Interviews, results and discussion (part two)

Dylan Valley’s award-winning documentary, Afrikaaps, explores the racial and cultural identity of coloured people through the use of artistic and creative expressions such as film, music, dance and poetry. This interlinks with academic research and the formula of the documentary in order for coloured people to share their lived experiences and how they define themselves racially and culturally. The documentary explores the formulation of the coloured race by analysing the historical perspective of slavery and the reality of miscegenation. According to Cheryl Hendricks, the concept of miscegenation led onto coloured people being a hybrid group (Hendricks, 2001: 29). She discusses how the representations of those who were considered to be of ‘mixed’ descent are tied to racial and sexual politics and through this explanation, she makes an aside to the fact that the term ‘mixed descent’ has become a signifier of the coloured race within South Africa (Hendricks, 2001: 29).

It seems that with regard to the responses of the interviewees, the coloured youth of today prefer to ignore the concept of race and its validation of culture. This interlinks to what Bosch and Hammett stated in his article about coloured youth drawing on aspects of American hip-hop culture and popular culture in general. In order to understand why they listen to the type of music they do, I went on further to ask if the music that they listen to influenced their identity:




James: Um, jup, because I’m very involved with music and that is my interest so ja.



Shannon: I suppose so because like I said I don’t conform to one subculture or stereotypical identity so the fact that I listen to a lot of music kind of reflects that I don’t conform to one particular subculture or identity.




The answer given by Shannon seems to be relevant to most coloured youth today as they do not conform part of a particular culture but rather that they compose a culture from taking aspects from other cultures and making it their own. This means that both Bosch and Hammett are right and wrong in their argument of the coloured youth adopting American hip-hop subculture and popular culture as their own culture because the coloured youth of today also extract elements from other cultures to formulate their identity. In relation to both Bosch and Hammett concepts that coloured people draw on American pop culture and hip-hop subculture is debatable. There is no denial in the fact that it is evident within their culture but, however, it is also evident within other races, ethnicities, cultures and populations not only in South Africa but across the world. There seems to be a monoculture to which all people are able to relate. This monoculture is an influence, and extension of, Western culture and, more so today, Americanisation. Nevertheless, the influence is predominant in the coloured youth:




Matthew: Do you think that music has just become a form of entertainment or do you feel that it still has an impact on communities?


Mogamat: It’s definitely become a form of entertainment.


Matthew: Why?


Mogamat: If I asked my friends why do you listen to particular music, like the majority of my friends will say because they enjoy it. Not because it has anything to do with their community. I don’t think the younger generation of today particularly listen to music for any other reason but for enjoyment. However if you had to look at the older generation like my grandfather or my father’s friends or whatever, they would say they enjoy music that relates to their community such as the coloured community where listen to Jazz and Blues and all those other things. And this thing that goes on in Cape Town . . .


Matthew: Ghoema?


Mogamat: Not Ghoema, this thing man. Um, the Klopse.


Matthew: The Klopse, ja, the Minstrels.


Mogamat: Yes, they like that so. I think there’s a difference between the youth and the older generation. Or that’s just my opinion.




It is not only shown that the cultural aspects of coloured identity are changing but it also reflects the monoculture of Americanisation is evident in the fact that the interviewee does not like South African music despite being a South African. Race has been replaced by the concept of class as an individual is not determined by their skin colour but rather by their ability, education and wealth. This, however, leaves out those living in poverty regardless of race. Erasmus explains that while wealthy black South Africans are maintaining high standards in education and employment, poor black South Africans are still suffering and feel alienated from their wealthier counterparts (Erasmus, 2005: 12) This results in the two conflicting classes being labelled defamatory names by their counterparts, such as “coconuts” and “dusty-crusties.” (Erasmus, 2005: 27) With regard to coloureds and their identification of themselves, the concept of class is related to their choices in other trends which they follow. Whether they were popular culture, fashions or any forms of trends:




Matthew: Do you follow any other trends that are considered pop culture?


Carla: Pop culture? What do you mean? Like fashion?


Matthew: Ja, like mainstream fashion?


Carla: I think I do but I don’t think I follow, no. I would say I do but I don’t
follow something just because everyone else is following it. I will something because I will make it my own. And I will follow it because I will stick to it. I won’t follow something, like the way I dress, that will just be, that will always be the way I dress. You know what I mean.




Matthew: What other pop culture trends do you follow? If any, like mainstream line fashion or something like that?


Tasneem: Wow, none actually. I think that I’m very commercial that way. So whatever’s mainstream, if I like it, I’ll buy into it. If not, then . . . I think maybe that’s why I think that subculture’s . . . is not even applicable any more. Because I mean like something such as Die Antwoord which is meant to be something of a subculture but because it became such a huge frenzy, everything they doing now is actually quite mainstream so I don’t think there’s even place for something subculture these days.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hendricks, Cheryl, 2001, “‘Ominous’ Liaisons: Tracing the interface between ‘race’ and sex at the Cape,” Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities, Zimitri Erasmus (ed.), Kwela Books and South African History Online.

Erasmus, Zimitri, 2005, “Race and identity in the nation,” State of the Nation: South Africa 2004 – 2005, John Daniel, Roger Southall and Jessica Lutchman (eds.), pp. 9 – 33, HSRC Press and Michigan State University Press: Cape Town and East Lansing, 2005.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON DYLAN VALLEY - VISIT:
http://www.plexusfilms.co.za/team-detail.php?&teamid=212

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CHERYL HENDRICKS - VISIT:
http://www.impumelelo.org.za/who-we-are/trustees/dr-cheryl-hendricks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ZIMITRI ERAMSUS - VISIT:
http://www.soc.uct.ac.za/erasmus.html

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VIEW THE "AFRIKAAPS" TRAILER - VISIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYifENqE3hU

TO VIEW OTHER CLIPS OF "AFRIKAAPS" - VISIT:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Afrikaaps&aq=f

TO PURCHASE "COLOURED BY HISTORY: SHAPED BY PLACE" - VISIT:
http://www.amazon.com/Coloured-History-Shaped-Place-Perspectives/dp/1588681645/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311316928&sr=1-1

FREE DOWNLOAD OF "STATE OF THE NATION: SOUTH AFRICA 2004 - 2005" - VISIT:
http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2042&cat=1&page=3

Afrikaans, Afrikaaps and Kombuis Taal

Dylan Valley’s award-winning documentary, Afrikaaps, explores the racial and cultural identity of ‘coloured’ people through the use of artistic and creative expressions such as film, music, dance and poetry. This interlinks with academic research and the formula of the documentary in order for ‘coloured’ people to share their lived experiences and how they define themselves racially and culturally. The documentary explores the formulation of the ‘coloured’ race by analysing the historical perspective of slavery and the reality of miscegenation. According to Cheryl Hendricks, the concept of miscegenation led onto ‘coloured’ people being a hybrid group (Hendricks, 2001: 29). She discusses how the representations of those who were considered to be of ‘mixed’ descent are tied to racial and sexual politics and through this explanation, she makes an aside to the fact that the term ‘mixed descent’ has become a signifier of the ‘coloured’ race within South Africa (Hendricks, 2001: 29). The production and the documentary explore the roots of the Afrikaans language to understand how it came into existence. The director of the production, Catherine Henegan, explains how she wanted the production to explore the Java and Khoi-San roots in order to contextualise how they made a contribution to the Afrikaans language and its creation (www.citypress.co.za, 2011). She also aimed to deconstruct the ‘white Afrikaner identity’ because of the fact that Afrikaans was not a language that was formulated by the ‘white’ Dutch settlers but rather was a formation of creole languages combined with Dutch and aspects of other languages (www.citypress.co.za, 2011).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hendricks, Cheryl, 2001, “‘Ominous’ Liaisons: Tracing the interface between ‘race’ and sex at the Cape,” Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities, Zimitri Erasmus (ed.), Kwela Books and South African History Online.

ONLINE RESOURCE:

www.citypress.co.za/Entertainment/News/Afrikaaps-evolves-cuzzie-20100403

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON DYLAN VALLEY - VISIT:
http://www.plexusfilms.co.za/team-detail.php?&teamid=212

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CHERYL HENDRICKS - VISIT:
http://www.impumelelo.org.za/who-we-are/trustees/dr-cheryl-hendricks

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VIEW THE "AFRIKAAPS" TRAILER - VISIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYifENqE3hU

TO VIEW OTHER CLIPS OF "AFRIKAAPS" - VISIT:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Afrikaaps&aq=f

TO PURCHASE "COLOURED BY HISTORY: SHAPED BY PLACE" - VISIT:
http://www.amazon.com/Coloured-History-Shaped-Place-Perspectives/dp/1588681645/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311316928&sr=1-1

Coloured Identity and Zimitri Erasmus

An individual is defined by their identity, but what exactly does this mean? The concept of identity is one that is a broad context as it relates to a racial, cultural, societal and political identity. In South Africa, the term identity is a contested one especially with reference to the historical context of the country. Individuals were defined and segregated by racial groups under the apartheid system in order for the ‘white’ race to be the superior race. When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, the concept of racial identity was slowly being replaced the concept of cultural identity. One racial group in South Africa that was confused and never quite understood very well was the ‘coloured’ race. The term ‘coloured’ was given to a group of people who were of mixed descent and formulated through miscegenation. They were, on racial grounds, the mid-point between the ‘white’ and ‘black’ racial groups. Researchers of the ‘coloured’ race relate their roots back to the Khoi-San. Some elements, however, are not discussed with regard to their cultural identity.

The concept of ‘coloured’ identity is a factor that has been discussed in order to explore the historical perspective of South Africa and the people that live within it. This relates to the historical context of slavery and the domination of ‘white’ superiority in South Africa. Zimitri Erasmus explores the concept of ‘coloured’ identity in a book she complied of essays by various South African authors and academics titled, Coloured by History, Shaped by Place. Erasmus begins the book with an introduction where she explains the concept of ‘coloured’ identity and how it shapes South Africans who were defined by the term ‘coloured’ under the apartheid system. She uses her own experiences as a ‘coloured’ female to define the concept of ‘coloured’ by stating that she felt as though she was consigned to being a “half-caste outcast” (Erasmus, 2001: 13). She goes on further to explain that as she faced the possibilities of respectability and shame with regard to her racial identity as a ‘coloured’ (Erasmus, 2001: 13).

The term ‘coloured’ did not only relate to the racial identity of a ‘coloured’ person but also their cultural identity (Erasmus, 2001: 14). According to Erasmus, and the apartheid system in South Africa (Hendricks, 2001: 29), a ‘coloured’ person was considered to be more privilege than a ‘black’ person but “not quite [the] white” person (Erasmus, 2001: 14). The cultural identity of the ‘coloured’ has also been associated with negative connotations such as drunkenness and sexualised shame (Erasmus, 2001: 14). The identity, however, is reconstructed by the people themselves according to their beliefs, morals, values and attitudes. This, however, differs from one person to the next as there is no set definition as to what it is to be a ‘coloured’ person in South Africa. The label ‘coloured,’ therefore, is not only a term that was imposed on a group of ‘mixed’ race people by the apartheid system but is made, re-made and constructed by ‘coloured’ people themselves “in their attempts to give meaning to their everyday lives” (Erasmus, 2001: 16). Criticism of the ‘coloured’ race are, however, still prevalent and existent in South Africa. For example, ex-wife of former South Africa president F.W. de Klerk, Marike de Klerk, referred to ‘coloured’ people as a “‘negative group,’ ‘the leftovers,’ and as ‘people that were left after the nations were sorted out’” (Erasmus, 2001: 18). This is a result of why ‘coloured’ people are left with the problem of defining their racial and cultural identity.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Erasmus, Zimitri, 2001, “Re-imagining coloured identities in post-Apartheid South Africa,” Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities, Zimitri Erasmus (ed.), Kwela Books and South African History Online.

Hendricks, Cheryl, 2001, “‘Ominous’ Liaisons: Tracing the interface between ‘race’ and sex at the Cape,” Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities, Zimitri Erasmus (ed.), Kwela Books and South African History Online.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ZIMITRI ERAMSUS - VISIT: http://www.soc.uct.ac.za/erasmus.html

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CHERYL HENDRICKS - VISIT:
http://www.impumelelo.org.za/who-we-are/trustees/dr-cheryl-hendricks

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TO PURCHASE "COLOURED BY HISTORY: SHAPED BY PLACE" - VISIT:
http://www.amazon.com/Coloured-History-Shaped-Place-Perspectives/dp/1588681645/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311316928&sr=1-1