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De La Rey lives again
| Date: |
18 February 2007 12:00 |
| Producer: |
A2 Productions
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
De la Rey, De la Rey, the chorus echoes around the country as Afrikaans singer Bok van Blerk performs the hit at show after sell-out show.
On campuses, at school sports meetings, at garage braais, the song has taken the Afrikaans speaking community by storm. It's even given birth to a new label for young Afrikaners: the De la Rey generation.
Max du Preez (Columnist): 'There is an element here I think of a search for identity, of a search for pride.'
Author, columnist and former editor Max du Preez has been one of many analysts debating the unprecedented popularity of the hit dedicated to Anglo Boer War General Koos de la Rey.
Max: 'They had to go back 100 years to find a hero to praise because there was nothing in between. After the Anglo Boer War there's nobody in Afrikaner history that you can glorify apart from maybe Frik du Preez and Mannetjies Roux ... rugby players.'
Ruda Landman (Carte Blanche presenter): 'So who was this man? The history books tell us about a man who resisted going to war, but once the war had started turned into a courageous and enterprising commander. In the context of this song, however, he's become much more. He's become a symbol.'
The legend of De la Rey is the stuff movies are made of. In the Boer War, he was an Afrikaner messiah in a leadership crisis. And, in 1914, the nation - again rudderless - turned to De la Rey, their leaders either dead, retired from politics or seen to have sold out to the British. Once again, De la Rey tried to avoid war.
[Praying in film] Koos De la Rey: If You have chosen me to die for my country, I thank You.'
The rebels resisted the Union government's support for Britain's First World War efforts. They wanted a republic, free of British rule.
[From film] De la Rey: 'These are uncertain times, and we can't afford to be divided. That's why I ask that all of us pledge allegiance to the government.'
Even in 1914 crime took its toll on the nation. The Foster Gang, a vicious band of outlaws, terrorised good citizens. Police seemed powerless. And De la Rey, trying to get to Potchefstroom one night, rushed through a police roadblock. It is thought his car was mistaken for the Foster gang's.
[From film] Man: 'You have killed General De la Rey.'
But for many of Bok van Blerk's fans De la Rey lives again. Van Blerk is clear: he does want to send a message.
[At concert] Bok van Blerk: 'I'm proud of my language and culture. Are you?'
Bok: 'There wasn't much to be proud of. We were told, and I know Apartheid wasn't right, it wasn't good. That was the guilt we grew up with. They said, 'You were wrong, you were wrong, you were wrong'. And it's not nice to carry that burden around on your shoulders.'
Van Blerk struck a chord, says Sunday newspaper editor Tim du Plessis. The song has sparked a public debate that has exploded onto the pages of all the Afrikaans newspapers and has even spilled over into the English media.
Tim du Plessis (Editor: Rapport): 'Many people in the Afrikaans community are these days looking at the country and they say 'I don't feel at home in this country anymore' and now ... this very song about their past about a very respected and almost a revered figure from their past a very catchy tune and they say 'I listen to this song and I experience a sense of belonging'.'
Depending on whom you believe, the song either hails a new struggle for the Afrikaans speaking community or a call to arms for the rightwing.
It's either a seminal quo vadis moment for a group trying to find their place in a new South Africa - or a resurgence of nationalist pride.
Or, maybe, it's just an innocent folk song.
Sean Else: 'It's really a folk song that looks back to an important time in our history we should cherish. Today's school history books have only a tiny paragraph on the Anglo Boer War.'
Sean Else and Johan Vorster own the record company that produces Van Blerk. Else asked Vorster to write a song about a Boer War general.
Sean: 'It could have been about De Wet or De la Rey. Any of the great generals.'
Ruda: 'And Johan what did you think when Sean said write a song about a Boer general?'
Johan Vorster: 'For me it's about the melody. You can't make Kemp rhyme. You can't make Beyers rhyme. Much less some other surnames.'
Accidental hero or not, Du Plessis says De la Rey has sparked a welcome cultural revolution.
Tim: 'It's indicative of the migration of the Afrikaans community from the old South Africa to the new South Africa. It has to do with the fact that people in the Afrikaans community are starting to find their voices and this is especially in the younger generation.'
Dr Andries Bezuidenhout (Sociologist): 'In a way this is about finding victimhood for Afrikaners. They're seen as these perpetrators of history and what the Anglo Boer War gives them is victimhood ... it's trying to get away from ideas of guilt and historical guilt.'
Sociologist Andries Bezuidenhout is Roof of the alternative rock band Brixton Moord en Roof Orkes. He too performs to young Afrikaans crowds.
Dr Bezuidenhout: 'The parents are the ones who would have become the mayors, the ministers, the CEOs and they feel that that's been taken away from them. They're bitter, and their kids don't remember Apartheid, they didn't grow up under Apartheid so they get this nostalgia from their parents about the good past and that's poison. That's a poisonous combination. So I think that in part explains the deep, deep feelings of insecurity and a sense being threatened.'
Max: 'Afrikaners don't have a cause anymore. Afrikaners have become their only cause, Afrikaans the language and then stuff like affirmative action, crime and stuff.'
Max du Preez doesn't like the song - or the impact it has.
Max: 'There's not a word about black people in it. And while the song is in no way racist, it manifests itself - when young people stand there - when they sing about how nasty the British were to the Boer women in the concentration camps, and how general come and lead us, we will fall around you, they're not thinking about the British, they're thinking about black, the enemy is now black.'
Tim: 'It's unfair on the Afrikaans community whenever they want to do something that is an expression of their cultural identity to say they have a rightwing backlash here. Is there a big problem are there Afrikaners mobilising again. I think it's unfair. It simply not happening.'
Minister of Arts and Culture Dr Pallo Jordan has repeatedly been asked for comment on De la Rey and the Apartheid symbols appearing at Van Blerk's shows. Jordan defended Van Blerk's freedom of speech and even the song, but has warned against the message being hijacked by rightwingers.
Bok: 'It makes me a little angry, but I can't say what people should wear or what flags they can carry'.
Van Blerk has distanced himself from the old South African flag. And yet he played at a show in Orania this weekend and a while ago even agreed to meet one of the Boeremag treason trial accused, Lets Pretorius.
Bok: 'He thanked me for what we are doing and for the song. He asked me to perform for them. I was busy and I declined.'
Ruda: 'But you would got to a Boeremag audience?'
Bok: 'If they pay me, yes. Why not?'
Max: 'Mr van Blerk and Mr Else who wrote the song are clearly so politically naïve and now they can't very well turn their back on the productv... there's a strong commercial influence and they don't seem to fully realise that there is the potential for this thing to be so hijacked to lead to things they don't agree with.'
Sean: 'What individuals think and how they interpret things, is not our responsibility...'
Andries: 'To now say they're not responsible for it I think is somewhat irresponsible. Let me quote another general, say Mao Tse Tung. If you start a fire in warfare you must know how to put it out.'
Ruda: 'Is this just a storm in an Afrikaans teacup or is it a phenomenon that could affect the broader South African community.'
The song depicts a nation that will rise up again. This, the writers say, is purely historical. There's no hidden agenda or message for today's youth. Besides, everyone agrees: it will take more than emotive images and stirring lyrics to move young Afrikaners from their comfort zone into a rebellion.
Max: 'The vast majority of those people who bought that record just bought it because they think it's a catchy tune. So it's not a hundred thousand people who are now militant. The kids standing in the hotels in the pubs with their hand on their heart and their wild eyes go outside and get into their BMW convertibles and they all sit with fancy cell phones. They're not suffering. It's an imagined suffering.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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