Blackface revealed less about black subjects and more about white racist projections of black identities. Blackface generated meanings that could not be controlled by black subjects, given that they did not have the means to provide competing representations of blackness. Historically, this has always been the case. In Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the America Working Class, Eric Lott writes that blackface minstrelsy was developed in 19th-century America when "white men caricatured blacks for sport and profit". It is white privilege that provides Die Antwoord with the means to "borrow" from aspects of black cultural expression and project colonial notions of blackness. Analysing blackface in gangsta rap, Michelle Alexander contends: "Today's displays are generally designed for white audiences." Like Wikus of District 9, Yolandi and Ninja "go native" by blackening up for profit and sport. I'm actually black, trapped in a white body." This echoes "Never le Nkemise" (off Ten$ion): "Ninja, die wit kaffir / Ja, julle naaiers / Skrik wakker". How do we read Yolandi's blackened body? How do we read their invocation of a racist tradition of theatre, music and cinema in the US and South Africa's history of the coon carnival? Are they deconstructing our racist past, or is it a publicity stunt – a shot at another viral YouTube video?Ī clue to these questions may be found in a remark by Jones earlier this year: "God made a mistake with me. These shots alternate with images of Ninja, Yolandi and their dancers in white body paint and then in black. We see Yolandi's entire body painted black her yellow baby doll dress, yellow eyes and bleached hair accentuate her black body paint. It's a clever parody but the key issue in this video is the role of blackface. Clearly, she is the "fatty" who is mocked in the chorus (celeb sites have gone into overdrive recently on Gaga supposedly gaining weight). Their attempts at parody and contempt for Gaga, who wanted them as an opening act, can hardly be missed. Finally, "Gaga" is killed and eaten by a lion. "Gaga" escapes, enters the surgery of a dentist/gynaecologist and gives birth to a cockroach, which South Africans, specifically Johannesburg residents, link connotatively to its nickname, Parktown Prawn – a reference to the alien "prawns" in South African sci-fi movie, District 9. Her tour guide/taxi driver points out wild animals in Rockey Street before they get hijacked. Hence, we see a Lady Gaga impersonator – wearing a meat dress – in a minibus taxi as she is taken on a tour of presumably inner city Johannesburg. It apparently pokes fun at stereotypical western perceptions of Africa. With this is mind, let's look at the latest video. While ambiguous, Die Antwoord's allusion to both working-class white and "coloured" stereotypes are cultural appropriation. 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. It wasn't until Jones adopted the Afrikaans working-class persona, Ninja, that he hit pay dirt. 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. In truth, however, Jones is neither working-class nor Afrikaans-speaking. Interestingly, they link zef – which apparently just used to mean "common" or "kitsch", but now means "cool" – to 1980s white, working-class culture. They market themselves as leaders of zef counter-culture, a supposedly Afrikaans working-class movement. 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.
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