Mhambi's South Africa 2007

Mhambi is very late with this posting, my summary of Mhambi 2007.

Last year I described 2006 as a watershed year for South Africa in my posting Mhambi's 2006. A year in which open debate returned to South Africa.

If you remember, as Steven Friedman explained, this was not because of a new found commitment to democracy amongst our ruling political class, but because of the battle for control of the ANC and the state between the Mbeki and Zuma camps.

So 2007 started off with many of these 2006 debates carrying into the new year. In these debates Xolela Mangau was one of 2007's most acerbic and eloquent voices against creeping country wide corruption. Others like Rhoda Kadalie waded in.

Steeds De la Rey

There were more heated exchanges at the beginning of the year about the De la Rey song. What did it mean? What would it bring?

Leeu van die Wes Transvaal
Originally uploaded by Wildebeast1.


Tim du Plessis changed his mind (and not for the last time in 2007) . In 2006 he warned of deliberate Afrikaner civil disobedience, but now announced the arrival of a more confident participatory breed: the New Afrikaner. Pallo Jordan, the minister of Arts and Culture, warned against De la Rey song inspired treason.

The song reached the press in both the UK and US. And in the process it served as an amusing outing of international prejudices about Afrikaners.

But nowhere was its meaning as debated as among Afrikaners. Lefty journo Max du Preez saw in it the worst: racism, atavistic nationalism, a longing for the past. But poets and writers Antjie Krog, Koos Kombuis were not convinced with that line of argument.

But before you think South African 2007 debates were dominated just by a pop song. They were not. By years end it was out of the news completely.

In the US, a debate raged over what extent apartheid could be compared to current events in Israel.

Angola the country South Africa helped wreck celebrated 5 years of peace.

Britain and racism

Rather arbitrarily the BBC decided to screen a blatantly racist tribute to colonial writer Rider Haggart. Perhaps not surprising as in 2007 it transpired that Britain is a society with little self awareness when it comes to racism.

2007 was a year when racism boiled over on British TV, when Jade Goodie and other white Big Brother contestants ganging up on Indian star Shilpa Shetty. The incident had the country in a tizz. The press especially were aghast, while admitting at the same time that the opinions expressed were prevalent in British society.

Many left commentators defended Goody: she was working class, and more likely to be exposed to multi-cultural Britain than her critics they claimed. A good example was Philosopher Julian Baggini who spent six months living in Rotherham, Yorkshire. In the Guardian he professed that he doesn't believe most white Britons are racists - even though he heard racist language almost everywhere he went.

On the cultural and media front trade union solidarity won the global award for the best union website. Gazelle released a funky a stomping Afrikaans electro track, while two movies cataloging life in gay South Africa, screened in London.

Facebook took the world by storm in 2007. Also in South Africa, despite the privatised national telecoms provider Telcom's parasitic and damaging impact on the countries internet ecosystem.

Bad news aplenty

Bad news about the break down of trust and public institutions came a plenty. Many of which, like the Hlophe affair and the scandalous neglect at the Frere hospital Mhambi never wrote about himself.

Wabenzi
Originally uploaded by Wildebeast1.


I did write about the alleged corruption of the National Health minister, who was not fired, even after it was claimed that she was an alcoholic and a thief. Instead the government tried to muzzle the press. There were other posts of Afro-pessimism. Events like the casual destruction of monuments in Standerton helped to spread the gloom.

The astounding growth of crime and the corruption inside the South African police continued to make waves internationally. Journalists like Jonny Steinberg tried to make sense of the corruption and crime.

In 2007 there were less reports of xenophobic attacks on other Africans by South Africans like which transpired in 2006 when scores of Somalis were murdered. Now the focus shifted to extreme indifference towards other Africans best illustrated by the death of Adonis Musati in Cape Town.

There were valiant attempts from South Africans to reach out to each other, like when Hansie Diffenthal tried to save Halaletsang Nkome.

The Rugby World Cup

But so too did the Rugby World Cup loom large. It became clear that racial make up of the South African Springbok team would be an issue. In fact, the ANC also wanted to change the teams ' iconic name.

As the first big match of the cup approached, between SA and England, the English press went to town with prejudicial reporting: South Africans were stupid and not "every inch Western gentlemen". The verbal barrage did not save the English from a battering on the pitch however.

Neither could the spectre of Che Guevarra help the Argentines against a rampant Springbok side.

Jusr before the final The Guardian published a curious rugby article by Gavin Evans, which was duly pulled apart by readers.

Then, despite all this, the Springboks won. And Mbeki tried to surf the wave of glory. The Bok name became non issue.

Mbeki vs Zuma

He certainly needed it. Such was the the growing opposition to his control freakery that too many it seemed that he would loose the election for ANC presidency the end of the year. That placed many South Africans between a rock and a hard place who wanted neither Mbeki or Zuma in charge. Cyril Rhamaphosa entering the race was one of our great hopes.

Mbeki could and did continue to point out how the economy has grown under his leadership. But doubts remained about his success in addressing poverty.

But his Aids denialism still hung over him like a shadow, with Mark Gevisser confirming and explaining it upon the publishing of his monumental biography of Mbeki. 2007 was also the year in which a minimum number was put to the deaths caused by Mbeki's Aids inaction: 300 000.

Another book, Andrew Feinstein's After the Party, cataloged the ANC's move away from democracy and decent into grand corruption. Mhambi cerealised some of it.

By the end of the year it became clear that Mbeki would hit a wall. Some of us, Mhambi included, were optimistic. The inability of the incumbent holding on to power was that the openness had prevailed, a sign of democracy. And so Mbeki did hit a wall. Karplaks!

Better the devil you know?

Down went Mbeki, and enter stage 'left' Zuma. 2008 will no doubt be as interesting.

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Argentina and South Africa's very different battles

Mhambi is just back from a sunny Marseilles where I went to watch the Springboks play Fiji.

A few observations then from this trip:

1. An unfortunate amount of middle aged South African rugby supporters are obese. At times I was embarrassed, they looked like caricatures of Americans we see on TV.

2. South Africans, especially white ones, need to learn to sing and dance. Even England's stodgy renditions of "Swing low sweet Chariot" is more musical and charming than our chant "Bokke", "Bokke".

I was in mind to create a banner, "Ha-ba-na, Ha-ba-na, sal jy die Boere laat dans". (Ha-ba-na, Ha-ba-na, will you make the Boers dance) A pun on the controversial De la Rey song: Habana - a coloured player - leading the Afrikaners through throwing shapes. But through inertia I never did. What a pity. We are in need of a bit of coaxing.

3. The night before the game I watched France pull of the near impossible feat, beating the mighty All Blacks. We were in a bar in the French town of Arles. As the win became a possibility, the French crowd burst out in song with a passionate rendition of Les Marseilles, their rousing anthem. There was no English type qualms of nationalism or the like.


End of the game
Originally uploaded by fabdany.

4. There was another banner I wanted to make but never did. When Argentina beat the Irish I spotted a banner in the crowd that read: "Argetine existe". Argentina has for years been excluded by the elite Rugby countries. They were by beating big teams, demanding respect and recognition.

It immediately struck me to make one that read: "Les Pumas jouent pour exister. Les Springboks jouent pour rester vivant." (The Pumas play to exist. The Springboks play to stay alive.) I never made this banner either. It's weird, but making it felt like identifying yourself as a victim. Mhambi was not comfortable with that. Not yet.

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Antjie Krog sees absolution in De la Rey

Afrikaner poet, writer and intelectual Antjie Krog sees absolution in the De la Rey song phenomena.

Max du Preez and Antjie Krog
Originally uploaded by BOOKphotoSA.

Antjie Krog and Max du Prez don't agree on the meaning of the De la Rey song.


De la Rey: Afrikaner absolution

"The view of most commentators is that the De la Rey song is a call to mobilise Afrikaners against black people in general and the government in particular. High-powered editors, columnists, radio and television hosts read the lyrics as “right-wing exclusivity” and a “whining for lost power”. A government minister yawned and warned. A foreign correspondent’s right-wing interpretation was rewarded with an international front-page story.

Were the squeals of suppressed excitement at words like “uprising”, “rebellion” and “warning” just my imagination? As if to say: Wow, the Afrikaners are at it again! As if Afrikaners really matter that much. As if Afrikaners could rise up and effectively bring back the past.

Is it that some South Africans miss the “good” bad old days of the struggle, when the Afrikaners helped everybody else to determine what was right and what was wrong? Do some South Africans need the notion of “bad racist Afrikaners on the rise” to bring to the fore the best in themselves in a country where right and wrong has become more ambiguous? Is there a need for “us” to be bad, so that “they” can be good?"

... Reconciling the past with the present

"How can the apartheid past, with its Afrikaans coinage of injustice, ever be reconciled with the present? The song’s popularity says to me that, in general, Afrikaners want to become part of building a free country, but feel sidelined because of their past. They are trying to build a meaningful relationship with the rest of the country, but battle to deal with unexpressed guilt.

This is compunded by many white people who would like the Afrikaner to stay the “guilty” party.

To “obtain liberation” from a past, children often try to develop the identity they long for by relying on surrogate mothers and fathers. As mediator, De la Rey brings a third option about. He becomes the surrogate father, not to lead to uprising, but to assist children to deal with their guilt in such a way that they can successfully integrate their past into a new society."

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DJ Sbu vs Kurt Darren

Last week Aubrey Matshiqi opinioned that Oskido should remix the now controversial song De la Rey. But according to the Sunday Times, a collaboration between Afrikaans pop boy Kurt Darren and urban DJ Sbu is more likely.

Both have been nominated for South African Music Awards (Sama) song of the year awards.



De la Rey received no nominations. An opportunity for appropriation of the song by a wider audience has been missed. Darren, who's album was also nominated for best Afrikaans pop album, makes bubblegum lekker lekker pop, euro disko style.

But obviously some are excited by his music.

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Oskido should remix De la Rey

For the sake of our rainbow, says Aubrey Matshiqi, Oskido should remix the now controversial song about the Boer War General.

All of us must take ownership of the De la Rey song to deny bigots the opportunity of turning it into something ugly and reactionary when it is not. I am going to buy the CD because it does warm that part of my black blood that comes from my Afrikaner ancestor, Bartman. Maybe in taking ownership of the song, we must ask someone like DJ Fresh or DJ Oskido to remix it into a house tune for a wider, nonracial audience.

Touche says Mhambi. Can't agree more.

According to Matshiqi both whites and blacks (how refreshing that he does not talk of whites and Africans) should realise that they comprise of a majority in some sense.

The challenge, therefore, is for black and white South Africans to recognise that there are times when they are part of a majority. Black people as part of a numerical majority must defend and advance the rights of numerical minorities because in doing this they will be showing the confidence and leadership that is sometimes lacking among us. White people, as part of a cultural majority, must act in ways that promote the cultural rights of their black counterparts because, in doing so, they will be displaying a sense of humility that is sometimes lacking in debates about identity and cultural rights.

Problem is Aubrey, that allot of what you think of as white culture, Afrikaners see as a bland foreign version of English or American culture, sometimes rightly sometimes wrongly.
Aubrey also says:

Since the extent to which a black person is unable to speak an African language has, to some, become a measure of their sophistication and civilisation, the day is near when we will no longer be able to blame apartheid for the marginalisation of African culture and languages.

The same could have been said of Afrikaans, 150 years ago. Today Afrikaners see the inability of black South Africans to use their own language as the same pscycological subservience they suffered from. If only Biko was still alive.

(As an aside, Afrikaners at least did not call their rugby teams, Maritizburg United, Helenic, Ajax Cape Town, Bloemfontein Celtic, nor the league the Premiership. Nor was Pretoria named, Nieuw Amsterdam or East London, or Potchefstroom Brugge or any of the other major towns named by the Voortrekkers named after a European equivalent. They were all unique to South Africa.)

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A NATION ONCE AGAIN. maybe not.

Mhambi found a very considered outsider's view on the De la Rey song phenomena that covers allot of the ground. (And I'm qouted - so its gotta be good ;) )

It only omits Johann Rossouw's excellent contribution on the issue.

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De la Rey is a symbolic weapon against a symbolic problem

At last someone writes a whole article of sense and spot on observation about the phenemena that is the De la Rey song. To Mhambi it was all the more surprising when he learnt Johann Rossouw was the author.

Johann used to write rather dense articles about post structuralist theory for Die Perdeby, the student newspaper of the University if Pretoria. Rest assured, not many meisies in Huis Madelief read his missives.

But last Sunday Rossouw, published an article Alienation much more symbolic than material and Mhambi could not agree more. The article was a response to the Sunday Times's editor Mondli Makahya's article. Mondli asked mused about why there was a surge in a siege mentality amongst Afrikaners.

Johann makes the following points: "One of the ironies of the 13 years since 1994 is that while a particular community could be going through intense historical self-reflection, the rest of society might be quite oblivious to it....

How then should Afrikaner alienation be understood, and solved? Let us start by suggesting what should not be done.

Firstly, avoid the myth that Afrikaners are still suffering from “power-loss syndrome” — after all, the young Afrikaners singing De la Rey never knew state power. Secondly, avoid reducing Afrikaners to mere economic beings by claiming that since some have become successful entrepreneurs and often ugly materialists, Afrikaners should be happy.

Thirdly, avoid the myth that Afrikaans is doing well. Two- thirds of Afrikaans schools have disappeared or been anglicised and Afrikaans universities are all in various stages of anglicisation, except Stellenbosch. Afrikaans has practically disappeared from the civil service.

The root cause of the alienation is the fact that the recognition between Afrikaners and Africans that served as the basis for 1994 have been severely eroded after the Mandela era. The important point is that the alienation is much more symbolic than material, and there is no reason it can’t be dealt with speedily."

Johann lists a few things that could be done:

By all means restore African place names, but not by erasing Afrikaans place names, for example, Tshwane-Pretoria;

Use language or class rather than race as the basis for affirmative action;

Increase mother-tongue education for all children, instead of targeting Afrikaans schools in the name of access, often anglicising those schools and winning poor education in a second language for speakers of African languages;

Use the Constitution, as a policy guideline rather than a narrow racially defined concept of transformation, as a policy guideline. and redefine transformation as a means of creating institutions that serve our communities rather than a new racial elite

Beef up administrative capacity in the land-reform process rather than demonising the majority of farmers on the basis of vague accusations; and

Deal effectively with crime by redefining our national ideal as that of a sense of community rather than consumerist wealth that excludes most citizens and creates symbolic misery among the consuming classes.

Ah, I hear some of you say. Is symbolism so important? Yes it is, why has the 9/11 attacks changed the world? They were for all the spectacular effect a minor tragic incident in the context of the power of the US behemoth. But the symbolism of it all shook the world.

Post structuralist theory apparently dismisses taking symbols as face value, or so I hear. I was going to try to make a pun on symbolism and post structuralism, but alas, I can't, I don't quiet get it.

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De la Rey loves NY

Shout out to Sista locura (aka Nerina) in Brooklyn NY and Mike Smuts for pointing out that De la Rey has made it to the Big Apple as well. An article has appeared in the New York Times. Interesting, their reporting is definitely a notch superior that of the UK Guardian (see post below).

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De la Rey on Carte Blanche

Over on the Inside South Africa blog, you will find Carte Blanche's take on the De la Rey song saga. Carte Blanche is the premier English language South African actuality program. It features former Vrye Weekblad (a now defunct Afrikaans left wing paper) editor - Max du Preez, editor of the largest Afrikaans newspaper Rapport's Tim du Plessis, and Wits sociologist/ rock star Andries (Roof) Bezuidenhout.

Besides the astounding political naivete of Bok van Blerk and his co-song writers, most of the commentators have interesting things to say. But Max du Preez looses a serious amount of credibility when saying Afrikaners have had nothing to be proud of for more than 100 years. Mhambi strongly disagrees.

Bok (or Pepler as he is actually known) and his producers/ writers do not only seem politically naive, they seem to be in this for the money. Apparently the good choice of 'dove' De la Rey (De la Rey was against war) was pure luck. It rhymed better and according to the Bok team could have been any other Boer War general. These boys are astute businessmen but class-c politicians.

Bezuidenhout sees the worst in the song - bitterness because of a loss of priviledge, while Du Plessis sees the positive - Afrikaners are finding a voice. (A note of caution with TV - Carte blanche obviously only used those excepts they wanted and might not have reflected all the views expressed.)

Perhaps its both; they are finding a voice fuelled by bitterness. Lets hope they use their voice to add in a constructive way to the new found open political debate that South Africa has rediscovered in the last year.

What is this Afrikaner bitterness

But what is the content of this bitterness so simplistic? It's strange that these incisive social commentators make no mention of South Africa's rediscovered open democratic discourse and that the De la Rey phenomena is happening at precisely this time. Is there no connection? Do Afrikaners live in some bitter bubble, unconnected to whats happening around them??

Strange also that no mention is made of the insensitive, often a-historical steamroller way changes of towns with Afrikaans names have been conducted. Surely in an age rife with identity politics, this is an obvious clue? Or of that little issue called crime.

Most major shifts in Afrikaner history was precipitated by periods of insecurity precipitated by threats of physical violence or doubts expressed on whether they belong in Africa at all. We have another one now.

Instead both Du Preez and Bezuidenhout (who I admire allot) only talk about loss of priveledge and that Afrikaners have nothing to stand for. Du Preez says the Afrikaner's is an imaginary suffering.

Mhambi does not buy this simplistic answer. I bet my bottom dollar that Afrikaners would be willing to pay allot more tax if they knew the money would be effectively spent on the poor, and would reduce crime. Paying more tax is preferable to immigrating to a semi in Slough (The dead drab UK suburb of The Office fame).

And Du Preez misses another crucial point. For the Afrikaners - weaned on concepts of selfless public service, Vaderlands liefde/ patriotism, Anglo Saxon style individuality and riches translates into a very shallow happiness.

During the Great Trek Afrikaners left behind their whole lives - farms, in flight - if you believe historian Giliomee - mainly due to fears for their security. (Others being the abolishment of slavevery and Afrikaans in public life). It's crucial that security was considered more important than material riches.

Could it also be that Afrikaner's are also disgusted - like Township dwellers - at the governments inability to address poverty, the corruption and its criminal Aids policy? Shock! Horror! No!?!?

And Mhambi is not the only one that thinks Max is wrong.

What Afrikanerdom means today is eminently up for grabs, by cutting them no slack, by expecting the worst, intellectual left Afrikaners will help define Afrikanerdom as intrinsicly right wing. That is sad because its simply not true.

As an aside, its always weird to see pictures of staunch Afrikaners waving around the old South African flag, which after all - has the British flag on it. Duh!

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De la Rey makes it to British shores

Mhambi was reading the Guardian on the tube this morning. It's difficult as the carriages were so full, it requires you to be a bit of a gymnast to keep standing and turn the pages simultaneously.

But I managed, and as I turned a page came a surprise: there, low and behold was a full page story dedicated to the De la Rey song controversy.

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De la Rey - the left wing icon

General De la Rey, peace or war icon? Image: Mhambi, Green background: Peet Pienaar, Hat: Ernesto Che Guavarra.

There is much debate about what Bok van Blerk's the De la Rey song could mean. Is the song a call to war? Is the song treacherous? Is De la Rey an icon of the right?

Mhambi thinks not. The right might want to appropriate him - but it won't stick. De la Rey was an anti-colonial freedom fighter. And a reluctant fighter at that. He opposed war and anti-immigration policies.

What is clear - whatever the intentions of the songs writers - is that the De la Rey phenomena is a search for and a reassertion of Afrikaner identity. To some that makes it right wing.

Mhambi disagrees. A key part of that identity is a struggle for justice. De la Rey represents an era when the Afrikaners were the heroes of a global struggle for justice against colonialism. When Mhambi was young I turned against Afrikaner Nationalism because it was clearly incompatible with what I was taught Afrikaners had stood for.

Mhambi finds it very weird how perceptions, pronouncements and reality diverge, especially in South Africa.

Even the legacy of the Nationalists need to be reappraised. Your having a laugh I hear you say.

Nope. Ask yourself why do people like Guardian reporter Rory Carrol call South Africa a 'boot camp for progressive ideals'.

For all their overt institutional racism the Nationalists were in practice economically left of the ANC in many key respects. They were hands on, never laissez faire. They favoured regulation as opposed to a rampant free market.

Afrikaners know that government can make a difference to poverty and inequality, because they tried it and it worked.

It is a somewhat astounding fact that the Nats during their rule, consistently decreased economic inequality amongst and between all South Africans, something the ANC has failed to do so far. First they lacked the intention, dumping the redistributive RDP plan for the growth of Gear policy. Now they profess the will to adress poverty through Asgi-sa, but seem unable to make it happen.

The Nats built local industry to move South Africa away from being only a supplier of commodities to the West. It is indeed ironic that without the Hertzog government's efforts to build the local economy and industry in particular, there would in all probability not have been a big and mighty trade Union like Cosatu.

Crucially the Nationalists were anti-bling and ostentatious displays of wealth. Were their moto was Suid-Afrika eerste (South Africa first) , the ANC seems to have a very different one: Me, me, me. The Nats valued unselfish public service, rare in a continent blighted by predatory elites. Corruption, what Francois Bayart and his colleagues describe as "the privatisation of public resources" is spreading.

The ANC has so-far presided over an ever increasing gap in economic inequality. It has presided over de-industrialisation. It has allowed mining companies like Anglo-American to list in London, while the English language South African press acquiesced. Would the Nationalists have allowed this capital flight?

The Afrikaners launched Africa's largest body of literature, covering the whole gambit of human experiences, including feminist, and even gay literature. Allot of it severely self critical. The one dimensional stereo types just don't do Afrikaners justice.

It's time for a major reassessment of the Afrikaner's role on the continent. They are the ghostly vanguard of the Thabu Mbeki's "African Renaissance". But now Africa's largest skilled force of effective and loyal public servants are not only not given their due recognition, they are also being shunned.

Afrikaners themselves need to see where their formative roots lie, when the likes of De la Rey were anti-colonial freedom fighters - and champions of the poor and oppressed. They should understand and admit the tragic impact of apartheid and they should work towards making a symbolic gesture of contrition - a la Germany's Willie Brandt.

The ANC needs to recognise that without harnessing the Afrikaners, culturally, socially and in the public sector - all of South Africa will be poorer.

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Pallo is a Bok for sports but no treason

Mhambi is getting a bit tired of serving up stories about Bok van Blerk, but the plot thickens, and I have to do my duty.

The South African Ministry of Arts and Culture have no doubt stoked the fires with this statement that claims the De la Rey song could become "a rallying point for treason."

James Myburg reports that a statement issued on Tuesday the Ministry warned that the song was "in danger of being hijacked by a minority of right-wingers who not only regard De la Rey as a war hero but want to mislead sections of Afrikaans-speaking society to think that this is a struggle song that sends out a call to arms."

But to be fair to the department, Die Huisgenoot - an Afrikaans magazine - asked for an opinion from the department on the song. And much of the rest of the statement is sensible. Mhambi wants to bet his bottom dollar that smarty pants Pallo himself wrote it:

As the Ministry of Arts & Culture, we want to state it categorically that the Minister Dr. Z. Pallo Jordan together with countless other unsung heroes - spent his entire adult life and much of his adolescence and youth fighting for the right of freedom of expression.

Whatever the intentions of the composer, be they to mobilize White Afrikaans-speakers, or "the Boers" as the singer calls them, to oppose the democratic government, provided that opposition is within the terms of our Constitution, we as the Ministry see no problem.

However, there are two very important considerations which everyone must weigh. Firstly, during the time the song refers to, the White Afrikaans-speaking communities of the then Oranje Vry-Staat and Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek were at war with the British Empire. Unless the composer, performer and his audiences regard themselves as in a state of war with the rest of the population of South Africa, the song is merely a historical curiosity.

Secondly, today, in terms of our Constitution, every citizen of the country, irrespective of race, colour, creed, gender or home language has equal rights. As such even the most discontented White Afrikaans-speaker has the untrammeled right to organize a political party, to go into the hustings and persuade fellow citizens to his point of view, and contest elections. Provided he/she commands a sufficient number of votes, they will win seats in the national, provincial or local legislature and they have an equal opportunity with all fellow citizens to make their concerns known. We would have thought that the taking up of arms was superfluous in such circumstances.

Z Pallo of course knows full well that as a minority Afrikaans speakers do not stand a chance when organising in this fashion and contesting an election. But he is technically correct. He continues:

If there are White Afrikaans-speakers who feel they are besieged by crime, it will not help matters for such persons themselves to engage in criminal activity. Taking up arms against a democratically elected government, no matter how much one dislikes that government, is a crime, and a grave one at that.

...but z Pallo - i'm sure - is being disingenuous and aware that one of the first duties of a state is to protect its citizens. The point is that Afrikaners want more state involvement not a non-government.

Pallo continues:

The oft heard complaint that Afrikaans culture and the language are under threat is a nonsense, disproved by the very existence of journals like "Huisgenoot", "Rooi Rose", "Sarie Marais", and a host of others plus at least two daily newspapers. Are there equivalents of these in the largest language community, isiZulu? Are there equivalents of these in the smallest language community, shiVenda?

Afrikaans speakers, White, Coloured, African or Asian, have exactly the same rights as other South Africans. It would be a terrible shame if a handful of misguided individuals hope to use an innocent song as a rallying point for treason.

The law on the issue of treason is clear, as the accused in the current "Boeremag" Trial are discovering. Those who incite treason, whatever methods they employ, might well find themselves in difficulties with the law.

It is significant to note that Van Blerk himself has denied that his song has any contemporary relevance.

Mmmm.... Pallo has conjured up the spectre of the Boeremag.

Boeremag ghosts
Let me let you into a secret. Mhambi knows some of the accused in the Boeremag trial. I was a junior student in the same residence as some of them at university. The Pretorius brothers and their friends relished ******* on our ****** when we could not remember their names, room numbers and girl friend's names, which in my case, was often. I had a good visual memory but trouble remembering numbers. The Pretorius brothers had particularly firm hands.

They harrassed me because my hair style offended them. I must admit that I had a pretty bad hair style, but I thought it was pretty over the top of them to get so upset. At least my hair style changed. Their hair was shockingly ordinary day in day out.

One night hooded men stormed into my room, demanding I cut my hair and to stop being so stubborn. I had to endure a few more *******. I imagined the Pretorius boys were there that night.

Yes, they are a pretty unpleasant lot these Pretorius brothers. Not just because I say so, others would agree. They together with characters like a certain Cristiaan van der Merwe, made a hell of a comotion when Nelson Madela was about to give a speech - in Afrikaans nogal - at the university. I did not get it, Nelson's hair was short and neat - he was fresh out of prison.

When the Boeremag was caught, they had little sympathy from the vast majority of Afrikaners. The whole criminal justice system that is dealing with their case is made up of Afrikaners. This did not surprise me one bit. It is not such a big community. Allot of us knew them or knew about them. The type of people that would not be out of place in stereo-typical Hollywood portrayals of Afrikaners - and we don't like bad movies.

The Boeremag would not have been going down, without the support of the Afrikaans population at large. But they are going down.

But I digress. I forgot to mention Z Pallo's coup de grace.

As the Ministry of Arts & Culture, we wish the singer, Van Blerk good luck with his song, and who knows, if it's really good, it might even become an international hit, like Solomon Linda's "Mbube"."

Ouch! Pallo - that hurt. What a bitch slap!

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The story of Koos and Bok

The debate around Bok van Blerk and his De la Rey song is showing no sign of abating. Koos Kombuis (Wikipedia), the Afrikaans singer, poet, writer and counter-culture libertarian icon has spoken about the surprise he felt at the strong contradictory feelings the song elicited in him.

Kombuis attracted some controversy just recently when he publicly resigned from Afrikanerdom, Koos wanted to rid him of all that Boer baggage.

And the song *had* felt wrong. It felt like a call to war. But on the other hand, Koos found himself, when ever he heard the song, involuntarily sing along: "De la Rey, De la Rey, sal jy die boere kom lei De la Rey. De la Rey, Generaal, Generaal, soos een man sal ons om jou val, generaal De la Rey". (English translation here.)

Koos realises - as he thought might happen - that the song is becoming huge, it's something-like-a-phe-no-me-na. Bok has to be stopped.

And then one day Koos said so, in one of his Rapport articles.

And to Koos's amazement he gets an email from Bok. He wants advice about life, the universe and South Africa.

Koos meets Bok in one of South Africa's cathedrals to materialism and the non society, the Centurion mall. Koos expects the devil. He did his research and apparently Bok used real farmers when making his music video. But he had to use girls to play the Khakhis because the farmers refused to play the British. Koos also suspects he used Jafta - the black servant - to dig the trenches.

Bok does a very un-Afrikaans thing and arrives late for his appointment.

But when he does arrive Koos is amazed. Bok seems vunerabale, sensitive. He looks like someone whose been through life's treadmill.

He reminds Koos of Johannes Kerkorrel! Johannes you will remember was the singer and spokesperson for the Voelvry movement - an Afrikaans music movement against the cultural and political shackels of the Afrikaner Nationalists. Johannes commited suicide.

Koos is stunned, but still suspicious of his feelings, he sets out to research who this De la Rey was.

Koos is truely amazed.

It turns out De la Rey was the last Anglo Boer War General to go to war, after arguing in parlaiment passionately against it, often enduring accusations of cowardice.

De la Rey also opposed, together with General Joubert, the anti-foreigner policy of President Kruger.

But when war was inevitable he joined the fight and soon he was the most succesful General in the War. Alobg the way he is credited with inventing new guerilla warfare tecniques.

After the war ended he strove ceaselessly for reconciliation between Boer and Brit.

Koos realises that De la Rey was not a Terreblanche, not a George Bush or a Tony Blair but an Afrikaner Steve Biko. An enlighthened man of action, conscience and peace. And he realises that Bok is right. South Africa needs leaders like that - leaders of action, wisdom and peace.

But is that not why Bok came to Koos?

Is Bok and the volk not desperately looking to people like Koos and other credible Afrikaners for guidance? But Van Zyl Slabbert in no longer an Afrikaner, Bad boy poet Breyten's ego just keeps on getting in the way, and Koos has resigned his membership. But if they won't, Mhambi thinks others might.

To qoute Kerkorrel: "Ons soek 'n nuwe energie."

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Skyscrapers do not belong in Africa

I had a pretty vivid and dramatic comment on one of my posts on Bok van Blerk this week. Mhambi wonders who could have left the comment. But Mhambi has a hunch. Hint: I think his names begins with a D.:

Fact of the matter is that candy coated apartheid goes under the guise of culuralism now. As an ex SADF boykie who did his bit up there in the big A I can tell you that I still have nightmares of the Brutality of Africa, and its all very noble about De La Rey but at the end of the day Africa, including my beloved South Africa is not a place for Europeans and Africa will claim back its own. Afrikaner culture in essence is European not African hence despite beautiful lyrics it is going to be a tough fight which in the long run is unwinnable UNLESS Afrikaners reject their European identity and live by African Ideals. It reminds me of the death scene of Roy Batty in Blade Runner... I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams ... glitter in the dark near Tanhauser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost ... in time, like tears ... in rain. Time ... to die. All our monuments to our westernism (working electrical grids, skyscrapers, infrastructure) will be lost like tears in the rain because it does not belong in Africa... Like tears in the rain...

This reminds me of a song by Roof Bezuidenhout, Nero van der Merwe se lied. He sings about a city whose trains have stopped running, a city in ruin. But he ads, a city that's burning does look pretty from afar.

Beautiful funerals

I once heard a Cambridge student ask Roof if he does not think the Afrikaans language will die out and why he sings in this endangered tongue.

He said that he sings in Afrikans because, "we want to give it a beautiful funeral". Which is rather nice. Think of Mhambi as a serial funeral bulletin.

Talking of funerals, this week South African Anglo-Zulu historian David Rattry was buried after he was murdered a few days before. The international press was buzzing - no other murder of a South African has managed this media frenzy. Some commented on how South Africa was loosing its moral compass. Which was a bit strange because stats show that the killing in this country is (a little bit) less than before.

South Africa's image has always been mediated, shaped by the western media and specifically the English media. And it is when somebody is murdered that the English can closely identify with, that the English media takes notice.

The Telegraph had this to say:

there are 20,000 murders in South Africa every year. Here's a comparison. The Iraq Body Count website estimates that between 55,373 and 61,060 civilians have perished since the 2003 invasion. That is: a hot war, followed by a violent and organised insurgency that has turned into a civil war in all but name. By my rough calculation, over the four years since the whole thing started, that's around 15,000 casualties a year. That is, then, 75 per cent of the death toll for peacetime South Africa.

I end with a few lines from another Roof song:

En die vroue vra:
is Afrika se nagte dan soveel donkerder
as dié van ander kontinente?
skyn Afrika se son dan soveel skerper
as dié van ander kontinente?

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Jews try to avoid the Apartheid black hole

Protestors - outside SA parliament
Originally uploaded by Wildebeast1.

It's understandable that Jews would like to dissociate what the Israeli government is doing from comparisons with the Apartheid state. The semantics of Apartheid in the Western mind is that of a moral black hole. And once you are tainted with it, once you fall with in its orbit, your done for.

Mhambi chanced when browsing Digg on Uri Avnery's article Israel and Apartheid. He claims the Jewish state's methods might at times approximate that of the Apartheid government's, but that the substance of the state of Israel is different. He sites the following as reasons:

(a) In SA there was a conflict between Blacks and Whites, but both agreed that the state of South Africa must remain intact - the question was only who would rule it. Almost nobody proposed to partition the country between the Blacks and the Whites.

Our conflict is between two different nations with different national identities, each of which places the highest value on a national state of its own.

(b) In SA, the idea of "separateness" was an instrument of the White minority for the oppression of the Black majority, and the Black population rejected it unanimously. Here, the huge majority of the Palestinians want to be separated from Israel in order to establish a state of their own. The huge majority of Israelis, too, want to be separated from the Palestinians. Separation is the aspiration of the majority on both sides, and the real question is where the border between them should run. On the Israeli side, only the settlers and their allies demand to keep the whole historical area of the country united and object to separation, in order to rob the Palestinians of their land and enlarge the settlements. On the Palestinian side, the Islamic fundamentalists also believe that the whole country is a "waqf" (religious trust) and belongs to Allah, and therefore must not be partitioned.

(c) In SA, a White minority (about 10 percent) ruled over a huge majority of Blacks (78 percent), people of mixed race (7 percent) and Asians (3 percent). Here, between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, there are now 5.5 million Jewish-Israelis and an equal number of Palestinian-Arabs (including the 1.4 million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel).

(d) The SA economy was based on Black labor and could not possibly have existed without it. Here, the Israeli government has succeeded in excluding the non-Israeli Palestinians almost completely from the Israeli labor market and replacing them with foreign workers.

Mhambi disagrees because with Uri because:

a) The conflict in South Africa was about much more than just race, it was about two and even more competing nationalisms, mainly the Afrikaner and African nationalist. There was then and is now a vigorous and growing debate on the merits of a separate Afrikaner volkstaat.

b) Apartheid did oppress the black majority and an increasing amount of black South Africans did reject it as time went by. By no means all did, especially early on. And if the government had not designated 80% white, this turning against apartheid might have been different. Towards the end a significant part of the largest ethnic black group - the Zulus - still wanted to have their own national territory. Black South Africans did not necessarily want to live with white ones, they wanted power first and foremost.

c) At the beginning of the previous century the numbers of whites was only slightly less than the the numbers of black South Africans. Black South Africans had however a much higher fertility rate, and black Africans have migrated from all over Southern Africa to work in South Africa for decades.

d) It's allot more complicated. The original South African communist party, which was very Afrikaner (and Jewish), tried to exclude black Africans - who were streaming to Johannesburg - from the labour market with their slogan "Workers of the world unite and fight for a white South Africa." They failed, because black Africans would do the work much cheaper, and because foreign capital controlled the economy.

Of course there are huge differences between South Africa and Israel. But the resemblances are striking. One of the obvious ones is that both the Afrikaners and Jews feel themselves in danger as a people. Instead of trying to argue that what is happening in Israel is not like what happened in South Africa, Jews would do better to look at what is happening in South Africa after apartheid ended and learn from it.

On the one hand, Afrikaners have reached escape velocity, they are no longer the paraihs of the world. But on the other hand, Afrikaners are leaving South Africa in droves.

Uri would do well to read up on South African history before he shoots himself in the foot. This excellent article on the special relationship between Jew and Afrikaner is a good place to start.

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Mhambi's South Africa 2006

Open debate, Aids, Gays, Poverty

2006 was a watershed year for South Africa. It was a year that saw more open debate than at any time since the all democratic elections of 1994. Why? Because the monolithic ANC dominated political discourse was shattered with the infighting between the Zuma and Mbeki camps.

tragedy in south africa...aids has left a mark (South Africa)
Originally uploaded by Matt'satwwJ.

Deputy president Zuma was of course cleared of a rape charge and then the charge for corruption was withdrawn.

For the first time people and the press felt free to openly question excepted wisdom on many issues. As with most open debate, some times this questioning was good, "should the government not have spent more on the poor?" Sometimes bad: "Why give gays rights?" The specter of political campaigning along ethnic and tribal lines also raised its ugly head.

But one of the most benign effects of this opening up was that it allowed more debate on Mbeki's disastrous Aids policy that has the cost the lives of thousands of South Africans. By year end the government had changed its policy, lets hope they can implement this new policy far wide and fast.

The question remained, was this a sign of a maturing democracy or just an opening up as a consequence of a jostling for power in the ruling party?

De la Rey makes a comeback

It was also the year in which some detected the stirrings of resurgent Afrikaner nationalism and unity. A response to the renaming of towns and cities, crime, corruption, affirmative action and a general sense of exclusion of the once dominant group. This even found expression in phenomena like the extremely popular De la Rey song of a young Afrikaner, Bok van Blerk.

White intellectuals made their voices heard to. In concert authors like Brink and Malan lamented the parlous state of law and order. Malan saw a sad decay, but Brink saw slaughter in the future. Nadine Gordimer was mugged in her home, but she stayed positive, preferring to blame the government for not helping the poor.

The meaning of Africaness

Another intellectual, Van Zyl Slabbert, articulated another new trend that became increasingly visible during the year. The growing racial exclusive ideology that only black South Africans could be African, and not white coloured or asian ones.

It was not just South African white writers that were negative, so too people like UK Guardian South African correspondent Rory Carroll. He never quite fell for South Africa because it "took a sledge hammer to his cherished progressive ideals".

Another Brit, Nick Broomfield, managed to produce both the most entertaining and most out of touch documentary of the year about South Africa, "His big white self".

A booming economy

All this pessimism while one could be forgiven for asking what all the fuss was about - the South African economy appeared in rude health - growing at record levels for a record period. But, the growth has so far been very slow on delivering South African jobs. The rich is getting richer and the poor poorer.

Violence

White trash
Originally uploaded by Hermosdef.

Violence continued across the country as in the past few years. Black South Africans were still more likely to be killed than white ones, usually by other black South Africans and often by somebody they know. If you were foreign and black you were in real danger. Especially Somali business men were targeted in a spate of killings across the country.

PW Botha, the last apartheid defending leader of the country passed away.

There was increasing debate about the countries history. Events like the Battle at Cuito Canavale in Angola are set to become a political battle field going forward.

And it was reported that nearly 800,000 white South Africans had immigrated since 1994. That's nearly 20% of the total.

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Iron Maiden The Trooper By Gauchos

Is Bok van Blerk's De la Rey song actually loaded with meta textual references to Iron Maiden's The Trooper?

You'll take my life but Ill take yours too
Youll fire you musket but Ill run you through
So when your waiting for the next attack
Youd better stand theres no turning back

The bugle sounds as the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of arcrid smoke and horses breath
As you plunge into a certain death

Yes, It's the silly season, news is slow. The link is tenuous to my other high minded discussions on South African identity politics. So what.

Shout out to Wedding DJ Donald for the link.

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Bok van Blerk is big

Mhambi's blog has never been so popular. Yesterday I had just shy of 120 visitors for the day. But alas its not due to my quick wit and incisive analysis. Unfortunately not. It's because of Bok van Blerk and his De la Rey song.

Not seen the De la Rey video yet? Well please do, and here is the English lyrics for all the rooinekke out there.

Some people have started to comment on it. Is it racist? An expression of Afrikaner frustration at being marginalised? Please feel free to join in the debate.

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Bok van Berk hijacked by international facists?

Do a search for "Bok van Blerk" the name of the singer of the song De La Rey and see what unsavoury links you get. It seems the hateful flotsam of the global extreme right wing has latched onto the boytjie from Pretoria.

One of the sites claim that the only way South Africa will belong to the Boers is through the removal of the jews and the blacks (some comment on the stupidity of this claim below). Very little will damage long term Afrikaner political interests more than being associated with this lot.

The De la rey song has caused quite a storm in South Africa.

See the dramatic Bok van Blerk video here.

In the meantime Mhambi brings you the lyrics, nicked from one of those sites (All is fair in love and war). I actually had to correct it a bit because the translation I ripped was not too acurate.

Delarey - Bok van Blerk lyrics

On a mountain in the night
We lie in the dark and wait
In the mud and the blood
As rain and streepsak (translation?) clings to me

And my house and my farm were burnt to the ground so they could capture us
But those flames and those fires now burns deep deep within me.

De La Rey, De La Rey can you come and lead the Boers?
De La Rey, De La Rey
General, General we will fall around you as one.
General De La Rey.

The Khakis (The British) that laugh
A handful of us against an massive force
With our backs to the clifs of the mountains
They think its over for us

But the heart of a farmer is deeper and wider, they will come to see
On a horse he comes, the lion of West Transvaal (the monicker given to General De la Rey).

De La Rey, De La Rey can you come and lead the Boers?
De La Rey, De La Rey
General, General we will fall around you as one.
General De La Rey.

Because my wife and my child are in a camp dying,
And the Khakis are walking over a nation that will rise again

De La Rey, De La Rey can you come and lead the Boers?
De La Rey, De La Rey
General, General we will fall around you as one. General De La Rey.



So now your wondering, who is this General De la Rey fellow?

Afrikaners and Jews

It's undoubtly true that there was much resentment amongst Afrikaners when a Jewish community settled in Johannesburg after the discovery of gold. There was also well documented involvement by Jewish and German industrialists in instigating Britain to attack the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek (Transvaal).

How anti-Jewish were the Afrikaners? Well for a start some Afrikaners were jewish, the common surname Koen has its origin in the jewish Cohen.

Secondly, when the Afrikaner Nationalsits came to power in 1948 Jewish South Africans endured a period or prosperity and protection they had not had before.

Chris MacGreal wrote an excellent article titled Brothers in arms about the "special relationship" between Jew and Afrikaner.

Anti-semitism lingered, but within a few years of the Nationalists assuming power in 1948, many Jewish South Africans found common purpose with the rest of the white community. "We were white and even though the Afrikaner was no friend of ours, he was still white," says Krausz. "The Jew in South Africa sided with the Afrikaners, not so much out of sympathy, but out of fear sided against the blacks. I came to this country in 1946 and all you could hear from Jews was 'the blacks this and the blacks that'. And I said to them, 'You know, I've heard exactly the same from the Nazis about you.' The laws were reminiscent of the Nuremberg laws. Separate entrances; 'Reserved for whites' here; 'Not for Jews' there."

...

Then Nationalist prime minister Vorster was invited to visit Israel.

At a state banquet, (Yitzhak) Rabin toasted "the ideals shared by Israel and South Africa: the hopes for justice and peaceful coexistence". Both countries, he said, faced "foreign-inspired instability and recklessness".

Vorster, whose army was then overrunning Angola, told his hosts that South Africa and Israel were victims of the enemies of western civilisation. A few months later, the South African government's yearbook characterised the two countries as confronting a single problem: "Israel and South Africa have one thing above all else in common: they are both situated in a predominantly hostile world inhabited by dark peoples."

Shocking, yes. But hardly what these international white supremacists wants to hear.

Vorster's visit laid the ground for a collaboration that transformed the Israel-South Africa axis into a leading weapons developer and a force in the international arms trade. Liel, who headed the Israeli foreign ministry's South Africa desk in the 80s, says that the Israeli security establishment came to believe that the Jewish state may not have survived without the relationship with the Afrikaners.

Well well, the new found darlings of the international extreme right (during the Boer war they were the darlings of the left) helped save the Jewish state. Eat that.

And today after the collapse of the nationalist regime the Jewish community has dwindeld dramatically. The South African economy might be booming, but the jewish community are leaving South Africa.

There is a wider point here. The Afrikaners might have been ideologues, but their politics were primarily driven by practical concerns about their survival. It trumped everything else.

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De la Rey Bok van Blerk musiek video

The music video of Bok van Blerk's Delarey song. A song which has made Tim du Plessis, editor of Afrikaans Sunday papper Rapport, warn about resurgent Afrikaner unity. See an English translation of Bok van Berk's Delarey song here.

Bok is not the only Afrikaans boytjie touching on Afrikaner nationalism. Fokofpolisiekar - the boere punks - recently released a track called, "Brand Suid-Afrika" (Burn South Africa).

Think back 16 years. The alternatiewe Afrikaanse beweging (alternative Afrikaans movement) then was very political. They sought to challenge the Afrikaner Nationalist regime. But since then Afrikaans music has - on the whole - shied away from political references.

Interestingly enough, Shifty records, the little record lable started by the rooinek Lloyd Ross that launched the whole Alternative movement, has now recorded an album by author Rian Malan. Operating from a caravan hitched to a Ford V6 truck, the Shifty studio would produce an album by the likes of Koos Kombuis, Johannes Kerkorrel and Bernoldus Niemand (James Phillips) every two months until 1993.

Malan's album is the first from the Shifty's stable in more than a decade. Called Alien inboorling (Alien native), its a very well produced, excellently crafted album (both lyrically and musically) capturing the current zeitgeist of the so-called alternative Afrikaners. And the state of mind is not that different from the Afrikaner mainstream: It's about identity crisis, marginalisation, crime, guilt, hope and immigration. Malan just says it better and more beautifully.

Update

Bok's song has caused such a commotion that he has saught advice from Afrikaans cultural icon Koos Kombuis.

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