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Title:Die Antwoord and a delegitimised South African whiteness: a potential counter-narrative?
Author:Scott, Claire
Year:2012
Periodical:Critical Arts: A Journal of Media Studies (ISSN 0256-0046)
Volume:26
Issue:5
Pages:745-761
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:musical groups
popular music
Afrikaans language
identity
Whites
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560046.2012.744729
Abstract:This article explores the potential for the ostensibly marginal discourse of Afrikaans zef rap rave, as performed by the band 'Die Antwoord', to present a meaningful 'counter-narrative of nation' (H.K. Bhabha, 1994) within a South African context in which 'being 'white' is replete with dissonance' (M.E. Steyn, 2004: 122). Die Antwoord is an Afrikaans zef-rap-rave band which is 'taking over the interweb' and has garnered a fair-sized fan-base both on the Internet and through live gigs. The band's image is 'zef' or 'common', making use of an amalgamation of 'white trash' and 'Cape coloured gangster' signifiers. This, however, is a carefully crafted appropriation of a particular mix of marginalized South African identities and, as such, offers fruitful material for analysis. In order to explore whether Die Antwoord does in fact suggest new narrative strategies that are able to simultaneously construct, resist, maintain and challenge dominant discourses of white identity in South Africa, the article first briefly situates Die Antwoord within a broader historical framework of alternative music production, and second, examines the performance of the band from within the discourse of 'critical whiteness studies'. Finally, the performance and lyrics of Die Antwoord are explored in light of the strategies of irony and the carnivalesque, in order to suggest whether they do in fact offer a 'counter-narrative of nation' or if they merely reinforce dominant discourses of white South African identity. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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