Twenty years ago today, in the single most important moment in 360 years of South Africa’s blood-drenched history, Nelson Mandela walked away from Victor Verster Prison a free man. February 11* is a hallowed day in the local calendar. It may therefore seem inappropriate to profile a noisy, profane rap act named Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for “the answer”) by way of celebration. But, as Mandela marched out of jail into the future, he knew that his release posed a difficult question: Can South Africa transform into a nation united and governed by principles other than race? Die Antwoord, who appear to occupy an entirely different universe from Mandela, are the most articulate answer he could have hoped for.
Over the course of the past ten days or so, the band have been propelled by the likes of Boing Boing, Twitter, Pitchfork, Reuters, et al into the very maw of Fame 3.0. As lead rapper Waddy, a.k.a. Ninja, puts it: “Look at me now! All over the interweb.” Indeed, only two weeks ago, Ninja and his sidekicks Yo-landi “Rich Bitch” Vi$$er and the flabby DJ Hi-Tek were paying dues; now they’re rolling in nunchaku. For their international fans, Die Antwoord are exotic, furious, and, most importantly, new. But what their lyrics mean — or what they stand for precisely — no one in Brooklyn or Paris or São Paulo can say.
Ninja is, at first glance, your typical white trash rapper. He wears his hoodie low; his rangy body is marked with crude tattoos. It takes a second or two to realize that Run-D.M.C. were playing Applebee’s buffets by the time they were of Ninja’s vintage: he is closer to middle age than middle school. He raps in a scattershot mixture of English and Afrikaans; his accent is unfathomable. His lyrics reference the minutely specific to the hip-hop generic: “If you don’t like funerals, Ninja says don’t kick sand in his face,” recalls a South African peanut-butter commercial from the ’80s; “too hot to handle, to cold to hold,” fist-bumps vintage MC Hammer. The clue to Die Antwoord’s raison d’être hides in the intro of their astonishing debut album $O$, where Ninja informs us that, “I represent South African culture. In this place, you get a lot of different things…Blacks. Whites. Coloureds. English. Afrikans. Xhosa. Zulu. Watookal. I’m like all these different people, fucked into one person.” Then Ms. Vi$$er pipes in, dismissing him with a high-pitched “Whateva, man.”
For her part, Vi$$er has a voice like a band-saw powered by helium. She is, even by hip hop’s lofty standards, shockingly profane. (Afrikaans audiences have been appalled, which one assumes is the idea.) Diminutive, and weighing in at less than 100 lbs., she stalks the stage like a heavyweight boxer just before the knockout punch. When she spits out, “I’m the richest bitch with the nicest ass,” we’re inclined to believe her only on the second point. Vi$$er — like the band she raps for — is Afrikaans white trash elevated to performance art.
Zef-rap, the musical currency Die Antwoord have invented and trade in, is born of the badlands that seethe behind Table Mountain in South Africa’s second-largest city, Cape Town. Centuries before apartheid was institutionalized, the Cape flats were seen as the solution to what successive regimes considered to be the city’s most pressing problem, the so-called “coloured” population. The Cape coloureds are a racial mixture of the Khoisan people, white settlers, Malay slaves brought in by the Dutch, and blacks from other areas of southern Africa; their language reflects this mélange. They have long been considered a bastard race, and banished accordingly. (The most tragic of these instances was the razing of District Six that began in the late 1960s.)
The flats lie on a swathe of bitter, barren plateau. Its hoods are defined by rows and rows of single-storey brick houses, rusting chain-link fence, and coils of barbed wire. The streets are owned by the walking dead — crystal meth addicts, drunks, AIDS-emaciated wraiths. There is a vibrant gangland culture, a fuming streak of Islamic fundamentalism, and thousands of good families trying to make a go of it in the mayhem. As such, it is an incredibly rich cultural environment. Zef rap was birthed here, an ungodly potpourri of Top 40 hip hop, chintz house, rave music, DIY beat making, and bad techno. And this is where Ninja spent years, mining for meaning among the violence, the misery, the strong familial bonds — developing not just a style, but an entire persona.
What, one wonders, is an aging white musician from Johannesburg doing biting coloured style from the flats? Ninja’s story, like so many South Africans’, is defined by violence. His father was murdered in a carjacking; his brother committed suicide shortly after he matriculated. Before coming to Die Antwoord, he was a known entity in South African music, most notably with the intellectual hip-hop act Max Normal. Legend tells us that Ninja had his eureka moment when heard an awful beat thumping from a pimped ride driving out of the flats. He moved into the adjoining suburb of Durbanville, starting hanging with gangsters, got some prison tattoos, and gave himself the cheesiest sobriquet he could come up with.
“Rank cultural tourism!” wail the haters. In a country where the wealthy from Johannesburg’s northern suburbs take mini-bus tours of Soweto, a mere twenty minute’s drive from their homes, this sort of criticism is understandable. On Die Antwoord’s latest free download, “Jou Ma se Poes in ’n Fishpaste Jar” (don’t ask), Ninja tells us, “I hang with fuckin’ coloureds coz I am a fuckin’ coloured if I wanna be a coloured. My inner fuckin’ coloured just wants to be discovered.” Which is clearly more of a challenge than an explanation.
Yet understanding why Ninja chose the flats is essential to understanding Die Antwoord. There are, after all, other forms of South African rap, mostly notably kwaito, which had its coming-out party in the Oscar-nominated film Tsotsi. Kwaito belongs to the pantsula — the noble gangsta of the Highveld townships like Soweto and Daveytown, near Johannesburg. The form derives from the bubblegum pop of Brenda Fassie, the sharp horns of Hugh Masekela-era fusion, and gangsta rap.
Kwaito would — could — never welcome an Eminem. Music from the Cape flats is by nature more absorptive. Nonetheless, Die Antwoord take a culturally perilous left turn because Ninja has one more item on his agenda: He is trying to bridge two difficult, disparate musical legacies — coloured music with white Afrikaans hardcore.
When most people, South Africans included, think of Afrikaners, they conjure up a homogenous community blindly following the apartheid über-mind. Not so. There has always been a vibrant Afrikaans protest movement. André Brink and Breyten Breytenbach protested in poetry and prose, Rian Malan in prose and rock. After apartheid, Afrikaans culture predictably split into two cultural streams. One was nationalistic and confrontational, as in the hugely popular anthem lauding the Boer War Afrikaner hero Koos de la Rey. The other was an attempt to redefine Afrikaans culture and create a space outside of traditional nationalistic discourse. Bands like Fokofpolisiekar brought a hardcore punk sensibility to the conversation, and anti-art movements like Bitterkomix undermined Afrikaner nationalism and exceptionalism, viciously lampooning the rugby, barbeque, and lager set.
Die Antwoord are a rap act, certainly, but they are also a way-station along the lengthy road of this punk ethos. The links are clear — members of Fukofpolisiekar and Afrikaans junk-rapper Jack Parow guest on the album. But the differences are telling. Die Antwoord use the patois of the Cape flats, which swallows all, as their idiom. When the Guardian hastily compared Die Antwoord to London white trash garage rap, the paper missed the nuances of Ninja’s brilliant appropriation of Cape flats culture. Die Antwoord remind us in $O$ that South Africa is a mash-up nation. No South African community embodies this more than the Cape coloureds. They are black, white, English, Afrikaans, everyone. By moving to the flats and buying wholesale into local gangsta culture, Waddy is reframing South Africanism anew. While Afrikaans punks positioned themselves in opposition to the ultra-conservative, Calvanist ethos of die volk, what Die Antwoord are doing is not an act of rejection, but an act of embracing.
Ninja has sculpted, both with his flesh and his music, the ultimate South African. He is everything in the country, “fucked into one person.” That he is willing to go so far to embody this idea is thrillingly, gloriously radical. It is also an essential step for the South African generation tasked with healing, so that future generations can answer Mandela’s question — Can we one day unite and govern outside of race? — with a resounding “yes!” Every time Waddy’s wiry form grips the mike and he channels his “inner coloured,” Die Antwoord become an articulation of the country’s potential. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate this, the twentieth anniversary of one of the greatest days the world has ever known.
(Photo by Sean Metelerkamp)
Jason It’s a shame that this article is riddled with subtle errors and misunderstandings – some less subtle errors too. It seems as if Poplak thinks he knows South Africa better than he actually does.
Interesting take, Poplak. It makes me wonder how true the persistent rumours are – that at least one Cape Flats gang is determined to take Ninja out (preferably with a nail bomb) for appropriating their symbolism. I get the sense that the coloured community Ninja is drawing from are in equal parts uncaring and flattered by the attention, but that may not be universally true.
Sam what kind of errors Jason? please elaborate, I’m interested to know.
hugh Freedom day is 27 April. Anniversary ofelection in 1994.
Carina Richard Poplak was writing of the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, you idjits (that’s sommer anudder South Africanism on purpose – most critics of Poplak her just don’t get it anyway
Maris Not riddled, in my opinion. But it’s Fokofpolisiekar not Fukof…
Jason Error no. 1 has already been noted. Freedom Day is not celebrated on 11 February, but on the day of the first democratic elections, 27 April.
Jason No. 2: It’s “watookal,” not “watookals”.
Jason No. 3: Kwaito has in fact welcomed an Eminem, in the person of Lekgoa, latterly known as Snotkop.
Ali Snotkop was not as success as a Kwaito artist. He is mildly successful as an Afrikaans singer. There are some factual and spelling mistakes but this is the best effort so far to make sense of the new Waddy project. I think it sums up the complexity well. Thanks!
Gerhard Snotkop? you’re retarded
Jason No. 4: “When most people, South Africans included, think of Afrikaners, they conjure up a homogenous community blindly following the apartheid über-mind.”
This is utter nonsense. Afrikaners have a famous tradition of internal dissent, known, inter alia, as dwarstrekkery.
Afrikaner dissenters are legion. Think of Bram Fischer. Of Beyers Naude. Think of the tension that existed between the Anglophilic Jan Smuts and the hardcore Nationalists who ousted him in 1948.
Ali And then he goes on to say exactly what you are saying.
“Not so. There has always been a vibrant Afrikaans protest movement. André Brink and Breyten Brytenbach protested in poetry and prose, Rian Malan in prose and rock.”
I think you are just being a… let me rather no say it.
Jason No. 5: It’s Breyten Breytenbach.
Jason No. 6: As an Afrikaans-language author Brink has always been known as “Andre P. Brink”. (He translated all his own novels into English, and dropped the P for international audiences.)
Jason No. 7: It’s Fokofpolisiekar.
Jason No. 8: The juxtaposition suggests that Fokofpolisiekar and Bitterkomix were part of the same wave of dissent. They weren’t. The latter was a lashing out at the behemoth patriarchs of apartheid, in the late eighties and early nineties. Fokofpolisiekar is very much a product of the New South Africa.
Ali Bull. You are making something out of this juxtaposition. It basically says both groups were protesting. Look at the whole argument.
Jason No. 9: “In a country where the wealthy from Johannesburg’s northern suburbs take mini-bus tours of Soweto, a mere twenty minute’s drive from their homes, this sort of criticism is understandable.”
This statement is plain wrong. Soweto is increasingly seen by Jo’burg whites as just another suburb, endowed with its own malls and high-end shops.
I even know of a wealthy Sandtonite who attended at a clinic at Baragwanath Hospital recently.
Lazy generalisatios are dangerous!
Jason Rian Malan has only ever really written prose in English, and has never been seen as an Afrikaner. Categorising him as part of the Afrikaner community is simplistic – something typically done by Americans.
Jason No. 11: “One was nationalistic and confrontational, as in the hugely popular anthem lauding the Boer War Afrikaner hero Koos de la Rey.”
Utter nonsense. Yes, some rightwingers embraced the De la Rey song, but it was made by an entirely middle-of-the-road boybander Sean Else, who repeatedly publicly disavowed any rightwing intent with the song.
Ali The fact that Else says he didn’t have any rightwing intentions doesn’t mean that the song doesn’t have rightwing intentions. It clearly has.
Sluiper Nice article. You’ve obviously done your homework even though you did get a few minor and inconsequential things wrong. I was turned on to Die Antwoord about 6 months ago by some friends and have since been to a few of their live shows (which are awesome). I’d like to think the conclusions you’ve come to are true, but I think that you might be ascribing motives to Die Antwoord that they never had in mind when they were making their music or sculpting their image.
Zef Afrikaans culture (or making fun of conservative Afrikaners) as a genre has been around for a very long time (see http://www.watkykjy.co.za or BitterKomix). Even in terms of music, Die Antwoord was not the first band to mock Afrikaner culture or assimilate coloured gang culture into their music, though they have done a much better job of it than others. Die Antwoord knew very well that a market existed for their style of music even before they started getting tattoos or gold-capped teeth. I think that Waddy and Yolandi, like most artists, worked hard at their music and had a bit of luck by being in the right place at the right time with the correct amount of internet exposure.
Even with all of the above said, I’m really happy that their music has finally been heard by a wider audience than a few disaffected South Africans.
kevin I think its Ironic that the world has embraced afrikaaner culture in the from of Wikkus van Der Merwe and “the ninja” but these are actually English South Africans (Sharlto Copeley and Watkin Tudor Jones)
Sluiper Your point is taken, Jason. Writing about something with which you are not intimately familiar is a risky business because there will always be people who nitpick every word you put down. In addition, I don’t think the Walrus Foundation has a fact checking division and neither was the author (Richard) hoping for a Pulitzer from this piece.
South African culture in general is extremely complex and understanding all the nuances between colour groupings and social strata is very hard, even for native South Africans.
I think Richard did a as credible a job as could be expected from an outsider looking in. This article is his opinion and having an external opinion is sometimes more valuable than an inside opinion. Rian Malan only wrote My Traitor’s Heart after spending a few years in the US, which is why his commentary on South African society was so important at the time.
Richard’s commentary is that of an Canadian looking at South African society and writing about what he perceives the truth to be. It is true that a lot of people see all white Afrikaners as a conservative group of apartheid lovers and struggle to understand that the internal conflicts and fissures that have opened up in the society during the last few years.
However many mistakes were made in the article, I think that the gist of it still conveys a positive message regarding South African culture.
Ali Agreed.
Philip How about doing a google search to check that Feb 11 is Freedom Day? The mistake was either done knowingly or is a reflection of extreme laziness.
It is interesting how people who don’t know Die Antwoord personally or intimately are trying to decipher them but more notably how the people really close to them just leave everyone to try and figure it out. Put more wood on the fire.
[...] Pitchfork: Is it true that gangs in the Cape Flats have threatened to kill Ninja with a nail bomb, as mentioned in this article? [...]
Vaughn There is another individual who took a similar approach to a musical persona, David Kramer. I always assumed he was of Cape coloured extraction when in fact he was an English speaking white. His roots and background seemed to go unquestioned and he was even the face of a very entertaining Volkswagen advertising campaign. He recently had massive success internationally with a stage production Kat and the Kings. He’s a really interesting character now that I have looked at Wikipedia, check it out if you are interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kramer
GQ Interesting article.
“Even in terms of music, Die Antwoord was not the first band to mock Afrikaner culture or assimilate coloured gang culture into their music, though they have done a much better job of it than others”
Thats precisely the point. Others have come before but can you name anyone thats had so much international recognition? The answer is no.
Its the same as as saying Eminem was the first white to break the rap scene. He wasn’t and there were many successful people pre him (house of pain 10 years before???)
B. and 3rd bass…beastie boys…the list continues
indieblogger Easy now whiteboys!
Am I the only one shaking my head in dismay at these fools? Does it not bother anybody that Die Antwoord is the only SA band garnering international acclaim besides perhaps bi-curious Paarlotones?
Shame on you! This is complete and utter crap! It’s neither funny nor clever. Personally, I reckon Jack Sparrow is a better rapper than these dudes, and he’s actually Afrikaans and zef.
CA I don’t listen to a lot of South African bands, and I do like Die Antwoord very much, but over the years many South African bands have gained worldwide success. Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Miriam Makeba come to mind, and I’m sure there are others. I don’t know, but I’d guess that South Africa has produced more internationally known bands than most countries. So it would seem your point is that it is wrong to listen to music by minorities (as whites are in SA). Is it okay to listen to music by African Americans? I like Natacha Atlas, but as a Belgian of Egyptian descent, she might be offensive to Belgians of a purer bloodline. Or maybe you don’t like that Ninja and Yolandi are not as poor as the Cape Coloureds who inspire their music. Neither are you, if you have a computer or enough to eat.
Or maybe you just don’t like white people. Shame on you.
Paul Mills Fabulous article… conjures up the most delicious South African fantasies. Thank you for that one.
Jaaaaaaaaaaa….
Boet, nice attempt, very well written and nicely articulated. You are, as people point out, missing a few important details (Durbanville, for instance, isn’t really a gangsta hometown), but overall you make a good argument.
Overall, though, I think you’re still missing the point. Try climbing out of the political ideologies and start writing from scratch ;)
Cyril Klopper Aside from the myriad of small factual errors I must congratulate Richard Poplak on a brilliant article. I am very impressed by it.
I may not be Die Antwoord’s number one fan but I am eternally grateful for their presence in South African culture. Long live Die Antwoord!
Steven Mills Very well researched, well done! There are some subtle errors but for someone writing from the outside surprisingly accurate.
Interesting factoid, cape coloureds often say humourously that they are from white people and black people “fucked into one person”. Kind of self-deprecating humour.
So when ninja uses this term, he is using a phrase that essentially defines being a coloured. Thats why Yolandi Vi$$er says “whateva!” when he takes it a step too far in defining his own invented persona!
“I represent South African culture. In this place, you get a lot of different things…Blacks. Whites. Coloureds. English. Afrikans. Xhosa. Zulu. Watookals. I’m like all these different people, fucked into one person.â€
A bit like an optimistic/bleak vision of the future where everyone has an outlook like coloured people because they too have been fucked into one person!
[...] over the last few weeks. The latest installment of international adoration came in the form of this piece in the Canadian magazine The Walrus – which gives quite a generous reading of the accusations [...]
[...] Pitchfork: Is it true that gangs in the Cape Flats have threatened to kill Ninja with a nail bomb, as mentioned in this article? [...]
Andy Fokken kwaai artikel my bru!
Jasper No one remembers the Prophets of Da City? SA, internationally successful, mocking Afrikaner culture,…
A huge fan of DieAntwoord from Antwerp, Belgium
Philip February 11 is not Freedom day you doos!! April 27 – the date of the first multiracial democratic elections – is Freedom day. Did you do ANY research before writing this ?
Capetonian To chime in with Jason, Cape Town isn’t “South Africa’s second-largest city”. Durban is, and Pretoria is in third place. CT is fourth!
liberation chabalala Although skeptical on first read, I think this article gets some of it right. Capetonians, insiders, will worry about appropriation. Never mind. Die Antwoord’s is a brilliantly unpredictable implementation of that strategy, and congratulations are due. More importantly: what they are doing, in their own uncertain, inarticulate way, is to claim that broke is the new black. That, I say, is progress.
liberation chabalala I retract the previous comment and second Rustum’s more thoughtful response here: http://penguin.book.co.za/blog/2010/02/19/richard-poplak-writes-on-die-antwoord/
Theuns Opperman Great article and contributions.
Mark Richard Poplak is an ex-South African so he’s not totally an outsider looking in.
Liesl Rustum Kozain over at BOOK SA comprehensively interrogates more than just spelling errors in this article:
http://penguin.book.co.za/blog/2010/02/19/richard-poplak-writes-on-die-antwoord/#comment-25813
[...] Ninja has sculpted, both with his flesh and his music, the ultimate South African. He is everything in the country, “fucked into one person.†That he is willing to go so far to embody this idea is thrillingly, gloriously radical. Cape Flats Calling | The Walrus [...]
[...] into one person.†Then Ms. Vi$$er pipes in, dismissing him with a high-pitched “Whateva, man.â€Complete article at The Walrus BlogBook detailsJa No Man: A memoir of pop culture, girls, suburbia… and apartheid by Richard [...]
[...] apparently endless, staggeringly well-argued commentary and hate mail. Woe is me, and all that. The reaction to “Cape Flats Calling,†my Walrus Blog post on the so-called Zef-rap outfit Die Antwoord, [...]
[...] of Mr. Poplak’s response, it should be clear to anyone willing to resubmit to reading his original piece and my long comment on it, that he has not read my original comment with the required perspicacity, [...]
[...] of Mr. Poplak’s response, it should be clear to anyone willing to resubmit to reading his original piece and my long comment on it, that he has not read my original comment with the required perspicacity, [...]
I don’t know what is true since I come from Belgium myself but I really like Die Antwoord! Ity brings positieve vibes of South Africa to Europe so thats good right? Hope to see you soon here in Belgium!!! May have a nice tip for the fans i found out about today: http://www.dieantwoordzeflings.com Are there more cool fansites like this? Keep up the good work!
[...] endless, staggeringly well-argued commentary and hate mail. Woe is me, and all that. The reaction to “Cape Flats Calling,†my Walrus Blog post on the so-called Zef-rap outfit Die Antwoord, [...]
[...] history, Nelson Mandela walked away from Victor Verster Prison a free man. February 11* is a hallowed day in the local calendar. It may therefore seem inappropriate to profile a noisy, [...]
Vladimir | Don’t worry man true spirit of this art will never die! there are a lot of us that don’t give a shit about money, commercial, and selling out YEARS and years and years of training ! we all invest tremendous amount of time to...
Dan Iaboni | Hey man… Someone who scans google (i guess) linked me to this article. If you are still in the Toronto area, come over to the MonkeyVault sometime and play, its on me!
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Rob | The main problem with Vancouverites is that most of them have never left to experience life outside of Vancouver. This combined with the constant bombardment of how Vancouver is one of the top cities to live in the world leads to the...
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hollyandholly | http://hollyandholly .com/2010/08/29/see- holly-its-not-us-and -it-is-us/
Janet Wilson | I have not seen the film, but did hear the CBC interview with the filmaker with Jian Gomeshi on Q. There are two things I have to offer to the discussion, one on the “family” side, one not. First, in the nature vs....
