Blackface/Blackbodv -Die

Blackface/Blackbodv
a class-based
Zef
States
and,
Racechange
Chechit. Hundred per cent South
Afican
rlffirent
people fuched
into
In this place, lou get a lot of dffirent things, Blachs,
Zulu, watookal [whateuerJ. I'm lilee all tbese dffirent things, a//
cuhure.
whites, coloureds. English, Afrihaans, Xhosa,
these
model.
It
is
in the 1950s and c
rely on appeals to ethnic
o/?e person.
-Die
Antwoorcl, Enter the
Nin$
(2010)
Die Arrwoord has attracted rnuch attention in the field of critical zuhite sttdies for its atternot
to pioneer what they caIl "Ze[" culture. Zef , which loosely translates as "common" or "kitsch,"
is a zuhite South African culrure that attempts to glorif' the lifestyle of a zuhite, predominantly
Afrikaans-speaking working class, and to align it with certain aspects of coloureil gangster culrure.Aesthetically, this translates to a union between markers ofa threadbare lifestyle and an
ernphasis on street toughness. Media scholar Adam llaupt sees Zef 's cultural currency as especially potent now due to the seismic cultural changes in SouthAfrica since the fall of the aparrheid government. These changes include the new position of whites as an electoral minoriry
but also the adoption of neoliberal economic policies that have rended to reward the zuhite
English-speaking middle class while allowing wealth disparities to pelsist along language and
racial lines (2012:4).I-Iaupt calls Zef, particu.larly as articulated in the work of Die Anrwoor.d,
a reminder that "not all Afrikaans people aspire to niddle-class respectability" (1 15). Concurrently, sociologist Melissa Steyn contends that within South Africa "it is appropriate to tirink in
terms of whitenesses ratl:'er than whiteness," indicating that divisions exist within uhite cttltwe
cuttirlg across lines ofclass, language, and location (2001:xxx). Considering Flaupt and Steyn's
analyses of contemporary white culture in South Africa, Zef appears as a conscious effort on
behalf of whites of differing positionalities to dissociate from the middle-class English-speaking
establishment.
Steyn argtes that since 7994,zuhites have experienced a "gappiness" in identity; different groups are "selecting, editing, and borrowing from the cultural resources available to thern
to reinterpret old selves in the light of new knowledge and possibilities, while yet retaining a
sense of personal congruence" (2001:xxii). After interwiewing dozens of white South Africans,
Steyn identified a prevailing narrative of their racial self-perception, which she titled "I Don't
Wanna Be White No More." This, she arg-r.red, "recognize[d] that the tide has rurned for whites
and that [...] 'blackis the color to be"'(121).Yet, Stelm notes, these narratives are told bypeople "who are so in the grip of whitengss that they cannot dissociate themselves from it" (121). It
is within tlris identity struggle thatZef makes an intelvention, attempting a racial project that
not only acts in conjunction with the peiception that "white is not tl.re color to be" but also utilizes representations oflacial crossings in order to construct the possibility ofdissociating from
a zuhiteness perceived to be biologically immutable.
of social position. llori e
uous, especially when co
logical) ways in wl-rich rr
As sociologist Deborah
I
Leading architects oi
race, explicitly lecoe-r
sions. Race, in tl-reir r
of prevailing social cr
Quite simply, biologl n,
United States; rather. r:
sense,)' as is nade clear
rigid racial categolies tl
A white person is onl
son, but does not inc
is generally accepted
A native is a persi
inal race or tribe oi,
A Coloured perst
200 1:56)
I fre law s l'.tletol'Ic rere
social gaze-a nodel .
a colom'ed peLson
in coll-
the start.
Thus, while Oni :r
stili has purchase for er
Thke, for instance, the quote front Enter the l{inja that begins this section: it expresses a posrracial fantasy wherein the white Nir\a may imagine a number of other ethnicities residing inside
lrim. While, to be ssre, this reifies the troubling notion of uhiteness as neutral-a p"r..piiort
that critical white sndies especially has sought to correct-it also attempts to explode racial fixity as an ciperative logic. In asserting that "I'm like all these different things, all these different
people fucked into one person," Ninja does not seeln to abandon his whiteness, especially in the
as he speaks these words, the camera briefly flashes images of body tattoos meant to evoke colouretJ prison cultule. Instead, Ninja tries to carve out a space for it within
non-white social formations by calling attention to self-deployed signifiers meant to mark him
as other.
video's context where,
rc
.q
a
>.
t36
For a US viewer, Ninja's performance of race-in its attempt to disidentify zuhitenesswrtlt
racial exclusivity and its simultaneous disavowal of markers of affluence through Zef-style references to coloureil gangster culrure-may seem to reject a biologically based model in favor of
Figure
2.
"The
Light\\'o''
Bryan Schmidt)
model. It is a shift similar to the one that Omi and Winant obserwe in the United
and early 1960s (1994:24-35). In this shift racial categorizations ceased to
tlre
1950s
States in
rely on appeals to ethnicity and instead moved towards identification based on historical trends
of social position. I{owever, viewing this as a parallel to the South African context Proves tenuo1s, especially when considering the baldly artificial (rather than purely biological or ethnological) ways in which racial categories were developed and managed in the apartheid system.
a class-based
,.nt things. Blachs,
,' rltese d.ffirent things, all
i
Enter the Ninja (20101
rudies for its attempt
common') or "kitsch,"
.'/.'ire, predominantly
gangster culbare lifestyle and an
rural currency as espe',tl oMecl
the fall of the apartelectoral minority,
r reward the white
t along language and
rrk of Die Antwoor:d,
bility" (1 15). Concut'rppropriate to think in
t n'idrin white cuJtrre
ce
r
ing Haupt and Steyn's
conscious effort on
-class English-speakine
i.l.-tia.,-liffo"rces available
to them
;r'hile yet retaining
a
:i,'ite South Africans,
ch she
Le
titled "I Don't
As sociologist Deborah Posel argues:
Leading architects of the apartheid system of racial classification eschewed a science of
race, explicitly recognizing race as a construct with cultural, social and economic dimensions. Race, in their view, was a judgment about "social standing," made on the strength
of prevailing social conventions about difference. (2001:53-54)
Quite simply, biology never had the same operati;e authority in South Africa as it did in the
United States; rather, racial classification occurred through appeals to a generalized "common
sense," as is made clear in the Popuiation Registration Act of 1950, which established the
rigid racial categories that under-wrote the apartheid system:
A white person is one who in appearance is, or who is generally accepted as, a white person, but does not include a person who, although in appearance obviously a white Person,
is generally accepted as a Coloured person'
A native is a person who is in fact or is generally accepted as a member of any aboriginal race or tribe ofAfrica.
'
A Coloured person is a person who is not a white persolr or native person. (in Posel
2001:56)
The law's rhetoric refers not to scientific rigor in assessing a person's race, but rather to the
social gaze-a model of surveillance, rather than bioiogy or ethnicity. Furthermore, it defines
a colotrerl person in completely negative terms, erecting the category as an empty signifier from
the start.
Thus, while Omi and Winant's methodology for understanding processes of racial formation
still has purchase for examining SouthAfrica, to avoid projecting a IJS cultural logic onto a very
has turned for whites
told by peofrom it" (121). It
atives are
rselves
g a racial project that
rlor to be" but also utiiq' of dissociating from
)non: rt expresses a postthnicities residing inside
:utral-a perception
pts
to expiode racial f,t-
ngs, all these different
iteness, especially
es images
I
in the
of body tat-
out a space for it within
rs meant to mark
him
ridentifr
with
:
w h iteness
througlr Zef-style refbased model in favor or
o
o
7J
Figure
2.
"The Light World"
Brlan Schmidt)
in Fatty Boom Boom by Die Antwoord (2012). (Sneen grab
courtesy
of
n
€.
o
different context new terms must be used to define the paradigm shift initiated by the fall of the
(a white man
apartheid government (towards which Die Antwoord's racial project contributes). Posel argues
that under apartheid, race was seen as fixed, rather than mutable or individually mobile; in contrast, the post-apartheid eradication of formal discriminrtory strucrures and laws attempted
(with uneven success) to dislodge a notion ofracial fixity in order to enact progressive social
transformation (2001:64). Following this analysis, the paradigm shift that enables and is in turn
buttressed by Die Antwoord's racial project can be described in terms of a movement fron race
defined as essential to race as contingent. According to the latter, more contemporary model,
one's owtt display of racial signifiers takes on incleased importance, and the adjudication of the
administrative social gaze is diminished; a paradigm of race as contingent, then, is one more
fundamentally based on performance.
a
It
is as part ofthis project, the shift from an understanding ofrace as essential to race as
contiugent drat I see the blackface and blackbody makeup in Die"Antwoord's videos operating. Blackface,/body performs a racial absurdiry functioning to both textualize and fragment
the body of the performer so as to destabilize its fixed social categorizatton (Amkpa 2010:84).
But while such performances seek to dismantle traditional racial modalities, they must still
rely on accepted tropes to be legible in their social context. Susan Gubar employs the term
"racechanges" as a way of thinlcing through "the traversing of race boundaries, racial imitation or inpersonation, cross-racial mimicry or mutability" in performance (1997:5). Looking
at numerous examples in the US media-say, a white actor wearing blackface (AlJolson in fta
Jnzz Sittger 11927);Howard Griffin's Black Like Me [1964]), or a black actor wearing whiteface (Eddie Mulphy's "White Like You" sketch for Saturdal, Night Lizte [1989] and fiarure fi1m
Coming to Am,erica [1988])-GLrbar notes that racechanges "test the boundaries between racially
defined identities, functioning paradoxically to reinforce and to challenge the Manichean mea11ings Western societies give to color" (5-6). In other words, racechanges challenge racial fixity,
and also the rigidity ofbarriers between different racial distinctions based on shin color; however, they must anchor their crossings in already existing signifiers of race to be intelligible, and
so carry a risk of re-racialization.
Although Gubar's analysis is looted in the United States, since it hinges on terms of racial
fixjty and mobility tllat are consonalrt with how f have charactelized South Africa's shifting
racial paradigm, I propose that it presents a viable critical lens for examining Die Antwoord's
use of blackface in particular. Ffere, a reading of Fatty Boom Boom becomes necessary in order
to contextualize Die Antwoord's impiementation of racechanges. FIow are racechanges utilized witlrin the narrative of Fatty Boom Boom? FIow does the group locate white and non-white
in order to then tlaverse those"positions? And how, specifically, do gender, class, and sexuality
intersect with racialization in these portrayals?
Reading Racechanges in Fattjt Boom Boorn
There are three spaces of racechange inthe Fatty Boom Boomvideo that I'd like to examine. I
will call them, in order of analysis: "The South African city"; "The voodoo Lounge"; and ,,The
Black Gynecologist."
-lhe Fatry Boom
€
tr
o
q
>-
llB
Boom video begins by portraying Lady Gaga taking a tour through the caricatured streets of a nameless South African ciry. As her tour guide points out some of the absurcl
sights along the way-((2 pack of hyenas eating rubbish" off the streets, "a shop owner chilling with his black panther"-the first instance of blackface occurs. The tour guide announces:
"over here, we have some local musicians about to lcick some funky tunes," to which Gaga
responds (in flippant, valley girl-speak): "oh my God. Look at their freaky fashion.', The camera pans to Die Antwoord setting up for a street performance. Yo-Landi, in blackbody makeup
and wearing her yellow pickaninny dress, stares intensely at the passing tour van; Nnja, covered in white body paint glowers back as well. The drird member of Die Antwoord, DJ Hi-Tek
in rei
white robe and r
scrawled across th
drum iu a steadl',
,
i
t
the absurdity and
This first shot
and nation hlpen
foreground the nc
This in turn calls
ones whose white
by seems to aliena
.i,
cOlOr-we're lool
the exoticizing gar
assigning the sing
xenophobic, shelt,
as
incisive within
position themselr'
ironically South
-i
The transvesti
and concomitantl
sexuaiized as hlpr
revealing cheerler
Ninja will use arr
dick out an piss o
Die Antwoord ali
3. Blogger Jean Barl
in each Die Ans
In Fok Julle l\raai'
rowed brow and,
homophobic tir:,
racechange uses:
It
is
worth nct
a response video
Hi-Teks rap. T!:
he clairns the ..
c
In this respons:.
masculinig'. It :
No attempr is r
it seeks to dell:t
IJS cousume r.
4. Beginning s it,residing in the {
group presenti
music projects
I
colsidering th;
urbs during ap:
5. The
"'Fatq'
Bo,
population in i
taking inspirari
tional dance,
ar
(noisey 2012c)
red by the fall ofthe
iutes). Posel argues
Lrlll' mobile; in coniaivs attempted
r:ogressive social
r:bles and is in turn
r.ovement from race
:3rnporaly model,
:djudication ofthe
i:en, is one more
intial to race
as
ideos operatize and fragment
-\rnkpa 2010:84).
. rhey must still
nploys the term
:-s, racial imita.-s r
1997:5).
r--e
Looking
(AlJolson in
fte
s'earing whitei'll and feature fiim
L:ies between raciallr'
:: -\,Ianichean mean,-ienge racial fixity,
,r skin color; how,' be intelligible, and
,rn terms of racial
-\frica's shifting
g Die Antwoord's
::cessary in order
::cechanges
uti-
:tite and non-white
:lass, and sex.uaiity
rike to examine. I
r Lounge"; and "The
rr through the carirt some of the absurd
ihop owner
r
chill-
g-uide announces:
to which Gaga
tashion." The camblackbody makeup
r van; Ninja, cov,nvoord, DJ Hi-Gk
in real life),3 appears as a blach drummer played by musician Daniel Isele; he wears
white robe and mask evocative of the I(u Klux Klan, with phrases like "care," " joy," and "faith"
(a wbite rnan
a
scrawled across them. FIe too stares at the van carrying Gaga as it passes, slowly beating his
drum in a steady, ominous cadence. When the camera turns back to the van, Gaga (oblivious to
the absurdity and danger ofthe scene) announces: "I should get them to open for me."
This first shot of Die Antwoord in the bright cityscape immediately makes signifiers of race
and nation hypewisible: Ninja's whitebody and Yo-Landi's blackbody alongside one another
foreground the notion of racial crossing, as does Fli-Telc's black body in the white KI(K hood.
This in turn calls attention to Lady Gaga and her bodygtards' bodies, since they are the only
ones whose white flesh is visible. Die Antwoord's long stare-down at the tourists as they pass
by seems to alienate the group, as if to say: "We see you looking at us like pieces of local
color-we're looking at you too. You don't belong here." In this moment Die Altwoord returns
the exoticizing gaze they read into Gaga's invitation for the group to open for her tour. By
assigning the singer her stylized Valleyspeak, they locate US Americanness as at once oblivious,
xenophobic, sheltered, and white. The charged encounter marks Gaga and her coterie's whiteness
as incisive within this fantasy South Africa, a move that allows Die Artwoord to contrastingly
position themselves as ensconced residents of the areaa-as dangerous, as authentically and
ironically South African, and, critically, nln-whhe.s
^s
The transvestism used to mock Lady Gaga (who identifies as bisexual) also others her here
and concomitantly heteroser-ualizes the South African city; Yo-Landi and Ninja in turn become
sexualized as hypermasculine and -feminine through their dress ([o-Landi soon appears in a
revealing cheerleader outfit), movements (she will later shake her backside at the camera while
Ninla will use arm movements to simulate waving around his penis), and lyrics ("I whip my
dick out an piss on all dis horrible fokken rap"). In this first racechange, then, the members of
Die Antwoord align thernselves with an imagined non-white South Africa and dissociate from an
3. Blogger Jean Barker notes that although the musical work of DJ Hi-Tek is done by white artist lustin de Nobrega
in each Die Antwoord video different people play the character ofDJ Hi-Teh, including non-uhita (2010).
In Fole Julk Naaiers for instance, Hi-Tek appears with a grotesquely warped face (including a massively furrowed brow and gigantified lips) and is called "my nigga' by Ninja (DieAnnvoord 2011b), He raps an infamous
lromophobic tirade launched 6y blackboxer Mike Tyson against a reporter in 2002 (methmatix69 2009); this
racechange uses homophobia as an anchor to locate blacknex,
worth noting that just before the premiere of the Foh Julle Naaiers musicvideo, Die Anrwoord created
(Dle Anrwoord 201 1a), to explail to US viewers the use of the word "faggot" during
Hi-Telis rap. The explanation, spoken by Ninja) centers on two points: first, DJ Hi-Tek is himself gay; second,
he claims the word "faggot" no longer has ary power over him: "He's talcen that word and made it his bitch."
In this response, then, the self-conscious use ofhomophobic language in Fok Julle Naaisrs becomes a marker of
masculinity. It posits a reclaiming of selfhood through the specter of male rape (malcing the word his "bitch').
No attempt is made in the video to ternper its alignment of b/ach male toughness with homophobia. Rather,
it seeks to deflect Die Antwoord's own culpability in trafficking discourses that are potentially offensive to the
It
is
a response video, laggot
US consumer.
4. Beginning with a 2011 interview with Top Billing, Die Anwoord members have often presented themselves as
residing in the Cape Flats, a poor, Afrikaans-speal<ing area of Cape Town primarily populated by non-whites. fhe
group ptesellts itself(and often is presented by interviewers) as coming directly from this arca, yet analysis ofpast
music projects shows that this is not true. The politics underlying such representations are extremely problematic
considering the history of the Cape Flats as a relocation area for non-whiras displaced from white-designated suburbs during apartheid.
5. Tlre "'Fatty Boom
Boorn'- The Making Of" video further reinforces this notion by highlighting theheavy blach
population in the area where they filmed dre video. Die Altwoord stage themselves interacting with the locals,
taking inspiration for their wild dance moves by observing the "spirirual" movemenr of a woman doing a traditional dance, and being endorsed by a group oflocal black childten who excitedly shout into the camera: "Zefl"
(noisey 2012c).
U
o
2
o
o
o
E
€.
139
country to
a homog
imaginary.
The final racech
will
discuss takes pl
in the
Gaga, after scurryir
the dangerous citl':
an interlude
the office of a blnck
gist. Lying back, he
r-ups, she whines as
examines her: "I'r'e
having the weirdest
I get hijacked and n
something realll' 1y1
down there. I think
picked something u
tor continues his
Figure
3.
"7he voodoo Lounge"
in Fatty Boom Boom
by Die
Antwoord (2012). Mnja in a grass shirt
(center). (Screen grab clurte$t of Brytan Schmidt)
imagined white Untted States, but they do so by pejoratively aligning whiteness with homosexuality and affixing signifiers of heteronormative virility to non-whiteness.
The video later moves to the dark "voodoo Lounge" setting (named this by the group
[noisey 20t2c]), which is juxtaposed to the bright "South African City" through the use of editing techniques that rapidly and repeatedly cut between the two. In the Voodoo Lounge, which
has a metallic black-and-white aesthetic that gives the effect of an x-ray or photo negative (art
direction by Roger Ballen), Ninja, Yo-Landi, and other dancers appear painted in fulI blackbody.
\44rile Ninja raps straight out to the camera-shirdess, grounded in a powerful pose, and wear-
ing
skirt seemingly meant to evoke a generalized resonance of indigeneity-the dancers
sashay around him in a circle, ecstatically twisting their hips and waving their arms as if part of
an imagined shamanic ritual. The choreography cites the fantasy of a tr.ibal "dark continent,"
a thoroughly patriarchal, exotici?ed, and sexualized space in which the women literally revolve
around the male as a sexual icon. Imitations of coloured gangster graffiti line the background
wall, anchorin g colourredness to this antiquated depiction of tribal Africa.
a grass
In addition to the way that Die Aatwoord pair coloured gallgster symbols with sexualized,
primitivist imagery in this setting, I also want to highlight the rnannel in which rhey intersperse shots of the dark Voodoo Lounge with shots of the bright South African City in what
amounts to a racechange in the aesthetic itself. Throughout the music video, whitebody figures
dancing in the South African City suddenlSr transform mid-movement into blackbody characters in the Voodoo Lounge, and the majority of the video is characterized by flashes back a1d
forth between these two aesthetics. White the South African Ciry operates as rhe space of narrative for the video-the location in which its entire plot takes place-the contradistinctive
E
F
qU
h
140
x-ray quality of the Voodoo Lounge marks the dark space as what lies beneath, a metaphysical
undercurrent. Painted with primitivist tropes and the site of even more sexualiy evocative dancing than the South African City, the Voodoo Lounge presents a hypersexualized construction of
indigeneity that appears as a hidden dimension of South Africa. Paradoxically, this construction
exoticizes Die Antwoord's imagined'South Africa by suggesting that to take an x-ray of a modern city would reveal a wild, "native" core beneath the urban veneer. Any link between Voodoo
and South Africa is tenuous at best, and so the "Voodoo Lounge" name discursivelv vokes the
\\
(
suddenly, he screan
recoils his hand in s
splatter of white go,
squealing, mucus-c(
cail a "Parktown pr:
simply looks at her
Although this scr
include blackface/bt
face/body, it still co
racechange by creat
composition intenti
to pose ltlack and -;'l:
contradistinction ro
The scene recreates
by white South Afiic
ist Anton I(annemer
Tbe Black Ctynecologi:
drawing of a bln& d<
ing his brow and s-e
that treads the line I
concentration and b
as he works betrleer
spread legs of a ztl:it
with a serene countt
Kannemeyer's
l.ork
challenging the assu
South Africa has ent
racial era by highligl
continued valencr- o
The Black Gynecologi:
6. Die Altwoord reveal
Clearly these videos :
group's semiotics.
country to
a
homogenized exotic
rma8rnary.
The final racechange that
will
I
discuss takes place during
in the song. Lady
Gaga, after scurrying through
the dangerous city streets, enters
an interlude
:,:_in
in a grass skirt
the office of a black gynecologist. Llng back, her leet in stirrups, she whines as the doctor
examines her: "I've just been
having the weirdest day. First
I get hijacked and now there's
something really weird going on
down there. I think I might have
picked something up." The doctor continues his work, when
suddenly, he screams out and
recoils his hand in shock-a
splatter of white goo flies onto the
Figure 4. A gynecologist (Kagiso Lediga) worhs on Lady Gaga (Herman Botha,
aka 'Ally Ooop"). From Fatty Boom Boon b1t Die Antwoord (2012). (Screen
grab courtesjt of Bryan Schmidt)
The doctor reaches his hand back in, and pulls out a
of king cricket prevalent in South Afi'ica that locals
call a "Parktown prawn." Lady Gaga cries out pathetically: "Oh my"Godl" as the black doctor
squealing, muctls-covered
insect-
wal1.
a species
simply looks at her in astonishment.
I
[,
..
zei:
with homosexu-
u :1s by the group
l=---ough the use of e dit-
'\-..iloo Lounge, which
F ,: photo negatiYe (art
r:'-nted in full
blackbodr-.
l:,-'r'erful pose, and wear-
i "geneity-the
I
dancers
-reir arms as if part of
fg:
:':l "dark continent,"
i= -,nen literally revolve
i -:e the background
rr.
,ls
=
rvhich they inter-
I
rvith sexualized,
\irican City in what
'r ::o, whitebody
fig-ures
r=:o blackbody charac-
ei
br' flashes back and
tr:.s as the space ofnar- --re contradistinctive
Lrreath, a metaphysical
r =r-ually evocative danc-
r.rualized construction oi
o.r- cally, dris construction
t --rke an x-ray of a modc-.' link between Voodoo
r Jiscursively yokes the
Although this scene does not
include blackface/body or whiteface/body, it still constitutes a
racechange by creating a visual
composition intentionaliy meant
to pose black and white bodies iL
contradistinction to one another.
The scene recreates an art piece
by white Soudr African artist Anton I(annemeyer entitled
The Black Gynecologist (2008),6
a
drawing of a hlack doctor furlowing his brow and wearing a look
that treads the line between deep
concentration and bitter anger
as he works between the stirrrLpspread legs of a white woman
with
a serene countenancc.
Kannemeyer's work is l'-.nown for
Figure 5. Black Gynecologist by Anton Kanneruelter (2008), (@ Anton
challenging the assumptions that
I{annemeyer courtesl Steuenson GalhrT, South Afica)
South Africa has entered a postracial era by highlighting the
continued valency of racial histories, prejudices, and imaginaries (Hirsch 2012).In the case of
The Black Gynuologbt Kannemeyer illustrates the irony drat in contemporary South Africa blacks
B
o
o
6. DieAntwoord reveals this once again in the "'Fatry Boom
Boom'-The Making Of" video (roisey 2012c).
Clearly these videos are not simply addenda to their music videos, but integral to understanding the
orn,,n'< cemintie<
t
6'
continue to find themselves in sewice to wbites, and that the professional enactment of this service requires them to stifle bitterness that pelsists from past oppression (McMahon 2011).
By placing Lady Gaga in the satne position as the anonymors white woman from Kannemeyer's painting, Die Antwoord casts her as the customer-the one presumed to hold the
power in neoliberal exchange relations. The scene symbolically identifies the white US citizen
as part of the apathetic upper class and the non-white South African as the seething worker who
serves them. Through Lady Gaga's unfortunate run-in with the Parktown prawn, Die Antwoord
also once again others whiteness by aligning it with foreign and sexual depravity; the group's
portrayal ofracial boundaries operates by representing the United States through implied sexual promiscuiryT and thus affixes heteronormativity to "authentic" South African identities.
These are not the only ways that racechanges operate ln Fatty Boom Boom, but they illustrate
the dimensions of how the device seems to work. On the one hand, racechanges perform the
possibility ofracial mutability by creating a space for the traversing ofsupposedly rigid racial
boundaries. On the other, to create this space artists must first locate the poles between which
they can travel, materializing racial positionalities .In Fatty Boom Booru Die Antwoord poses
whites as feminized, sexually deviant odrers, while aligning non-whites widr South African indigeneity and heterosexual virility. In all dris, Die Antwoord's own whiteness should not be forgotten,
since their employ of racechanges carries consequences in a South Africa in which the black and
coloarerl subjects they depict often face great obstacles to enacting their own racial projects in
terms of material inequities and lack of control within the global economy of signs-lingering
effects of the colonial project in which the US was intimately involved.
The Politics of Blackface in SouthAfrica
While Gubar's conception of racechanges allows for the possibility of nonlacist
face by both white and non-white artists, she is careful to illustrate
that
uses of black-
racechanges are historically situated and therefore carry ethical implications in their contexts. Siruating the
medium of blackface within South African history ploblematizes Die Antwoord's deployment
of it tn Fattl Boom. Boom. The fraught history of blackface within transatlantic colonialism both
highlights the video's ethical tensions and provides a crucial perspective on the transnational
dimensions of its engagement.
a1l
The roots of South African blackface lie in the United States. Beginning in 1848 with Joe
Brown's Band of Brothers, and continuing steadily throughout the 1850s and '60s, whiteIJS
minstrel troupes began to arrive in a Cape Town that was very racialiy diverse, with slave populations from Indonesia, Indial'Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia who had mixed with each
other and the local I(hoiSan (Thelwell 2013:68; Briihwiler 2012:129).These initial troupes
inspired mostly white Sorth African minstrel perforrnances that had similarly racisr overtones,
though there were some African and Creole troupes as well. In the 1880s, Orpheus McAdoo's
\4rginiaJubilee Singers, a Broup of black IJS minstrels, came to Cape Town and had a profound
effect on the local non-white population. The blackface minstrelsy form becarne a staple in
coloared entertainment, including a New Year's Day tradition that featured colourecl Capetonians
running through the streets dressed and,6nade-up as blackface minstrels. They called themselves
"Coons" (appropriating the telm from the racial slur used in US minstrel performances brought
to SouthAfrica), and this began the tradition of the Kaapse Klopse, the Cape Coon Carnival,
which continues today (Briihwiler 2012:130). Benjamin Briihwiler notes: "The Coon character and blackface makeup remained of considerable significance to the Cape coloureds and only
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6
E-
I+2
7. In a video responding to criticism a6ott Fatty Boom Boom,Nlnja cryptically explains the significance ofLady
Gagas turforttLnate run-in with the prawi: "[T]he point is that if you...'bite'too nuch, you're gonna getgaggas Ibugsl up your...'tutu"' (noisey 20i2b). I take the insect imagery here as an allusion to venereal disease.
Considering the sexual imagery often deployed in Lady Gagas own music videos, it seems as if Die Antwoord's
use of the bug is meant to paint her sexuality as groresque or depraved-a kind of slut-shaming.
since the end of a;
mance practices"
zuhite popu,Iation t
to a "diaspora con
the shared sense c
Cape Coon Carni
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gether for manr- ir
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gins in the US cor
Martin notes:
In South Afric:
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\
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ferent than in the
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United States and
ient trends ofviolt
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into the template
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ect. Furthermore.
to mass-market is
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ates the historical I
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<
r
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text, the histon ar
free of hazard.
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r
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ence (rather than .rr
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