First world hipster bloggers and music websites (with foreign correspondents’ not far behind) are besides themselves about South African performers, Die Antwoord. Linking to them. Talking about their style. Good for them and Die Antwoord. However, as Richard Poplak, another booster for the Die Antwoord, had to concede recently: “… Die Antwoord are exotic, furious, and, most importantly, new. But what their lyrics mean — or what they stand for precisely — no one in Brooklyn or Paris or São Paulo can say.”
Which is why I like this piece of of writing, below, by Cape Town writer Rustum Kozain, about Die Antwoord’s music and style. While I wouldn’t say that what Die Antwoord does is necessarily blackface, I think some of its problematic aspects need to be discussed. (I kept the South African English spellings and for those with little or knowledge of South Africanisns, I added some hyperlinks):
Firstly, I like Die Antwoord, and my problems are with how Die Antwoord is interpreted and framed. Of course, I don’t know what its creators have in mind; I don’t know enough about Waddy Jones and Max Normal, etc., so I can only talk about reception of Die Antwoord.
To me, Die Antwoord is basically blackface and blackface is tricky; it exists on a continuum from satire to parody to mimicry to misdirected appropriation, but the points on the continuum are given valency by reception. As Ninja and Yo-landi are personas, I’ll take Die Antwoord as satirical.
But what are they satirising or parodying? The people on which the personas are based? I.e. the ‘coloured’ gangster or ‘gangster’ or youth? Or is it white working class youth, the select few who due to new proximities in working class and lower middle class neighbourhoods, are now developing habits and mannerisms that will not raise an eyebrow on the Cape Flats taxi-line?
This to me is interesting: that Die Antwoord suggests a fusion of white Afrikaans working class and ‘coloured‘ working class identities, expressed in the most eloquent way through dialect/s.
But it cannot escape parody. Waddy Jones is, after all, not white working class Afrikaans (maybe he has roots there, I don’t know; he lives in Higgovale. Although language identity may be slippery here); at the class remove that he inhabits, and …, yes, the racial remove too, the adoption of the persona of Ninja treads that difficult and exhausting terrain of South African entertainment culture wherein ‘coloured’ people almost always figure as coon – delightful language skills (Afrikaans, after all, was born on their tongues) enhanced by gold-capped teeth. Tattoos that mimic the style of prison-garnered ‘tjappies‘ (stamps), but tattoos that KNOW to stay well clear of any other direct references to gangs. For me the depth of the INVENTION is probably the most troublesome, because it reveals an anthropological bent: it is not a persona that has emerged in any organic way, such as our identities change in different environments; rather, it is a persona invented, but clearly based on detailed anthropological study.
Had Ninja been white working class with actual regular, day-to-day interaction with people on the Cape Flats, then the parodic would have no purchase; nor would accusations of appropriation. Or had Ninja, for instance, rapped in a mixture of white working class English and Afrikaans and Cape Flats English and Afrikaans, without developing the visual embellishments, then the social commentary and satire would have stood out in relief. And it would have been an interesting point about fluid identities emphasised. But the visual embellishments – especially the tattoos that tread gingerly between celebration and disavowal of prison-gang style and the gold teeth – do point to appropriation and Waddy Jones has not suddenly discovered his ‘inner coloured’.
Or is Die Antwoord parodying gangsta hip-hop in the US itself? If rappers there can garner fame and fortune by adopting gangster stances (if they were not Original Gs), what would it mean to do this in South Africa? What would ‘gangsta rap’ a la mode in South Africa look like? Die Antwoord could be the answer to that question. Imagine, on a whim the musician wonders: Let’s take hiphop, what is happening in it now, transport it to SA, but with all its logical conclusions. Doing this, Die Antwoord then happens also onto all sorts of interesting conjunctions.
There’s more here (especially the comments).
Oops, BSE = Rustum Kozain
Another weakness of Richard’s article is the omission of Johannes Kerkorrel and the Cherry Faced Lurchers for first making Afrikaans music subversive – AND, Prophets of Da City and Brasse van Die Kaap for first expressing hip hop’s social justice message in the vernacular.
Comrade Mhambi… the appreciation is mutual, let’s do best!
No one disputes the internet fame of Die Antwoord or its impact. (In fact, I linked to Die Antwoord a while back).
Some quick comments:
I’ll refrain from saying more about @AliceinWonderland’s affected patois, her “hierdie lot” outbursts and for projecting racism against her (lot?) . And why don’t you use your real name?
@Andy I link to Mahala.co.za regularly (it’s a fresh take on SA culture no doubt, but I was hardly convinced by your arguments.
You seem to live in some postapartheid fantasyland (you call it by that retired term “dispensation”) where “… people are actually free to choose whatever racial group they’d like to belong to.” What?
Then you quote cliches that mean nothing (“Proudly, South African” and “Rainbow Nation”). When you get challenged, you pull the old anti-academic card and respond with some weak nonsense about what’s wrong with some rainbow nation-ism: For your information, the rainbow nation is the most unequal country in the world (that’s according to the Development Bank of South Africa). And that inequality is still largely decided around race; and there is little mobility; the movement you talk about is hardly a reality.
When it appears you did not actually read Rustum’s arguments, you tells us your emotional response was all about “play[ing] to win.”
Finally, you throw in an image of a “street” kid (how do you know he is a street kid btw?) in “white face.” To say what? What is the relevance of this child? Is he contrasted to Die Antwoord? That is to prove what that people are “free to choose” and who they want to be?
As Rustum points out, all that noise without dealing with any of his arguments.
Sean it’s not a fantasy land… I know better than most how unequal this society is… I just choose to do something positive about it. We’ve lost our way from the Mandela blue-print of an equitable, post-racial society… but I don’t think that ideology is defunct. We just need an inspirational leader to make it real.
I did not know that the term “dispensation” had been “retired”. Why?
And while many people are trapped in their socio-economic circumstances, which are still largely defined by race, people in South Africa are actually free to define themselves however they choose in a free society. Just because many don’t, doesn’t discount their rights to do and be whoever or whatever they want to be.
So don’t get me wrong on the Rainbow Nation. It’s not the blind and isolationist Kumbaya of a whitey stuck in a suburb.
Rustum actually bought up the analogy of serving and volleying… I just extended it. But it was a light hearted reference to not being able to respond to these arguments adequately because I agree with much of what Rustum wrote, apart from authenticity question, and I’m under quite a lot of time pressure.
No the irony is not lost on me, that I’m now spending my precious time responding to you. But you run the site and keep offering my writers jobs, so I figured I’d do you the courtesy of engaging.
The pic of the street child, (I know he lives on the street because my writer/photographer did some research and spoke to him), was just an interesting aside, raising the question of “white face” – but has absolutely no bearing on this discussion. It was an aside, a tangent, a striking picture I thought you and your audience might enjoy.
Sjoe!
Thats a lot of ticky ticky typing about something satirical. Thusly, I stand by my initial comment.
@BSE/Rustum – your comment re: me mum’s bosom is duly noted. Will have to follow it up and let you know.
@Sean
“I’ll refrain from saying more…” – suit yourself. I’m sure no-one’s holding their breath anyway.
“…why don’t you use your real name”… strange question, but ….. because I don’t feel like it? Why is a “real name” important in this context?
I have rarely been more entertained by a comment “volley”. Lovely. I love the passion. I am fairly new to this interweb thing, consider myself to be very unacademic (despite the fact I am a lecturer at Wits)… just discovered Die Antwoord about 20 minutes ago – thank you for all your detailed observations. Most enlighhtening. Now off I flit – probably never to return, @Andy and Rustum. I want to put that exchange (or at least a version of it) into my novel -please??
I hate it when I spell something wrong…sigh.
nee o gots…julle ouens is net te diep vir hierie vlak outjie…hey, ek moet hol…moet my kar se olie gaan aftap…
interesting comments above. good to see a blog with real thoughts and ideas.
what i get from DA is something totally different. for me as a white male growing up in southfield close to the flats i know that there is a white lower class that exists who act like this. i once got in a fight with a guy from a gang called “fish shop boys” who used to hang around the local fish shop. they were all white and a couple used to deal crack and had gang tats.
you may not believe that there is a white lower class but it does exist, regardless of the political crap that gets spewed by the ANC that all whites are wealthy racists living in constantia. in the cape the lower class whites mix with the coloureds – these lines are often quite blurred bue to the fact that many of these whites look coloured and vice versa. go walk around brooklyn, southfield etc and you will understand.
what DA is for me is a look into the future where all the whites with money have decided to leave and the poor whites who cannot afford to do so become the disadvantaged lower classes who adopt the coloured cultures while being supressed by the ANC.
DA vs ANC! is this coincedence?
ha ha! zuma jou ma se skrawwe poes!
I think these guys are the greatest! Thanx for the post. Such a new fresh zef style that i’ve never heard before. I also really love their “Sail Away” song that i found at their uber coole fansite @: http://www.dieantwoordzeflings.com LOVE IT!
You did not even read the post it seems. Instead you did more marketing. Next you going to tell us they bring out a shoe and that it is great.
Jeez if you want to do something creative in South Africa, there sure seems to be a lot of considerations and red tape involved.
@Greg: Is this a spam comment? What is meant by “considerations” and “red tape”?
Well, as someone who works in a creative field, I know that linear, critical thought can go contrary to imaginative thought and the creative process.
The point I’m trying to make is that I really don’t think creative individuals like Die Antwoord think so analytically about the social ramifications of thier work. I reckon, they just want to get the sounds, images and content etc 100%.
I really feel that overall they deserve a little creative leyway (spelling) and so should other creatives.
What would you suggest they do in order to NOT appear to be Blackface? Just curious…
@Greg: I am not trying to ban then, merely trying to point out what they represent.
I don’t know what you mean by “linear” or “analytical” thought that you seem to associate with me or whoever points out the problematic aspects of Die Antwoord’s work as opposed to what you characterize as “imaginative thought.” Anyway, Waddy Jones is hardly only about the sounds, images and content, as he has a history of creating musical personas which requires some “anthropology”.
Yes I see your points, but how can you point out what they represent when in the first part of the article you say that it is unclear what they represent? (assuming you wrote the first para of course)
I’m not implying you are linear, sorry if it seems like that. There could obviously be bad results from the work they’ve done. But I think we SA folk are forgiving enough, I hope.
Anyways, I know that a persona can be compared to a brand. Positioning in the market is crucial. However, that is left to the marketers to analyse and the brief to be given to the creatives to design and create content. Also, there are some highly skilled producers involved in launching this project, so it’s not all Die Antwoord who took over the Interwebs alone.
I can only guess what Zeff, Rave Rap, Mullets, Prison like Tattoos, Cheesy Gear, Funky Lyrics etc etc are going to do to our culture or what Die Antwoord’s intent is overall.
One thing I do know is that it’s unethical to speculate about someone’s inent in thier absence. Why not ask the creators to explain themselves?
fuck off and stop theorising all of you…get your heads out of your arses and just take it for what it is….hes having a laugh at himself and all of you…boring cunts
To anyone saying just take them for what they are. I agree to an extent, but at the end of the day isn’t this discussion what Waddy/Ninja was trying to achieve. If you look at the Andy/Rustum/Sean debate it turned from a discussion about Die Antwoord to a social commentary on South Africa. Isn’t that what we need. A little dispensing of the bullshit and actually diving into the nitty-gritty. I don’t know! Maybe I’ve fallen prey to the enigma that is Die Antwoord, but I’m still appreciting the hype!
does die antwoord really matter this much!? really? they (well, waddy) worked long and hard to get to where they are. props to them for that. but really, the musics a load of bollocks. come on?. im amazed at how people love them, but whatever. lets see if they’re still going in a year. highly doubt it if waddys involved. stop overthinking shit o’s, seriously…
Your post seems to be attractive just because of your writing style as Die Antwoord are exotic, furious, and, most importantly, new. But what their lyrics mean etc