Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia
national anthem
"Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia" (or "Voices of Rhodesia") was the national anthem of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in April 1980) between 1974 and 1979. The tune was that of "Ode to Joy", the Fourth Movement from Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which had been adopted as the official European continental anthem by the Council of Europe in 1972, which remains the anthem of the European Union. The music used in Rhodesia was an original sixteen-bar arrangement by Captain Ken MacDonald, the bandmaster of the Rhodesian African Rifles. A national competition was organised by the government to find an appropriate set of lyrics to match the chosen tune, and won by Mary Bloom of Gwelo.
In the fallout from Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965, the country still claimed loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II as its professed head of state, and so retained "God Save the Queen" as its national anthem. With Rhodesia's reconstitution in 1970 as a republic, however, the royal anthem was dropped along with many other references to the monarchy, leaving it without a national anthem until it adopted "Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia" in 1974. The national anthem lost its legal status in December 1979, when the United Kingdom retook interim control of the country pending its internationally recognised independence as Zimbabwe five months later. Rhodesia's use of the well-known Beethoven tune has since caused the playing of "Ode to Joy" to be controversial in modern-day Zimbabwe.
History
Background
A dispute over the terms for the granting of full statehood to the self-governing colony of Rhodesia led its predominantly white minority government, headed by Prime Minister Ian Smith, to unilaterally declare independence from the UK on 11 November 1965. As Whitehall had been insisting on majority rule as a condition for independence, this declaration went unrecognised and caused the UK and the United Nations to impose economic sanctions on Rhodesia.
“Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia” enters the record as national anthem. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rise, Voices and Rhodesia can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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