‘Coon Carnival’ is a somewhat misleading title for the album presented here today.
While most songs of a minstrel troupe are the comic songs -“Moppies” and “Lietjies”- that have been handed down by tradition and which are the feature of the Cape Town Carnival there will also be found some of the American songs which are more frequently heard in present-day Carnivals. … Not in the case of this album ‘Coon Carnival’ by The Golden City Dixies on which all songs are live versions of famous hits by American crooners, one exception being ‘Pata Pata’ originally made famous by Miriam Makeba.
Each track is being introduced by MC Dave Bestman and the accompanying band plays a tight selection of slow ballads, uptempo rock and a quite surprisingly good version of ‘Pata Pata’ by Sophia Foster.
This little song has perpetuated the determination of the people of Holland to make their little prince their ruler…
…and today’s post starts in the spirit of this song, as the Dutch have recently celebrated the inauguration of King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima on April 30th 2013. Times may change but centuries old traditions die hard. One of South Africa’s longest standing traditions is the parade of die Kaapse Kloppe during the Cape Town Carnival. These colorful minstrels and dancers are the most visible representatives of the cultural diversity of Cape Town. Their music has also inspired jazz musician Abdullah Ibrahim and many others.
To celebrate the New Year, in the first week of January, a song and dance celebration is held with many groups of local musicians, dancers and choirs from the Cape Malay population being present during the festive parade through the streets of Cape Town. The music during this event is just too unique to keep hidden the rest of the year so today’s post shines a light on a few well known gems and their origins…
There are a number of Cape Malay choirs. They compete annually for awards, and competition is keen. The choirs are experts in harmonising even without instrumental accompaniment, but the traditionally established instruments of the Cape Malays are the banjo, the guitar, the ‘cello (slung guitar-like over one shoulder) and the ghomma (pronounced khoma) – a drum made by stretching a skin over one end of small wine vat.
It was more then three centuries ago that the forebearers of those who are now the Cape Malays were brought to these shores of Southern Africa on board the vessels of the Dutch East India Company and other ships plying the Far Eastern trade routes for spices and exotic produce. In those days the Cape Malays were the slaves and servants in the small colonial community that the Dutch established. They brought with them their distinctive cultures and crafts which have been adapted and utilised so that they still make a valuable contribution to life at the Cape. The Malay Quarter remains from those far-off days. An extensive restoration programme has been implemented…so that this place of warm colours and rich culture will be preserved for posteritiy. Its way of life is Islamic. There are many mosques and minarets.
The Cape Malay community is one of song. This repertoire of song is unique in Africa, for it has become, in some respects, a merging of Eastern music with old Dutch ‘liedjies’ (folk songs) and melodics. Perhaps too, the harmonising for which the Cape Malay choirs have become famous may have been assisted by the singing of sea shanties during the long voyages from the East…for the choirs often sing without instrumental accompaniment.
The repertoire consits mainly from the wedding songs, special ceremonies, informal occasions and picnic melodies and from songs sung during the celebration of the ‘tweede Neue Jaar’ -the Second New Year. Annual choral competetions are a feature of Cape life. These songs are a priceless heritage.
no collection of Cape Malay songs would be representative without this theme song, based on the visit of the Confederate clipper ‘Alabama’ to Table Bay in 1863. Ghammaliedjies are often strung together, which explains the insertion of the well-known Januarie, Februarie March.
At the picnic, a ring (krans) is formed, the players joining hands and walking in a circle while one verse of an old traditional song (generally a wedding song) is sung. At the end of the verse, the drummer who sits in the middle of the circle, starts a ghommaliedjie and the players split up to dance in groups of three. Ghommaliedjies are also known as afklopliedjies.
a good example of a moppie. This type of song often reflects local conditions. In this case, the singer tells how he meets various girls carrying delectable baskets of butcher’s meat.
João Maria Tudella was born in Lourenço Marques, he studied at the Coimbra University in Portugal. He first won renown as a Fado singer, but has shown himself to be equally adept at dance band music and proved himself in several recordings to be a gifted young singer.
On this remarkable rare album ‘Uma Casa Portuguesa’, released by Gallotone at the end of the 60′s, João returns to his Portuguese roots. The selection of songs are all compositions by Artur Fonseca who is responsible for writing the classic song ’Uma Casa Portuguesa’, best known in the version by Amalia Rodrigues and hundreds others. A rare photograph of Artur Fonseca together with Tudella at the piano graces the cover.
At the time of the release of this album Fonseca was working as musical director of the Radio Clube of Moçambique, based in Lourenço Marques, nowadays Maputo. Then the captital and biggest city of Moçambique, a thriving Portuguese colony, Lourenço Marques attracted many South Africans for business and holidays. Gambling and the luxurious entertainment offered at the casinos were other main attractions. The many hotels of the city offered regular gigs to the many visiting artists from Portugal and South Africa. See also Cabaret at The Moçambique.
The doors of popularity opened to João Tudella because of his two successes ‘Kanimambo’ and ‘Hambanine’, which were real hits in the field of popular music. These two discs put João Tudella in the hit parade around South Africa and in Moçambique, the land of his birth.
On this album well known South African bandleader and arranger Dan Hill, great friend of the composer Fonseca, accompanies pianist João Tudella with a small quintet.
thanks to Matthias Offodile for the pics of Lourenço Marques in the 60′s
this post contains excerpts from the original liner notes of the album
João Tudella canta musica de Artur Fonseca-Uma Casa Portuguesa w/ the Dan Hill Quintet -Gallotone GALP 1107 -released in South Africa/Mozambique end of 60′s
the past few weeks I spent some hectic time in South Africa, hence my absence from these pages. No time to write, just soo busy travelling, meeting exciting people and partying on Valentine’s Day in Jo’burg. That was followed by a fatal morning when the newspapers announced the murder of Reeva Steenkamp, the girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius. Talk of the day and on the front pages for the rest of my journey in South Africa. Thankfully there was more fun and excitement to fill my days and nights; looking for rare records and the sound of Johannesburg!
It was in the streets of hip Melville that I witnessed some of the most exciting new hybrid of house music, coming out of shops and boomboxes of passing cars. So as a fresh post here today, I report on the house scene of Johannesburg, a city also called Jozi by its loving citizens.
”People making house music in shacks in townships, it’s everywhere, on the radio, tv and media”
ELECTRAFRIQUE NAIROBI in association with KALAWA JAZMEE is delighted to invite you to
Robert aka Dj Murder lives in a homemade overthrow of corrugated iron. He is sleeping between his greatest asset, a battery of computers and keyboard types.
With his buddy Thabo ‘Smol’ Mabogevane he forms the duo Black Motion, one of the new young house-sensations in Johannesburg. 2011 and 2012 was big time for the duo as they headlined concerts all over the world in places like Miami, Canada, United Kingdom etc. Through a mutual relationship the boys have been offered to create music in a professional studio but they choose for the impromptu studio in the shack – ‘home is where the heart is’. Black Motion is one of the acts which is showcased in Real Scenes: Johannesburg, a recent short documentary about the thriving house scene of South Africa’s capital.
Black Motion
In one of the scenes the boys can be found hunched over the illuminated displays, while a monotonous drumbeat fills the space, synths vibrate into a warm flow and their bodies rhythmically pan on the hypnotic groove. Their sound is based on that of pioneer-dj Oskido who discovered Black Motion in 2010. Ricardo Da Costa of Soul Candi Records defines the genre as a slowed down version of the original American house music but with even deeper basses and more complex rhythms, interwoven with a spirituality which is inspired by traditional drumpatterns of the African ancestors.
Black Coffee
The classical trained musician Black Coffee is perhaps the most famous South African dj of the moment. He is seen as someone who passes the positive message of house as a true ‘griot’. In Africa, griots are known to pass the history and culture of a certain tribe through music and song. His albums are good for gold. The man conquers the country with a full symphonic orchestra during megaconcerts where those by Madonna fade. Black Coffee is at present travelling the world giving European and American tours.
Through the success of Black Motion and other young and established acts, black boys in cities such as Johannesburg today dream of becoming the next famous dj and producer of hits. Black Coffee, Black Motion, Culoe De Song, Mash-O (the Drum herbalist) and white wunderboy Ralf Gum are just a few names of a new generation in Johannesburg that dreams aloud about house music as a way out of the townships. The prevailing sentiment is that house music can create a better future for everyone in South Africa. Hope rises on the horizon. DJ Black Coffee’s latest album is applicable called ‘Africa Rising’.
Top 5 -Jozi House
1. Black Motion – Aquarian Drums -(album CD -Kalawa Jazmee Dance 2012)
My curiosity was titillated by the fact that the last track on side B had been censored. The LP came from a radio station and the track ‘Up The Chiefs’ by Kid Manotcha had been scratched completely with a nail so it was unplayable. The typography on the label and artwork on the cover had been obscured.
Former censor, Ms. Cecile Pracher, manager of the record library at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC and a white Afrikaander explains why.
‘Within the SABC there were specific rules of what was not allowed. I was there at the time between the 1980’s and 1990’s. It was the time of P.W. Botha and Apartheid was in full swing and the state of emergency was declared and everything became tighter and tighter.
Things that would have been allowed five years earlier were frowned upon so therefore it was a very unnatural society to live in. The lyrics of each and every pop item had to be checked on grounds stemming from the Publication Board of SA by law. Our rules were more defined than those of the government. Things like for example swear words were unacceptable.
Unacceptable sexual references were to be avoided, bad taste, any occult elements in the lyrics were unacceptable, lyrics propagating the usage of drugs, blasphemy, glorification of the devil, unfair promotion of a political party or movement and so it goes on and on. So it had a lot to do with interpretation as well.
Different political periods would influence the way I would have to censor in SABC. It depended very much on what time we are referring to. But I think if we talk about between the 1970s and the 1990s the guidelines I gave you were to be interpreted by the heads of department of radio and TV in the broadcast environment. We did not have an open airwave in the sense that they were only two independent broadcasts and the rest belonged to the state broadcaster, which was the SABC. Therefore this committee consisted of all heads of department and lyrics were scrutinised beforehand by the manager in the record library, which in this case was me, before it was somebody else. Those lyrics would be passed onto meeting once a week. In the years between 1980 and 1990 there were generally about 15 lyrics per week. If you take into account that we only in those days had about 480 LPs or CDs that came in per year then it was quite a substantial amount of lyrics that had to be checked and had to be voted upon. The voting system was open and my impression was that in those days virtually anything that was perceived as damaging to the state, to the SABC or to the National Party was regarded as not acceptable and we would ban it.
Records weren’t banned by the SABC as a record with all the cuts. It was normally one, two or three cuts – but sometimes it was eight, nine or ten. But mostly it was about three or four cuts and we had to put on stickers onto the LP’s and in fact some of the LP’s were scratched so that those cuts weren’t played. With CD’s of course that opportunity was lost.
One of the banned records in 1992 by a South African artist was the album ‘Chant of the Marching’ by Sipho Mabuse, different cuts were “Chant”, “Room of Horror”and “Refugee”.
Ray Phiri is another South African artist and a very distinguished musician who struggled for many years in his homeland. It took Paul Simon’s Graceland to make him world famous but those who knew his music and his group, Stimela, before that, knew that we here had a star of world fame. One of his songs called, “Where Did We Go Wrong”, which he sang with a white lady called Kathy Pannington was banned as well. He even had the unpleasant experience to have a spy in his band. Paranoid? In any society that is ruled by fear you do get such elements whereby you end up not even trusting your spouse.
It is obvious that censorship does affect all creative people in different ways. In South Africa censorship was based on ideological differences rather than creativity. So creative people were more affected by what the government of the day deemed to be dangerous to society. They had to find ways in which to circumvent the problem by writing songs in different ways. They could convey specific messages in songs so street language became the norm to communicate. Songs were written in such a way that the officials could not detect what the artists meant in their lyrics.
As a consumer the banning made it a bit difficult because the freedom for one to be able to access music was curtailed by the fact that one always had to smuggle the music into the country. So in a way it made it difficult for many people at home to listen to music they felt they wanted to listen to. And because of the censorship the people just did not have access to just any type of music.
But it was not only music by South African artists that was censored, all locally released material by international artists like Fats Domino, Rodriguez and even distinguisted opera singer Maria Callas met the same faith.
One side of a South African released album of ’Lucia Di Lammermoor’ -sung in Italian!-Act 2 (first part) was censored with a sharp nail making it impossible to listen to.
Lucia Di Lammermoor -Maria Callas/Tito Gobbi/Orchestra of ‘Maggio Musicale Fiorentino’ -Colubia 33JCX 1131 -South Africa
Even Fats Domino’s song ‘Ain’t That Just Like A Woman’ from the album ‘I Miss You So’ (Imperial IRL 323) was banned, afgekeur so the title was scratched out on the vinyl and cover.
Fats Domino -I Miss You So -Imperial Records IRL 232 -South Africa
One of the artists whose music was smuggled into South Africa was American singer/songwriter Rodriguez whose LP ‘Cold Fact’ contains the song ‘Sugar Man’. Obviously, the lyrics were banned because of the words “…silver, magic ships you carry, jumpers, coke, sweet mary jane…”
Rodriguez -Cold Fact -Sussex Records SXBS 7000 -South Africa
When Mandela was released in 1991 censorship at the SABC became a thing of the past. No form of censorship as far as music or lyrics is allowed at the SABC.
Adapted text from ‘The Censored meet their Censor – Music and Censorship during Apartheid in South Africa’with Sipho Mabuse and Ray Phiri, musicians from South Africa, in a first face to face meeting with former censor, Ms. Cecile Pracher, manager of the record library at South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC.
While most of the songs heard during the colourful parade are the “Moppies” and “Lietjies” that have been handed down by tradition and which are the feature of the Cape Carnival, there will also be found some of the American songs which are more frequently heard during Carnivals.
Here is a rare 10” recording, probably recorded in 1956 that represents ‘The Coon Carnival Company’, a group of musicians, singers and a compere. Some of the spirit and enchantment of the Coon Carnival can be heard, gay as a fiesta, colourful as Mardi Gras. Here is the A-side recorded in its full length, only the crackling noise of the original record has been cleaned. Side 2 follows on request.
Maurice Smith presents The Golden City Dixies in Coon Carnival Time. With Majiet Omar, Henry Wilson, Alfred Stokes, Solly Bagus, Eddie Davis, Danny Williams and The Coon Carnival Band.
Side 2. Sous Boonties –Henry Wilson/Grietjie –Majiet Omar/Gone Fishing –Majiet Omar and Alfred Stokes/Kossies Van Die Kaap –Eddie Davids/Apple Pickin’ Time In Georgia –Solly Bagus/My Mama Was ‘n Hottentot-Alfred Stikes/ Compere –Solly Bagus
The Golden City Dixies have a large repertoire of feeling good tunes, some of the old Dixieland variety, others more modern. The troupe have made a feature of mimicry , and their impersonations of American singers are so lifelike that hey have often been accused of miming their songs to the accompaniment of gramophone records. The song ‘Gone Fishing” is included as an example of this type of song.
Maurice Smith was a local Durban promoter who picked up local acts from the street to record them.
Here is the story how Maurice Smith discovered The Golden City Dixies.
Although the Carnival is associated particularly with the Cape Province, an enterprising singer of Malay origin, Majiet Omar, decided to spread the idea of Coon Music even further and it was he who thought of forming a Coon Carnival troupe in the Golden City, Johannesburg.
At that time Coon competitions were held annually in Johannesburg, and Majiet, helped by his father, formed a troupe, The Dixie Merrymakers.
The owner of the hall was telephoning the police, when the Durban promoter, Maurice Smith appeared on the scene. He had been passing by, heard the singing, went in and watched the show from the back of the hall. He extricated them from their plight and took them to a cafe for their first real meal in days. There the idea of the ‘Coon Carnival Company’ was born.
Excerpts from the liner notes of ‘Maurice Smith presents The Golden City Dixies in Coon Carnival Time’ South Africa RCA T33001
By the dawn of the 1960′s the impact of Zulu music and their culture had reached a worldwide audience through movies and popular records that incorporated some of the essential African elements without giving credits to the originals. Think of ‘Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ and the picture becomes clear.
The banner ‘Zulu’ was merely added for commercial purposes and served the entertainment industry like a watered down, bleached version of a Zulu original.
In the 1980′s, along with the renewed interest of mixing African elements into punk music by groups like the American Talking Heads or the English Monochrome Set, burundi beat became popular when Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow and Malcolm McLaren’s ‘Duck Rock’ ruled the hit parades. World music, especially from Africa, was hip at the time and could be heard in clubs, on the radio and in temples of alternative rock, like Paradiso in Amsterdam or The Mud Club in New York.
European and American alternative indie rock filtered through on cassette or was released locally in South Africa. A homegrown scene popped up like mushrooms but few broke into the overseas market.
Now here is a collection of records, with a Zulu-theme, two of them produced and recorded in South Africa in 1983. The album ‘Concertina Doedies’ by Corrie Nortje is probably from the end of the 70′s. It features a few traditional kwela songs played on ‘boere’ guitar and the concertina, an instrument that came originally from England but was popularized since early 1900 throughout the whole nation. Popular music that is galaxies away from the real thing, but these recordings capture the spirit of the African continent to mutate into a new hybrid.
It feels a bit strange to be interviewing a Dutchman in English, about the history and culture of a certain white tribe in South Africa, the Afrikaners.
Dutch writer Fred de Vries (1959), former Africa editor of the Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ now residing in Johannesburg, has interviewed a cross-cut selection of Afrikaners, from the poor ‘white trash’ to rich successful businessmen and well respected writers alike to find out if their language and culture has a future in South Africa.
His extensive research resulted in a most detailed and –almost- complete history of white settlers and the evolution of their descendants. In case you have never heard of the Boer War, and your image of Afrikaners was of people who had come to South Africa in the 17th century and degenerated into a racist bunch then you need to read this book and adjust your opinion.
It is a most up-front and moving book with a special emphasis on Afrikaanse music and poetry. Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the complex political and social structure of South Africa or to people who are planning to visit the country for the first time. Read this before you go and you will understand the new South Africa much better then ever before.
Why the Afrikaners? Why write a book on a minority group with a language that few people outside South Africa, Holland and Belgium will be able to read or understand?? Is there a future for white Afrikaners in South Africa? Should we listen to their music? Read their poetry??
So many questions popped up after reading the book that I decided to direct these directly to the writer himself. Here is an exclusive interview with Fred de Vries for Soul Safari.
The book ‘Afrikaners, een volk op drift’ has been published in Afrikaans as ’ ‘Rigtingbedonnerd: Op die Spoor van die Afrikaner Post-’94 (Tafelberg/NB Uitgewers.Cape Town, SA)
the Afrikaans word “rigtingbedonnerd” (which suggests a person who has no sense of direction) has a wonderful resonance, since “bedonnerd” in Dutch means to be cheated. The word thus has a dual valency: Afrikaners feel cheated, and they do not know where the country is going.
Parts of this text based upon a report by Annel Pieterse -August 28, 2012 Stellenbosch Literary Project
published by Nijgh & van Ditmar Amsterdam -2012
1) Why did you buy a house in South Africa?
I had been in the country for two years and me and my South African girlfriend had this dream of a kind of retreat, a weekend house, a holiday home, away from Johannesburg, a place where you were closer to nature and silence. A place to read and write, walk the dog, eat healthy food etc. We had been in RhodesVillage, near the Drakensbergen, lovely place, but too far. We had also visited Nieu Bethesda where the Dutch Princess Irene has a farm and organizes healing sessions, a place with a ‘magic mountain’. Again, lovely place, but also way too far from Johannesburg. We wanted something within a two hour drive. First we went to Memel, a beautifully situated village in the Free State province. But an American had already bought all the empty places (sixteen or so). So eventually I settled for nearby Vrede, 1h45 from Johannesburg, also in the Free State, just where the landscape is getting pretty again.
2) Do you see the recent racial problems –like the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)- as temporary and an inevitable consequence of a society in transition or something more permanent?
I think BEE and affirmative action (positive discrimination) were inevitable and necessary consequences of and responses to four centuries of racial repression. And I think that for a while they helped to restore the economic balance. Negative side effects were that many hard working, competent whites lost their jobs and were replaced with less competent “previously disadvantaged” people. But that was also inevitable and will slowly come right in the future.
I assume that the government at some stage will realize that BEE and affirmative action are no longer the best solutions to an increasingly dire economic situation. In fact, you can already see the populists (led by Julius Malema) move away from verbally attacking white South Africans to attacking the new black upper class which acts almost more callous than their white counterparts.
The problem is of course that it’s still very easy and handy to play the race card and blame apartheid for all kinds of problems. So as the economic and social situation slowly deteriorates, as political battles within the ANC heat up, and as the differences between rich and poor (read: between black and white) remain as striking as they are, the racial tension will remain and will be played out. It will take one or two generations to really diminish.
3) I have noticed that you have learned a lot about the situation of white Afrikaners in South Africa through their music. But few people besides Afrikaners and the Dutch speaking people will be able to understand the poetry or relevance of these Afrikaanse texts. To what extent is white Afrikaner music interesting for Western ears?? Why should we listen?
True, it’s hard for Afrikaans writers, poets and musicians to find an audience outside South Africa, Holland and Belgium. The authors have to rely on translations. And for some of them, like Breyten Breytenbach, Antjie Krog, Etienne van Heerden and Marlene van Niekerk this has worked wonderfully well.
For musicians it’s much harder. Of course language shouldn’t be a barrier, as long as the music is catchy or very original. After all, we also listen to Algerian raï, Asian hip hop, Danish prog rock and Norwegian death metal. The problem is that musically the Afrikaans sounds aren’t very special. Most bands play a kind of generic rock and the ‘poets’ sing slightly ordinary, folky songs. An exception is someone like Gert Vlok Nel who has a huge following in the Netherlands and the late Johannes Kerkorrel who was quite popular in Belgium.
But new outfits such as Die Antwoord and to a lesser extend Jack Parow have proven that it is possible to cut through to an international audience, playing modern electronic music with fat beats and using a mix of Afrikaans and English. Instead of stressing the language they focus on the universal appeal of the “white trash culture” and cleverly used the internet to advertise and promote themselves. It landed Die Antwoord with an American record contract and world tours.
4) In the book you mention briefly that the colored population has very different problems then the white Afrikaners although they speak the same language. But is it not true that the colored people, and especially the Cape Malay are closely related to the original Dutch settlers? Like for instance: most of the Cape Malay people still sing old Dutch songs that have vanished since long from the Dutch culture. And that Cape Malay groups and colored people alike cherish Afrikaans as their own language and identity??
The term “coloured” is of course a purely artificial label, given by the apartheid strategists to the people who weren’t ‘African’ but were too dark to be labelled ‘European’. So the coloured group comprises of a strange combination of mixed race South Africans, Khoisan (the original inhabitants of South Africa) and descendants of slaves that were brought from Asia. Some of them indeed feel very close to the Afrikaans language, because it initially developed as a kind of Creole with Dutch roots but also a lot of other influences, including Indonesian words like baie (very) and pisang (banana). Others hate everything to do with Afrikaans and Afrikaners with a passion because it reminds them of the inhumanities that were carried out in the name of apartheid. I think the majority, certainly those outside the well-educated Cape Malay group, have now very little in common with the Afrikaners. This was largely due to the forced removals that happened during apartheid, when coloured and mixed communities were uprooted and transported to truly unpleasant places like Manenberg in the Cape Flats.
Anyway, in my book I wanted to look at what happened to a people who held all the political power and lost that power in a very short space of time: the white Afrikaners. The coloured people were second class citizens during apartheid and under the new government they are still largely treated as such.
5) Has the original Dutch settler just imported their language or also their culture of sub-division and religiously based separation? Gereformeerd vs protestants vs Catholicism vs traditional African religion?
It wasn’t so really the original Dutch settler who did that, but his later descendants. I think the idea of racial and religious separation was much very influenced by Dutch religious theorists such as Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), whose notion is seen as the core idea of apartheid. Kuiper’s propagated the idea of ‘sovereignty in your own circle’, which meant a strong separation between various ethnic and religious groups. This idea caught on with the soon to be first apartheid prime minister D.F. Malan and his followers, many of whom had studied theology in the Netherlands.
But that said, the English colonialists were also very good at separating people. They came up with the 1913 Natives Land Act, which meant that black South Africans weren’t allowed to own land outside the designated reserves. This was probably the first real apartheid measure.
6) Is there some sort of knowledge or revival in today’s South Africa’s black heritage and it’s culture before Apartheid?
Not that I’m aware of. There is definitely a revival of Black Consciousness and Steve Biko (a new Biko biography came out recently), but that movement dates from the 1970s. I think the pre-apartheid, traditional culture is pretty much frowned upon, certainly by most of the young and urban blacks who long to be hip and modern. They have become very Americanized and are very happy to reap the fruits of liberation, which means they are obsessed with material goods (cars, cell phones) and have a fascination for American movies, music en celebrities.
7) Do you see yourself as a resident or as a fifo (flying in, flying out as you mention). And how easy/difficult is it to make friends in South Africa with other people than your own?
I definitely see myself as a resident. The main reason why I spent quite a bit of time in Holland the last few years was because my parents got ill and died, and because I also worked on a book about the music and literature of Rotterdam (Gehavende Stad, uitgeverij Lebowski), but otherwise my new home is here. In Johannesburg it’s fairly easy to meet people of all classes and races. Jo’burg people are chatty and open, much more than white Capetonians who are quite cliquey and still feel very European. So making white (both Afrikaans and English speaking) friends is quite easy.
Making real friends across the racial divide is a bit harder though. Mainly because people have been separated, both physically, socially and mentally, for so long and there are still so many racial hang-ups. I found it much easier to have black friends in Kenya and Uganda, where I lived before.
8) At the end of your book you present a lot of people who express their views on the future of South Africa. I miss a balance; what do black or colored people really think?
The question you refer to was not so much about “the future of South Africa”, but about whether the people I interviewed (white Afrikaans speaking South Africans) saw “a future for white people in South Africa”. My book was about these white Afrikaners, which meant that blacks, coloureds, Indian and English South Africans fell outside the scope of my research.
musical selection from Cape Malay -The Music of the Malay Quarter -Cape Town-sung by The Central Malay Choir (Gallo DLPA 165/6 -released 1973 South Africa)
9) Would you consider it wise to invest / immigrate at present time?? What is your personal impression right now?
Most of the people I interviewed in Australia had migrated “because of the children”. In other words: because they didn’t see a real future for their children in South Africa, mainly relating to education, safety and job opportunities. I find it hard to make broad statements about whether it’s wise or not to migrate now. I do think South Africa still has plenty of opportunities for those with a bit of guts and initiative, and I also think that the mythical “overseas” is highly romanticized. Life in the UK, Australia or Holland for that matter isn’t all that great for many immigrants. It’s much more expensive and competitive; integration is not so easy; and given the current global financial turmoil it’s not that easy to find a job.
South African emigrants also get incredibly homesick and they find it hard to deal with all the rules and regulations in “nanny societies” like Australia, New Zealand and England. South Africa is after all quite a “cowboy country” where rules and laws are pretty amendable.
On the other hand I do think that things like the decline of education, health and safety are real issues in South Africa, and a lot of your well-being here depends on whether you can afford private education and private health, because the state run schools and hospitals and police are definitely struggling.
10) Why did you sell your house in South Africa?
There were several reasons. The most important one was theft and vandalism. The house didn’t have high walls or a security system, so we had break-ins and virtually everything (washing line, fire wood, fruits etc.) was stripped from the garden. Then there was our new neighbor who decided to have seven yapping dogs in cages in her garden, which was a bit of an obstacle to the peace and quiet we were longing for. Also, the little town of Vrede was struggling hard (and probably in vain) to stay afloat as a thriving commercial center. Plans to have a nature reserve not far from our house were shelved because as soon as a gate and fence were placed at the entrance, they were stolen. Trees in the ‘reserve’ were cut down at an alarming rate and used as fire wood. The roads in town got increasingly worse, refuse was piling up in the gutters and the water started to taste very funny. There were several serious corruption scandals in the municipality. In the end, like many of the other small towns in South Africa, also Vrede seemed destined for a slow but irreversible decline.
All in all we didn’t have much fun going there anymore. The trips became more of an obligation than enjoyment. So it was time to sell… (which, by the way, wasn’t easy. We got mainly interested white people from cities like Pretoria and Vereeniging who were looking for a bargain. But they got a fright when they noticed that there were “blacks!” living nearby. I used to tell them that this wasn’t so surprising since 90 percent of the South African population is black. But that didn’t make them change their mind. Eventually we sold to a middle-aged man who wanted to live there with his mother).
To cope with the recent turmoil within South Africa, the Minister of Justice Jeff Radebe announced a crackdown on “illegal gatherings” following five weeks of industrial action by miners that has hit the country’s platinum sector.
Hours after the announcement, South African media reports said police fired tear gas to disperse striking miners outside an Aquarius Platinum mine near Rustenburg, north-west of Johannesburg. Radebe told reporters the government would no longer tolerate the illegal protests where miners brandish machetes, knives, spears and clubs. Such marches have become daily events as the strike at Lonmin PLC platinum mine is now spreading across the whole country and provoking political unrest.
Miners March -SA 2012
But what’s new??
Kimberley diamond mines early 1900
In early 1922, white South African workers in the Witwatersrand gold mining region went on strike. The strike soon became a violent rebellion—sometimes known as the Rand Revolt—that pitted the white miners against the mine owners and the government. The workers’ action was a response to the owners’ plan to reduce wages and replace the well-paid white workers with cheaper black African workers. At first, the government attempted to get the two sides to negotiate, but neither side was willing to compromise. The strikers formed commandos.
In response, the government sent in troops from the Active Citizens Force and declared martial law. The ensuing violence resulted in hundreds of injuries and deaths. Authorities arrested thousands of workers, and four were put to death. The negative reaction to the government’s actions cost Prime Minister Jan Smuts and his South Africa Party the 1924 election.
Langlaagte Deep Gold Mining Co.-S. Africa 1920′s
Ever since the discovery of the main reef of gold-bearing conglomerate on Langlaagte Farm near Johannesburg in 1886 the usual gold rush of freelance diggers followed. But to run business more efficientlycapital was required to develop deep underground mines.
the big hole -Kimberley mines entrance
Fortuitously, that was already at hand, for the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley in 1871 had already attracted substantial capital from British and European banks to finance the emerging diamond mining houses created by Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Beit and Barney Barnato, who eventually united to form De Beers Consolidated Mines.
South Africa remains a cornucopia of mineral riches. It is the world’s largest producer of chrome, manganese, platinum, vanadium and vermiculite. It is the second largest producer of ilmenite, palladium, rutile and zirconium. It is also the world’s third largest coal exporter.
Diamond and gold discoveries played an important part in the growth of the early South African Republic. A site northeast of Cape Town was discovered to have rich deposits of diamonds, and thousands rushed to the area of Kimberley in an attempt to profit from the discovery. The British later annexed the region of Griqualand West, an area which included the diamond fields. In 1868, the republic attempted to annex areas near newly discovered goldfields, drawing protests from the nearby British colonial government. These annexations later led to the First Boer War of 1880-1881.
18 inch gauge locomotive, Kimberley Diamond Mine Museum
Gold was discovered in the area known as Witwatersrand, triggering what would become the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886. Like the diamond discoveries before, the gold rush caused thousands of foreign expatriates to destroy the region. This heightened political tensions in the area, ultimately contributing to the Second Boer War in 1899. Ownership of the diamond and gold mines became concentrated in the hands of a few entrepreneurs, largely of European origin, known as the Randlords.
Robinson Mine Johannesburg -South Africa
The gold mining industry continued to grow throughout much of the early 20th century, significantly contributing to the tripling of the economic value of what was then known as the Union of South Africa. In particular, revenue from gold exports provided sufficient capital to purchase much-needed machinery and petroleum products to support an expanding manufacturing base.
Today’s post brings back memories of those days. ‘The Diggers Song’ is a rare recording by Gé Korsten, one of the most diverse South African artists, who belongs to that very rare breed of lyric tenors who also have enough metal in the voice to venture into the musical world of South Africa not only as an opera singer, but who was also very at home in front of the TV cameras and on the concert platform performing light popular music.
The single was produced for the Centenary Celebrations of the Kimberley Diamond Goldmines during July 1971. On the B-side – ‘Kimberley Se Trein’ by Groep Twee.
This 45 rpm EP was released in the early 1960′s as part of a series on African Tribal dances, performed at the Witwatersrand Goldmines near Johannesburg. Side one features recordings by the Dube Shangaan Drums Group while the other side has 2 tracks recorded in the Xhosa language by Princess Jokazi and her Group (Witchdoctor)
In Zulu mythology, Tikoloshe, Tokoloshe or Hili (from the Xhosa word utyreeci ukujamaal) is a dwarf-like water sprite. It is considered a mischievous and evil spirit that can become invisible by swallowing a pebble. Tokoloshes are called upon by malevolent people to cause trouble for others. At its least harmful a tokoloshe can be used to scare children, but its power extends to causing illness and even death upon the victim. The way to get rid of him is to call in the n’anga (witch doctor), who has the power to banish him from the area.*
