Video

Adam Haupt: Die Antwoord’s revival of blackface does South Africa no favours

Die Antwoord are Ninja (Waddy Jones), Yo-Landi Vi$$er (Anri du Toit) and DJ Hi-Tek, who has been played by different people in their videos. They market themselves as leaders of zef counter-culture, a supposedly Afrikaans working-class movement. Interestingly, they link zef – which apparently just used to mean “common” or “kitsch”, but now means “cool” – to 1980s white, working-class culture. In truth, however, Jones is neither working-class nor Afrikaans-speaking. All of his previous rap projects, none particularly successful and all in English language, included Original Evergreen, Max Normal, Max Normal.TV and Constructus Corporation. It wasn’t until Jones adopted the Afrikaans working-class persona, Ninja, that he hit pay dirt. And it is ironic that while Ninja borrows heavily from male, “coloured”, Afrikaans-speaking working-class stereotypes from the Cape, most Cape Afrikaans and Xhosa rappers have not achieved local and international success on the same scale as him. While ambiguous, Die Antwoord’s allusion to both working-class white and “coloured” stereotypes are cultural appropriation.