“Van daai plek”

This article examines the significance of the historical musical play "Die ballade van Koos Sas" (2007) in the oeuvre of South African singer-songwriter, David Kramer. Over the past three decades Kramer has increasingly turned his attention to the heterogeneous, multicultural origins of Afrikaans (as language and cultural matrix), as well as the far-reaching effects of the suppression of these origins during the emergence and apotheosis of white Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa. Kramer's work is both revisionist and recuperative in its reconstruction of a shared and heterogeneous folk tradition – a shared cultural ground – in which the specific character, or topology, of the land plays a constitutive role. The article examines and elucidates Kramer's critique, by means of the Sas legend, of the ideological structures and representational technologies that combine to effect the subjection – by, among other things, fixing identities and relations, and thereby abstracting them from the field of lived experience – not only of this recalcitrant, self-styled "last Bushman", but also of the world he inhabits. I argue that by presenting his alternative version of the legend Kramer provides a critique of the taxonomies and ideological imperatives of cultural memory as history. Opsomming Hierdie artikel bespreek die historiese musikale drama "Die ballade van Koos Sas" (2007) as 'n belangrike werk in die oeuvre van die Suid-Afrikaanse sanger en liedjieskrywer David Kramer. In die loop van die afgelope drie dekades het Kramer sy aandag toenemend begin vestig op die heterogene, multikulturele oorsprong van Afrikaans (as taal en as kulturele raamwerk), asook die omvangryke gevolge van die onderdrukking hiervan gedurende die opkoms en hooggety van wit Afrikaner nasionalisme in Suid-Afrika. Insoverre Kramer se werk gemoeid is met 'n rekonstruksie van 'n gemene en heterogene volkstradisie – 'n gedeelde kulturele grondslag – waarin die bepaalde karakter of topologie van die land 'n vormende rol speel, kan dit as hersienend en herstellend gesien word. Hierdie artikel ondersoek en belig Kramer se kritiek, d.m.v. die Sas legende, van die ideologiese strukture en afbeeldingstegnologieë wat saamspan om die onderwerping van hierdie weerspannige en outonominerende "laaste Bushman" en sy wêreld te vermag, onder andere deur identiteite en verhoudings vas te lê en te abstraheer, en sodoende van die ervaringswêreld te vervreem. Ek voer aan dat Kramer se alternatiewe weergawe van die legende kritiek lewer op die taksonomieë en ideologiese imperatiewe van kulterele geheue as geskiedenis

Theology · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy · South African History and Culture

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