A Small Bird as a Symbol of Love and Forgiveness

(Recently our Namib Desert Camera and our mod Theeny LSG captured a Cape Sparrow in flight. I had never heard of the Cape Sparrow but upon doing some digging, a bittersweet story was revealed...)

He’s nimble, clever, cheeky, a feisty li'l guy who tries to keep safe. He’s paid little attention though he’s endemic to southern Africa, our constant companion in large cities and remote grasslands.

But although the Cape Sparrow (Passer melanurus), perhaps better known as "mossie", is a delight to watch and listen to, in an unexpected way it has achieved lasting fame...

As the story goes, Afrikaans women who were imprisoned in British concentration camps during the second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), chose a verse from the Bible for encouragement.

The third-largest and probably most gruesome camp was Bethulie in the Orange Free State. There, the chosen theme was Matthew 10:29-31:

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

After the war, the survivors sent a petition to General Jan Smuts (prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919-1924 and 1939-1948).

The women requested the emblem of a sparrow to be emblazoned on the lowest-denomination coin to thank God for having survived the war, and to remind everyone of their true worth in God's eyes.

In 1923, the South African Reserve Bank issued the first South African Union coin bearing two sparrows on the obverse. Cape Sparrows later adorned the Halfpenny, and from 1961 to 1964 the half-cent coin of the Republic of South Africa.

From 1965, the pair occupied the reverse of the 1 cent coin until it was taken out of circulation. Thus, through a verse from the Bible, the Cape Sparrow became a symbol of love and also forgiveness.

(Adapted from Kirsten Kraft's article in Namibian.org, © Gondwana Collection Namibia (Pty) Ltd.)

(image via Theeny LSG with added coin image via WINS)