AfricaIs aCountry

Holland is Kaaps

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Holland is Kaaps

By
Dylan Valley

Afrikaans has its roots as a Dutch Creole, spoken by slaves, slave masters and workers of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape. A South African theater company took the play to The Netherlands.

Jitsvinger in "Afrikaaps."

Afrikaaps, the South African theater production which explores the mostly unknown creole history of the Afrikaans language, is currently on tour in Holland. A while. back, Sean wrote about the film I made about the show. Here. Afrikaaps is essentially an effort to liberate the language from its status as the “language of the (white) opressor,”  and taking it back for all who speak it (the majority who happen to be mostly Black, or Coloured.)

The show has been reworked for a Dutch audience, incorporating two of Holland’s hip hop heavyweights: Def P (Nederhop pioneer) and Akwasi Ansah (of the excellent Zwart Licht). As Afrikaans started as a mixing of languages in the Cape, and as a direct result of slaves and indigenes speaking Dutch, it will be interesting to see how the Dutch public respond to the show, and whether they would be open to engage with that side of their history. The jury is still out on that one.

The show premieres in The Hague on Friday the 30th. I’m currently touring with the Afrikaaps crew, making documentary inserts for use during the live show, documenting the process, and generally having a great time. If you’re in Holland , check our dates here, and stiek uit!

Some samples from the show here and here.

Further Reading

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