South Africa Features
South African Music
The sub-divisions within the South African music industry are enormous, and commence, as with everything else in South Africa, along the basic sub-divisions of race.
South Africa is a member of the Commonwealth family, a stem from the root of European colonial expansion, and as a consequence the nation is closely aligned with others such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and more distantly, the United States. What differs in the case of South Africa is that the indigenous races did not succumb to the genocide of alcohol, displacement, disease and social engineering as they did eslewhere. Therefore the white tribe of South Africa was forced to share it’s cultural landscape with blacks, reluctantly initially, but more generously as time went on, until today it is more a case of blacks sharing their cultural landscape with whites, and that, as many would agree, is as it should be.
Diversity of Styles
The result has been the growth of a wonderful mélange of different sounds and rhythms, of expressions, sentiments, styles and methods that are replicated nowhere else on earth.
The basic categories of black, white, Asian and coloured music have over the years splintered and diversified, with each at times lending and borrowing from the other, resulting in a multitude of overlapping influences.
This has thrown up some very peculiar concepts, such as the irrepressible 1970s musical Ipi Tombi, the Soweto String Quartet, Juluka, the Drakensberg Boys Choir, and such Afro jazz giants as Hugh Masekela, Dollar Brand and Kippie Moeketsi.
Date: June 21st, 2008 |
3 comments
Shootout at Sodwana Bay
Sodwana Shootout
You will be forgiven for thinking that the Shootout at Sodwana Bay is yet another cowboy style cash-in-transit heist gone wrong in this country with its voracious appetite for exotic crime. In fact it is nothing of the sort. The Shootout is an annual gathering of national and international SCUBA diver photographers and videographers at one of Southern Africa’s finest coral reef sites, Sodwana Bay in the Maputaland region. This beautiful, sweeping bay on the northern borders of the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Area, itself a World Heritage Site, is home to one of the most exquisite stretches of coastal waters north of the country’s shipping capital of Durban.
Date: June 3rd, 2008 |
No Comments
5 Reasons Why South Africa is Not Ready for World Cup 2010
The State of Disorganisation
There must have been from the onset a public relations hill to climb in the Fifa decision to award the 2010 soccer world cup tournament to an African country. Fair or not, Africa’s image abroad does not suggest the kind of economic muscle and logistical wherewithal necessary to stage an event of such international significance. This, however, is a prejudice, and does not take into account the fact that South Africa has a general transport and communications infrastructure that is by world standards impressive, and by African standards miraculous. However a recent report in the UK Guardian, suggesting that Fifa had put in place a £400 million slush fund against the high likelihood of a collapse of the 2010 World Cup, attracted just enough vitriolic denial from Fifa to suggest that it might be true.
British sports journalist Matt Scott, in an article in his Digger Column, reported that German insurance giant Munich Re was holding off on a decision to provide coverage for the event citing fears of inadequate progress, crime and insecurity, and an uncertain political climate. ‘The situation is quite difficult and fluid.’ Said a spokesman for Munich Re. ‘The problem is they need 10 stadiums and some of these are rugby grounds that are run down and in very bad condition.’
This, it would seem, is just the beginning, so how prepared is South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup?
Date: May 23rd, 2008 |
3 comments
Globe Trekker TV Features South Africa in February
At the start of each month, Pilot Guides Productions - which include such fine travel shows as Globe Trekker and Planet Food - lets us know about the new online travel shows they have featured as part of GlobeTrekkerTV. Each month you can watch the free preview video, and then download only the shows you want to watch. And this month, one of the programs featured in the free preview takes place in South Africa.
In a sample from a Globe Trekker program, Sami Sabiti tours the famous South African vineyards of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschoek, giving you an inside
…
Date: February 4th, 2008 |
1 comment
Southafricanisms: The Bunny Chow
The bunny chow was created in Durban (Which has the largest population of Indians outside of Bradford India) in the 1940’s.
The term Bunny Chow is derived from two words, Bunny (relating to Bhanya, the Bunny Chow’s inventor) and Chow (South African slang word for food)
Bunny chow consists of a quarter, half, or full loaf of bread with it’s centre removed and filled with your choice of curry made using traditional recipes from Durban, including mutton, lamb, chicken and bean curries (however the original bunny chow was strictly vegetarian).
Date: November 27th, 2007 |
No Comments
South African Literature
Growing up I lived and breathed the work of South African writers like Stuart Cloete, who chronicled the history of white South Africa in factual novels that appealed very much to a child steeped in the ideals of empire. Cloete related rather one sided tales of the Great Trek, the Anglo/Zulu War, the Anglo/Boer War, as well as the various sideshows and sub-adventures that all went to build the complex human mythology of white South Africa.
Wilbur Smith
Another in the genre of historical fiction was the extraordinarily successful Wilbur Smith, who created the renaissance hero Sean Courtney. The fictional adventures of Sean Courtney visited all the major events of South African history that could plausibly be slipped into the span of one man’s life. Smith’s were among the more racy versions of popular South African prose, compared at the time to Harold Robbins, and with such immortal explanations for large African backsides as the necessity for a heavy hammer to drive a long nail.
South African Literature
While this is great reading material - for a 12 year old at least - South African literature is a different animal, and as the maxim goes - that out of hardship and repression comes great art - so South African writers have produced a long and august body of work that once again stamps the nation as something more than just a run of the mill developing country.
Date: June 6th, 2008 |
1 comment
Violence, Crime and the 2010 World Cup
There was something a little ironic this week about the erstwhile doyen of the African National Congress, Winnie Maikizela Mandela, trumpeting her dismay at the wave of xenophobic violence that has, and continues to sweep through South Africa. Considering that her immortal contribution to the catalogue of English language quotes was …with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country… it would seem that Winnie Mandela has little grounds to express any particular shock or outrage. She was, after all, one of the principal architects of that ghastly South African practice of necklaceing.
Prejudice & Awareness
Hypocrisy aside, the horrifying imagery that has been blazed across broadsheets and computer screens worldwide seems finally to have shocked a complacent South African administration into acknowledging that a disease is rampant within its society. If the 2010 World Cup is to be saved, time is perilously short, but it is not too late.
The 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament is a Holy Grail to Africans starved of respectability in a world that is weary of the age old blight of Africa. When the award was made by FIFA in 2004 there was an air of grudging symbolism that failed impress a good many observers. Included among them was soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer, who shook his head, and expressed his doubts in terms of logistical capacity, but probably had reasons far more visceral and difficult to define to explain his pessimism.
Date: May 30th, 2008 |
No Comments
From the Kaapse Klopse to the Field of Dreams: SA Music Culture
Splashy Fen
Legend has it that two friends, Peter Ferraz and Bart Fokkens, were sitting around over a beer one evening in 1990, discussing the decline of the great music festivals of yore. Concluding that the moment had come to reverse this trend the two decided then and there to found a festival in the grand old tradition, and thus the Splashy Fen was born.
For those of you not already making plans to drive, hitchhike or walk to Splashy Fen farm in the Drakensberg, then it is probably too late to catch the opening acts, but the festival runs for four days over easter, so if you hurry, you might not miss the best of what is on offer.
South African Musical Diversity
Things have come a long way since the first ad hoc jam that launched the festival, and since then Splashy Fen has diversified it’s roots in folk nostalgia to embrace much of what defines South African contemporary music. Nowadays you can expect anything from the black styles of mbaqanga and iscathamiya, to alternative rock/pop, and to grunge, punk, hard rock and classical/jazz fusion. Overwhelmingly white, however, Splashy Fen is probably not for those looking for the quintessences of township jive, besides the mixed race big band and ska outfits made for easy and very general consumption. Splashy Fen made it’s debut as the brainchild of two men confronting middle age, and although it has razzed it up with some quite adventurous local beats since then – for it must said that South Africa, across the race spectrum, has plenty of those – it will probably be a disappointment for anyone hoping to tap into the rich black vein of South African city and ghetto music.
Date: March 21st, 2008 |
No Comments
2010 FIFA World Cup: Time to Start Planning
Between June 11 and July 11, 2010 South Africa will host the 19th FIFA World Cup, an international tournament for football. It would be the first time that the World Cup has been hosted by an African country.
The stadiums located in the following cities will host the events: Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg (two), Kimberley, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria and Rustenburg.
Date: January 23rd, 2008 |
2 comments
South Africa: Interesting facts and trivia.
Interesting facts and trivia about South Africa:
South Africa is a weird and wonderful place, read below some of out unique attributes and achievements.
1. South Africa has the oldest meteor scar in the world, just across the Vaal River near Parys, called the Vredefort Dome. The meteor plummeted to Earth nearly two billion years ago (Earth is said to be 4,5 billion years old), predating the heady days of oxygen and multi-celled life.
2. The rocks around Barberton in Mpumalanga are some of the most ancient in the world - over three billion years old. Because they are also the most accessible such formations, NASA scientists come here to gain an idea of how life might form on distant planets.
3. The Tugela Falls is the second highest waterfall in the world, where the water tumbles down 850 metres. First place goes to the Angel Falls in Venezuela at 979 metres.
4. There are 18 000 indigenous vascular plant species in South Africa of which 80% are uniquely South African.
5. Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world - and the largest green one. The Grand Canyon in the US is the biggest, and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia the second, but both are dry as bones.
Date: November 25th, 2007 |
No Comments
