SOUTH AFRICA: A WHITE AFRIKAANER FARMGIRL IS MESMERISING AUDIENCES WITH HER COLLABORATED TOWNSHIP KWAITO AND AFRIKAANS FUSION

Record ID: 852638

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: A WHITE AFRIKAANER FARMGIRL IS MESMERISING AUDIENCES WITH HER COLLABORATED TOWNSHIP KWAITO AND AFRIKAANS FUSION
  • Date: 7th January 2005
  • Summary: (L!2) VARIOUS SOUTH AFRICA (FILE - 1948, B/W) (REUTERS) MLV: WHITES PASSING UNDER EUROPEANS ONLY SIGN LV: BLACKS BOARDING BUS CU: PARK SIGN SAYING 'EUROPEANS ONLY' LV: TWO WHITE WOMEN SAT ON A BENCH LV: BLACKS HOLDING OPEN AIR MEETING CU: BLACK MAN AND WHITE WOMAN SHOWING PASSES THAT CLASSIFIED THEM RACIALLY (4 SHOTS) VARIOUS: BLACKS BURNING PASSES
  • Embargoed: 22nd January 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City:
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Arts,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAOPKL6FN9CLXZLXUTR1VJAK8V
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A white Afrikaaner farmgirl is mesmerising audiences with her collaborated township kwaito and Afrikaans fusion.
    Rea is the first Afrikaan female artist to collaborate with Kwaito artists Molefi and Lele, in doing a song called "Kwaito sprokie" that brings together Afrikaans, English and township talk.
    She made her stage debut as a three-year old in the role of Trouble in Madame Butterfly, alongside Afrikaans singing icon G Korsten.
    Despite the promising start, Rea had to labour for more than 20 years before she could achieve her dream of becoming a recording artist.
    Her father, a drama lecturer, and mother, an opera singer, didn't help her pursue her goal, because her father wanted Rea to go into business and not the arts. But eventually, he couldn't be an impediment in her daughter's dreams. "It's a theatre of unity, it's a theatre of healing, after the resistance. That's what is happening at the moment. I'm glad about Kwaito, oh yes, healing, the healing process of collaboration is important in this country and black and white always came together at the stage. We had to learn from each other concerning culture,"
    Abri Le Roux, Rea's father, told Reuters Television.
    Rea's songs reflect the country's chequered past with long-standing tensions between the White and the Black communities.
    Tensions came to the forefront in 1960 in Sharpville.
    Police in the township killed 69 blacks - including women and children - during a protest against Apartheid laws.
    Nelson Mandela's African National Congress was declared illegal. The massacre led to the ANC abandoning its policy of non-violence.
    In 1963 Mandela and other leaders were arrested and brought to trial one year later. He was jailed for life with hard labour. At that time a life sentence generally meant 20 years with time off for good behaviour. Mandela was to serve 27.
    More than 40 years later, Rea hopes her music will help South Africa shed the demons of its past and live together in an integrated society regardless of colour.
    Her perseverance has paid off and she is breaking new ground with a dynamic take on Afrikaans pop and rock. The Pretoria-based singer has released a CD, 'Hou My Vas,' in which she fuses Afrikaans pop and the funky and streetwise beats and lyrics of Kwaito.
    "I sing in Afrikaans and I am a boertjie and Lele understands. The whole thing is about accepting each other.
    The message is that there's a new generation that won't be held back by colour, culture and ethnic divisions."
    Mokatsane agrees: "It's about music and it doesn't matter where you come from."
    Rea has brought some funk into Afrikaans pop and rock liedjies with songs such as 'Ai Ai Die Witborskraai' and 'Solank as die Rietjie.' Gallo Records publicist Sumarie Fourie praised Rea, saying it was difficult to break through the language barrier that restricts Afrikaans music.
    One of a few Afrikaans artists to have a hit in the black market is David Kramer, who drove the dance floors crazy with his light-hearted and fun-to-dance-to Ons Doen die Kaapse Dans in the 1980s.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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