heading
Neem my hand, ek sal vorentoe kyk
-- Take my hand, I will look straight ahead
En ek sal onthou om uit te reik
-- And I will remember to reach out
Hier waar ossewa spore rou lê
-- Here where oxen wagons carved their tracks
Dit is die plek waar my voetspore nou lê
-- This is the place where my footprints now lie
Ons sal lewe, ons sal steeds sterwe
-- We will live, we will still die
Ons vir jou, Suid Afrika
-- For our country, South Africa
Nadine - Koe-ma-doe (remix)
Een van Nadine se grootste treffers.
The DVD can be bought internationally at kalahari.net
Ek het die oorspronklike musiek video gekombineer met een van haar konsert optredes.
This is a light hearted song about all kinds of things, mostly love (but not in a serious way) and also a little bit of religion and patriotism.
To give you a few lines as examples:
"when you come to fetch me with your wedding band, make sure you bring everything with you: your bicycle, your picture frames and your tame goose"
"give me a little hug"
"we'll build a little house in second avenue, just like I always wanted"
"this is our very own country"
It's not so common as it used to be. Religion, and specifically Christianity, has always been an important part of the day to day life of a large part of the Afrikaner nation.
The moral baggage of apartheid has almost completely shattered our national pride. However, the new generation of Afrikaners are experiencing a resurgence in this pride, often in response to the racism they experience from blacks in schools and the economic affirmative action policies of the ANC.
Saturday, 06 December 2008
South African Companies Unlock Sub-Saharan Africa
Versed in the highs and lows of emerging-market development, SABMiller, Standard Bank, and others are expanding across the continent and beyond
by Jack Ewing
BusinessWeek
Emerging Market Report December 4, 2008, 5:00PM EST
Business Exchange: Read, save, and add content on BW's new Web 2.0 topic network
Doing Business in Africa
The continent is famed for its unstable politics, shoddy infrastructure, and underdeveloped markets. But Africa offers plenty of opportunities for companies able to grapple with such challenges. That's the premise of a new book called Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Can Offer More Than You Think by Vijay Mahajan, a business professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who also co-authored the well-received The 86% Solution.
To view a video of Mahajan discussing his new work, go to http://bx.businessweek.com/african-business/reference/
Ewing is BusinessWeek's European regional editor.
A building In Uganda brightly plugs MTN, a South African cellular provider Vanessa Vick/Redux
by Jack Ewing
BusinessWeek
Emerging Market Report December 4, 2008, 5:00PM EST
Name a global economic woe, and chances are Charles Needham is dealing with it. Market turmoil has knocked 80% off the shares of South Africa's Metorex, the mining company he runs. The plunge in global commodities is slamming prices for the copper, cobalt, and other minerals Metorex unearths across Africa. The credit crisis makes it harder to raise money. And fighting has again broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Metorex has a mine and several projects in development.
Such problems might send many executives to the window ledge. Yet Needham appears unruffled as he sits down at a conference table in the company's modest offices in a Johannesburg suburb. The combat in northeast Congo, he notes, is far from Metorex's mine. Commodity prices are still high, in historical terms. And Needham is confident he can raise enough capital, drawing on relationships with South African banks. "These are the kinds of things you deal with, doing business in Africa," he says.
That kind of resolve is typical of South African companies. All told, South Africans have plowed more than $8.5 billion into the Sub-Saharan region, the U.N. estimates, making the country the biggest investor there. Ever since South African Breweries pioneered the African beer market—and then went on to become the global titan known as SABMiller—South African companies have led the way on risky turf. Johannesburg cellular provider MTN was one of a handful of companies to defy conventional wisdom and prove that Africa could be a huge market for mobile phones. South African retailers such as Massmart, Shoprite, and packaged-food maker Tiger Brands are bringing Western-style shopping to Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and other far-flung locales. And Standard Bank has opened branches in 16 African countries that in many cases lacked even basic financial services. "South African companies are more open than ever to the opportunities in Africa," says Sonal Pandit, portfolio manager for African equities at JPMorgan Funds (JPM).
Now the South Africans are taking their emerging-market expertise well beyond Africa's coastline. MTN has moved into Afghanistan and Iran. Standard Bank in 2007 bought control of BankBoston Argentina. And Anglo American, now based in London but with South African roots, has become the world's fourth-biggest mining company, with operations from Chile to Australia.
The knowhow South Africans have gained on the continent is making their companies attractive to foreigners with ambitions in the region. In March, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China bought a 20% stake in Standard Bank. Britain's Vodafone (VOD) in November took control of Vodacom, a pan-African cellular carrier based near Johannesburg. "Africa is the next China," says Malcolm Perrie, who oversees sub-Saharan Africa for U.S. auto parts maker Federal-Mogul, which aims to double its sub-Saharan sales within five years.
South Africans carry a detailed understanding of the quirks of the local market. Perrie, for instance, grew up in Zimbabwe and South Africa and knows that goods are often unloaded from trucks by hand because retailers can't afford forklifts. So Federal-Mogul ships its Champion-brand spark plugs and other parts in boxes one person can carry. Knowing Nigerians feel insulted when bank tellers sit behind bulletproof glass, Standard instead stations armed guards at its bank entrances in crime-plagued Lagos, which doesn't bother customers. And in Uganda, where many people have little access to mass media, MTN advertises its phone service by painting roadside buildings yellow and blue, the company's colors. Such common-sense solutions may seem obvious, yet South Africans have been faster than others to recognize the opportunities—and more willing to take a risk. French-speaking Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, might well have been a logical market for a French carrier, but South Africa's Vodacom jumped in early and is now the leader.
With so many roads in Africa leading to Johannesburg, it would be bad news for the whole continent if South Africa fell victim to global financial turmoil. There's no shortage of reasons to worry. Growth in South Africa, which accounts for a third of sub-Saharan Africa's gross domestic product, likely will slow to 3% in 2009 after averaging 5% in recent years. Mining, an important domestic industry, has been hit by the plunge in commodity prices. The rand has been sliding, creating additional price risks in a country with 13% inflation. And the African National Congress, which has dominated the country's politics since the end of whites-only rule in 1994, has split into rival factions.
Yet foreign economists seem to fret more than South Africans. They don't teach sangfroid in business school, but you may learn it growing up in South Africa, a sometimes jarring mélange of well-manicured wealth and chaotic poverty. The suburbs of Johannesburg look like Beverly Hills or Pasadena, except that the security guards are more heavily armed and the posh houses crouch behind concrete walls topped with electric fence. At a mall called Nelson Mandela Square, shoppers pass a bronze statue of the anti-apartheid leader on their way to the Crabtree & Evelyn outlet.
Despite freeways packed with BMWs and Toyotas (TM), Johannesburg provides constant reminders that it is very much an African city. More than 70% of South Africa's 48 million people live on $2 or less a day, and a quarter haven't even completed primary school, the World Bank estimates. Wizened women with unwashed children on their backs beg at intersections. Men stand by highways with signs around their necks advertising their skills, looking for day work. At a McDonald's (MCD), customers munch on Quarter Pounders at outdoor tables, taking little notice of the rats that scurry around the chain's parking lot.
Understanding the twin aspects of South Africa's sophisticated economy and emerging market complexities surely gives its companies an advantage around the continent. "South Africans do well when they go elsewhere because they're not afraid," says software entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, a South African based in London.
Neighboring Mozambique is a good place to see how South African companies are remaking business in the region. The capital, Maputo, remains a city where most people live in houses with mud-brick walls and rusty metal roofs, and sidewalks are crammed with vendors selling everything from fresh papaya to bootleg DVDs of High School Musical 3. At a shiny mall next to an abandoned bullfighting arena, a motorized Santa Claus stands at the entrance to South Africa's Shoprite on a warm afternoon, greeting customers stocking up on rice, cornmeal, and fake Christmas trees. Downtown, Durban-based home furnishings retailer Mr Price sells brightly colored bedding, crockery, and furniture.
And on a bumpy road that hugs the coastline, there's a shining South African-owned big box store called Game. Aside from a few local touches—palm trees in the parking lot, signs in Portuguese, and a whole aisle devoted to ceiling fans—the store looks like a discounter in Ohio or Oregon. A mix of expatriates and wealthier locals fill their carts with Frosted Flakes (K), Hannah Montana bedsheets, and Sony (SNE) TVs.
But creating this oasis of consumerism hasn't been easy. Construction was delayed for months while officials held out for bribes. The store's spunky manager, Ana Paula Florentino, refused to pay. "If you give them your finger, they want your hand, and if you give them your hand, they want your arm," says Florentino, who as a child fled the former Portuguese colony on the eve of a brutal civil war that lasted from 1975 until 1992, making Mozambique one of the poorest countries on the planet. Rather than depending on the local phone network, she transmits sales and inventory data to headquarters via satellite. It's challenging to manage personnel in a country where many have never held regular jobs. Workers must learn such basics as the importance of laundering their company-issue red-and-white striped shirts—and skipping the traditional two-hour midday siesta.
The role model for many South African companies is SABMiller. The brewer was active in neighboring countries for decades, then began expanding aggressively after the end of apartheid, when the U.N. lifted economic sanctions. Betting that its experience in such places as Angola and Zimbabwe suited it for other emerging markets, SAB acquired beermakers in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
The brewer, now based in London, proved South Africans could compete internationally. "SAB has been an inspiration," says Peter Wharton-Hood, chief operating officer of Standard Bank. He and his colleagues are trying to do for banking what SAB did for beer, though they admit they were slow to appreciate the opportunities on their doorstep. "We didn't take Africa as seriously as now," Wharton-Hood says. "There was significant pessimism about the prospects for the continent."
That's an important point. News reports about Africa tend to be dominated by war in the Congo, pirates in Somalia, or chaos in Zimbabwe. In fact, Angola, Mozambique, Uganda, and other countries have grown markedly more peaceful recently, even if government institutions still leave a lot to be desired. "In the last 10 years we have seen a dramatic increase in political stability and a reduction of conflict," says Clive Tasker, CEO of Standard Bank's Africa operations.
The opportunities aren't lost on outsiders. Standard faces competition from the likes of London-based Barclays (BCS), which took over Johannesburg's Absa bank in 2005. Companies from other emerging markets are bringing to Africa their own experience in dealing with difficult environments. In telecommunications, MTN and Vodacom often bump up against Zain, from Kuwait. Brazil-based builder Odebrecht and oil company Petrobras (PBR) have been expanding in Angola, exploiting the fact that both nations speak Portuguese. And a Chinese outfit is building Congolese roads and other infrastructure in exchange for access to mineral deposits. From within Africa, Nigerian institutions such as United Bank for Africa are proving to be worthy competitors outside their domestic market.
Executives in Johannesburg, however, see the growing competition as just another hazard of doing business in the region. "South African businesspeople have managed enormous risk over the last 20 years," says Michael Spicer, a former executive vice-president at Anglo American who is now CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, an industry group. "They are incredibly flexible."
Such problems might send many executives to the window ledge. Yet Needham appears unruffled as he sits down at a conference table in the company's modest offices in a Johannesburg suburb. The combat in northeast Congo, he notes, is far from Metorex's mine. Commodity prices are still high, in historical terms. And Needham is confident he can raise enough capital, drawing on relationships with South African banks. "These are the kinds of things you deal with, doing business in Africa," he says.
That kind of resolve is typical of South African companies. All told, South Africans have plowed more than $8.5 billion into the Sub-Saharan region, the U.N. estimates, making the country the biggest investor there. Ever since South African Breweries pioneered the African beer market—and then went on to become the global titan known as SABMiller—South African companies have led the way on risky turf. Johannesburg cellular provider MTN was one of a handful of companies to defy conventional wisdom and prove that Africa could be a huge market for mobile phones. South African retailers such as Massmart, Shoprite, and packaged-food maker Tiger Brands are bringing Western-style shopping to Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and other far-flung locales. And Standard Bank has opened branches in 16 African countries that in many cases lacked even basic financial services. "South African companies are more open than ever to the opportunities in Africa," says Sonal Pandit, portfolio manager for African equities at JPMorgan Funds (JPM).
Now the South Africans are taking their emerging-market expertise well beyond Africa's coastline. MTN has moved into Afghanistan and Iran. Standard Bank in 2007 bought control of BankBoston Argentina. And Anglo American, now based in London but with South African roots, has become the world's fourth-biggest mining company, with operations from Chile to Australia.
The knowhow South Africans have gained on the continent is making their companies attractive to foreigners with ambitions in the region. In March, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China bought a 20% stake in Standard Bank. Britain's Vodafone (VOD) in November took control of Vodacom, a pan-African cellular carrier based near Johannesburg. "Africa is the next China," says Malcolm Perrie, who oversees sub-Saharan Africa for U.S. auto parts maker Federal-Mogul, which aims to double its sub-Saharan sales within five years.
South Africans carry a detailed understanding of the quirks of the local market. Perrie, for instance, grew up in Zimbabwe and South Africa and knows that goods are often unloaded from trucks by hand because retailers can't afford forklifts. So Federal-Mogul ships its Champion-brand spark plugs and other parts in boxes one person can carry. Knowing Nigerians feel insulted when bank tellers sit behind bulletproof glass, Standard instead stations armed guards at its bank entrances in crime-plagued Lagos, which doesn't bother customers. And in Uganda, where many people have little access to mass media, MTN advertises its phone service by painting roadside buildings yellow and blue, the company's colors. Such common-sense solutions may seem obvious, yet South Africans have been faster than others to recognize the opportunities—and more willing to take a risk. French-speaking Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, might well have been a logical market for a French carrier, but South Africa's Vodacom jumped in early and is now the leader.
With so many roads in Africa leading to Johannesburg, it would be bad news for the whole continent if South Africa fell victim to global financial turmoil. There's no shortage of reasons to worry. Growth in South Africa, which accounts for a third of sub-Saharan Africa's gross domestic product, likely will slow to 3% in 2009 after averaging 5% in recent years. Mining, an important domestic industry, has been hit by the plunge in commodity prices. The rand has been sliding, creating additional price risks in a country with 13% inflation. And the African National Congress, which has dominated the country's politics since the end of whites-only rule in 1994, has split into rival factions.
Yet foreign economists seem to fret more than South Africans. They don't teach sangfroid in business school, but you may learn it growing up in South Africa, a sometimes jarring mélange of well-manicured wealth and chaotic poverty. The suburbs of Johannesburg look like Beverly Hills or Pasadena, except that the security guards are more heavily armed and the posh houses crouch behind concrete walls topped with electric fence. At a mall called Nelson Mandela Square, shoppers pass a bronze statue of the anti-apartheid leader on their way to the Crabtree & Evelyn outlet.
Despite freeways packed with BMWs and Toyotas (TM), Johannesburg provides constant reminders that it is very much an African city. More than 70% of South Africa's 48 million people live on $2 or less a day, and a quarter haven't even completed primary school, the World Bank estimates. Wizened women with unwashed children on their backs beg at intersections. Men stand by highways with signs around their necks advertising their skills, looking for day work. At a McDonald's (MCD), customers munch on Quarter Pounders at outdoor tables, taking little notice of the rats that scurry around the chain's parking lot.
Understanding the twin aspects of South Africa's sophisticated economy and emerging market complexities surely gives its companies an advantage around the continent. "South Africans do well when they go elsewhere because they're not afraid," says software entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, a South African based in London.
Neighboring Mozambique is a good place to see how South African companies are remaking business in the region. The capital, Maputo, remains a city where most people live in houses with mud-brick walls and rusty metal roofs, and sidewalks are crammed with vendors selling everything from fresh papaya to bootleg DVDs of High School Musical 3. At a shiny mall next to an abandoned bullfighting arena, a motorized Santa Claus stands at the entrance to South Africa's Shoprite on a warm afternoon, greeting customers stocking up on rice, cornmeal, and fake Christmas trees. Downtown, Durban-based home furnishings retailer Mr Price sells brightly colored bedding, crockery, and furniture.
And on a bumpy road that hugs the coastline, there's a shining South African-owned big box store called Game. Aside from a few local touches—palm trees in the parking lot, signs in Portuguese, and a whole aisle devoted to ceiling fans—the store looks like a discounter in Ohio or Oregon. A mix of expatriates and wealthier locals fill their carts with Frosted Flakes (K), Hannah Montana bedsheets, and Sony (SNE) TVs.
But creating this oasis of consumerism hasn't been easy. Construction was delayed for months while officials held out for bribes. The store's spunky manager, Ana Paula Florentino, refused to pay. "If you give them your finger, they want your hand, and if you give them your hand, they want your arm," says Florentino, who as a child fled the former Portuguese colony on the eve of a brutal civil war that lasted from 1975 until 1992, making Mozambique one of the poorest countries on the planet. Rather than depending on the local phone network, she transmits sales and inventory data to headquarters via satellite. It's challenging to manage personnel in a country where many have never held regular jobs. Workers must learn such basics as the importance of laundering their company-issue red-and-white striped shirts—and skipping the traditional two-hour midday siesta.
The role model for many South African companies is SABMiller. The brewer was active in neighboring countries for decades, then began expanding aggressively after the end of apartheid, when the U.N. lifted economic sanctions. Betting that its experience in such places as Angola and Zimbabwe suited it for other emerging markets, SAB acquired beermakers in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
The brewer, now based in London, proved South Africans could compete internationally. "SAB has been an inspiration," says Peter Wharton-Hood, chief operating officer of Standard Bank. He and his colleagues are trying to do for banking what SAB did for beer, though they admit they were slow to appreciate the opportunities on their doorstep. "We didn't take Africa as seriously as now," Wharton-Hood says. "There was significant pessimism about the prospects for the continent."
That's an important point. News reports about Africa tend to be dominated by war in the Congo, pirates in Somalia, or chaos in Zimbabwe. In fact, Angola, Mozambique, Uganda, and other countries have grown markedly more peaceful recently, even if government institutions still leave a lot to be desired. "In the last 10 years we have seen a dramatic increase in political stability and a reduction of conflict," says Clive Tasker, CEO of Standard Bank's Africa operations.
The opportunities aren't lost on outsiders. Standard faces competition from the likes of London-based Barclays (BCS), which took over Johannesburg's Absa bank in 2005. Companies from other emerging markets are bringing to Africa their own experience in dealing with difficult environments. In telecommunications, MTN and Vodacom often bump up against Zain, from Kuwait. Brazil-based builder Odebrecht and oil company Petrobras (PBR) have been expanding in Angola, exploiting the fact that both nations speak Portuguese. And a Chinese outfit is building Congolese roads and other infrastructure in exchange for access to mineral deposits. From within Africa, Nigerian institutions such as United Bank for Africa are proving to be worthy competitors outside their domestic market.
Executives in Johannesburg, however, see the growing competition as just another hazard of doing business in the region. "South African businesspeople have managed enormous risk over the last 20 years," says Michael Spicer, a former executive vice-president at Anglo American who is now CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, an industry group. "They are incredibly flexible."
Business Exchange: Read, save, and add content on BW's new Web 2.0 topic network
Doing Business in Africa
The continent is famed for its unstable politics, shoddy infrastructure, and underdeveloped markets. But Africa offers plenty of opportunities for companies able to grapple with such challenges. That's the premise of a new book called Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Can Offer More Than You Think by Vijay Mahajan, a business professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who also co-authored the well-received The 86% Solution.
To view a video of Mahajan discussing his new work, go to http://bx.businessweek.com/african-business/reference/
Ewing is BusinessWeek's European regional editor.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Where To Go On Holiday In South Africa...
South Africa lies at the southernmost tip of Africa, between the
Indian and Atlantic oceans with 3500 kilometers (about 2200 miles) of
shoreline providing unlimited opportunities to explore and with a
diverse mix of cultures that includes British, Dutch, German, French,
Indian, Portuguese and Muslim. The two confirmed languages are English
and Afrikaans (a mix of Dutch and German), with 11 ethnic languages
spoken. This will maybe give you some understanding of why South
Africa's people are called the rainbow nation...
Indian and Atlantic oceans with 3500 kilometers (about 2200 miles) of
shoreline providing unlimited opportunities to explore and with a
diverse mix of cultures that includes British, Dutch, German, French,
Indian, Portuguese and Muslim. The two confirmed languages are English
and Afrikaans (a mix of Dutch and German), with 11 ethnic languages
spoken. This will maybe give you some understanding of why South
Africa's people are called the rainbow nation...
Powered by ScribeFire.
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Die Stem van Suid Afrika, The Call of South Africa
Performed by the choir and symphony orchestra of South African Radio, SABC.
The first verse of Die Stem is sung in Afrikaans, followed by the first verse of The Call of South Africa, sung in English. The words have been added to allow people to learn the anthems.
Die Stem was learned by all growing up in South Africa before 1994. It will always be memorable and it will take its place in history. It was continually sung during school assemblies giving South Africans a strong national identity.
English kids in South Africa at the time had their own preferences, Afrikaans version or the English one.
The New South Africa National Anthem
Since 1997, The South African national anthem has been a hybrid song combining new English lyrics with extracts of the hymn "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" and the former anthem "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika/The Call of South Africa". It is the only neo-modal national anthem in the world, by virtue of being the only one that does not finish in the home key. The lyrics employ the five most populous of South Africa's eleven official languages - Xhosa (first stanza, first two lines), Zulu (first stanza, last two lines), Sesotho (second stanza), Afrikaans (third stanza) and English (final stanza).
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika was composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a Methodist school teacher. It was originally sung as a church hymn but later became an act of political defiance against the apartheid government. Die Stem van Suid-Afrika is a poem written by C.J. Langenhoven in 1918 and was set to music by the Reverend Marthinus Lourens de Villiers in 1921. Die Stem was the co-national anthem with God Save the King/Queen from 1936 to 1957, when it became the sole national anthem until 1995. The South African government under Nelson Mandela adopted both songs as national anthems from 1995 until they were merged in 1997 to form the current anthem.
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