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Issue #07
Contents
editorial
DJO BANKUNA
Pissing On The Rainbow Nation
NATHAN TRANTRAAL
Ôs haatie wit mense nie. Hoekô haat julle vi ôs?
GLENN HOLTZMAN
The Music Department in South Africa as a Mirror of Racial Tension and Transformative Struggle: A Critical Ethnographic Perspective
TENDAYI SITHOLE
Black artists and the paradox of the gift
Theme Johnny Mbizo Dyani
ZWELEDINGA PALLO JORDAN
JOHNNY DYANI: A Portrait
JOHNNY MBIZO DYANI
A Letter From Mbizo
ARYAN KAGANOF
Johnny Dyani Interview 22-23 December 1985
SALIM WASHINGTON
“Don’t Sell Out”
LOUIS MOHOLO-MOHOLO & HERBIE TSOAELI WITH JOHNNY DYANI
In Conversation with Mbizo
ZOLISWA FIKELEPI-TWANI & NDUDUZO MAKHATHINI
When Today Becomes The Past: The Archive as a Healing Process
ASHER GAMEDZE
Tradition as improvisation | Continuity and abstraction
GILBERT MATTHEWS & LEFIFI TLADI
An Interview with Lars Rasmussen
EUGENE SKEEF
The Musical Confluence of Johnny Dyani and Bheki Mseleku in Exile
TENDAYI SITHOLE
Blue Scripts For Johnny Mbizo Dyani - Script i: The Figure
TENDAYI SITHOLE
Blue Scripts For Johnny Mbizo Dyani - Script ii: Ontology Of The Bass
TENDAYI SITHOLE
Blue Scripts For Johnny Mbizo Dyani - Script iii: Musical Offering
TENDAYI SITHOLE
Blue Scripts For Johnny Mbizo Dyani - Script iv: Home And Exile
TENDAYI SITHOLE
Blue Scripts For Johnny Mbizo Dyani - Script v: Experimental Philosophic Incantations
TENDAYI SITHOLE
Blue Scripts For Johnny Mbizo Dyani - Script vi: The Posthumous Life
ED EPSTEIN
Spiritual
CAROL MULLER
Diasporic musical landscapes: Abdullah Ibrahim, Johnny Dyani, and Sathima Bea Benjamin in an African Space Program (1969-1980)
BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
Riot in Progress (Legalize Freedom)
S’MAKUHLE BOKWE MAFUNA
Notes on the Exile Years
KEI MURRAY MONGEZI PROSPER MCGREGOR
Who the Son was?
ARYAN KAGANOF
Somebody Blew Up South Africa
JONATHAN EATO
Interludes with Bra’ Tete Mbambisa
MAX ANNAS
Morduntersuchungskommission. Der Fall Daniela Nitschke
SHANE COOPER
Lonely Flower
THANDI ALLIN DYANI
"I love you. You don’t have to love me but I love you."
galleri
SLOVO MAMPHAGA
Shades of Johnny Dyani
HUGH MDLALOSE
Jazz is my Life
TJOBOLO KHAHLISO
Shebeening
FEDERICO FEDERICI
Notes (not only) on asemic phenomenology
ANDRÉ CLEMENTS
Vita-Socio-Anarcho
DEREK DAVEY
Verge
borborygmus
MUSTAPHA JINADU
Trapped
VUSUMZI MOYO
From Cape-to-Cairo – AZANIA
MALAIKA WA AZANIA
In a foreign tongue...
SHARLENE KHAN
Imagining an African Feminist Press
DILIP MENON
Isithunguthu (A conversation in Joburg)
CATHERINE RUDENT
Against the “Grain of the Voice” - Studying the voice in songs
GEORGE LEWIS
Amo (2021), for five voices and electronics
STEVEN SHAVIRO
Exceeding Syncopation?
BRUCE LABRUCE
Notes on camp/anti-camp
PATRICIA PISTERS
Set and Setting of the Brain on Hallucinogen: Psychedelic Revival in the Acid Western
frictions
KHADIJA TRACEY HEEGER
Doctor Patient
KNEO MOKGOPA
Vuleka Mhlaba (What Would Happen if Madiba Returned?)
CHURCHIL NAUDE
Die mooi mooi gedig en anner massekinners ….
OSWALD KUCHERERA
Travelling on the Khayelitsha Train
SISCA JULIUS
Islands in the stream
FAEEZ VAN DOORSEN
Nobody’s Mullet
GADDAFI MAKHOSANDILE
The Face of Hope
VONANI BILA
Extracts from Phosakufa (the epic)
NIQ MHLONGO
Mistaken Identity
OMOSEYE BOLAJI
People of the Townships part 2
SIMBARASHE NYATSANZA
How to Become an African President
JEAN RHYS
The Doll
OSCAR HEMER
Coyote
MICHALIS PICHLER
Bibliophagia
claque
LINDELWA DALAMBA
From Kippie to Kippies and Beyond: the village welcomes this child
GWEN ANSELL
Zim Ngqawana: A child of the rain
MKHULULI
Black Noise: Notes on a Semanalysis of Mogorosi’s DeAesthetic
LIZE VAN ROBBROECK
DECOLONIZING ART BOOK FAIRS: Publishing Practices from the South(s).
DYLAN VALLEY
The Future lies with folk art: Max Schleser’s smartphone filmmaking THEORY AND PRACTICE
PAUL KHAHLISO
Riding Ruins
DIANA FERRUS
Ronelda Kamfer’s Kompoun: unapologetic and honest writing.
UNATHI SLASHA
Piecing Together the Barely Exquisite Corpse: On Tinashe Mushakavanhu’s Reincarnating Marechera: Notes on the Speculative Archive
WANELISA XABA
One from the heart: Dimakatso Sedite's Yellow Shade
BLAQ PEARL (JANINE VAN ROOY-OVERMEYER)
Uit die Kroes: gedigte deur Lynthia Julius
FRANK MEINTJIES
Wild Has Roots: thinking about what it means to be human
MPHUTHUMI NTABENI
The Land Wars: The Dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony - a discourse on the unrelenting and ruthless process of colonial conquest
ekaya
MKHULU MNGOMEZULU
Call Me By My Name: Ubizo and Ancestral Names for Abangoma
HILDE ROOS
In Conversation with Zakes Mda: "The full story must be told."
INGE ENGELBRECHT
Tribute to Sacks Williams: A composer from Genadendal
ESTHER MARIE PAUW
A tribute to Hilton Biscombe
WILLEMIEN FRONEMAN
Resisting the Siren Song of Race
off the record
SANDILE MEMELA
Things My Father Taught Me
HEIDI GRUNEBAUM
On returning to my grandmother’s land (notes for a film)
HILTON BISCOMBE
A boytjie from Stellenbosch
KHOLEKA SHANGE
Art, Archives, Anthropology
RITHULI ORLEYN
On Archives, Metadata and Aesthetics
KEYAN G. TOMASELLI
The Nomadic Mind of Teshome Gabriel: Hybridity, Identity and Diaspora
FINN DANIELS-YEOMAN & DARA WALDRON
Song For Hector - the utopian promise of the archive
TREVOR STEELE TAYLOR
Censorship, Film Festivals and the Temperature at which Artworks and their Creators Burn - episode 2
GEORGE KING
Sustaining an Imagined Culture: Some Reflections on South African Music Research in Thirty-Five Years of Ars Nova
RAFI ALIYA CROCKETT
Loxion Fabulous: Temporality and Spaciality in South African Kwaito Performance
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MOHAMMAD SHABANGU
Monday 20 January 2020
ANDILE KHUMALO
22 July 2021
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RAMPOLOKENG, MUYANGA, OOSTERLING, VD BRINK, GRUNEBAUM & KAGANOF
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© 2023
Archive About Contact Africa Open Institute
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    #07
  • claque

DIANA FERRUS

Ronelda Kamfer’s Kompoun: unapologetic and honest writing.

“As jy ’n kind is, is daar soveel jare voor jy jou verstand kry. In die run up tot daai tyd feed hulle jou enige ding – die goed wat jy met jou eie oë sien, bly daar saam met die goed wat jou corrupt ouma of ma of antie in jou kop gesit het. Al wat jy oor het is dit wat jy choose om te glo. Want niemand kan niks glo nie, ons moet iets glo.”

In Kompoun (2021) deur Ronelda Kamfer word die skade wat ’n dysfunctional family kinders kan berokken, deeglik blootgelê.

Die McKinney familie met Sylvia McKinney as die matriarg met sewe kinders, vyf dogters en twee seuns. Hulle is Daphne, Bettina, Erik, Christina (Tina), Maria, Edward (Empty) en Adriana  (Diana) en bly op Groenplaas. Hulle kom voor as ’n hegte familie wat deur die ysterhand van Sylvia McKinney regeer word. Maar alles behalwe. Nadia die dogter van Christina (Tina) is die hoofverteller en Xavie die seun van haar oom Erik is die secondary verteller. Nadia is intelligent en haar waarneming van wat om haar aangaan en haar magteloosheid om iets aan die sake te doen veroorsaak dat sy en ook sommige van haar nefies aan drugs verslaaf word. Hulle gebruik Valiums en dagga om van die werklikheid te ontsnap.  

Die kinders word blootgestel aan sexual abuse, gesinsgeweld, stelery en oneerlikheid. Hulle word gesê wat om te praat en wat om nie te praat nie. Maar soos hulle ouer word besef hulle wat aan hulle gedoen word en begin te rebeleer.

Nadia wat die favourite kleinkind van haar ouma Sylvia is, begin ’n renons in haar ouma ontwikkel. Sy besef dat haar ouma die oorsaak is van die “groot lieg” en alles wat dus verkeerd loop in die familie. Alhoewel haar ouma nog baie lief is vir haar probeer sy ’n wig tussen hulle in dryf. Xavie reflect dat sy ouma “opgecrack” het toe Nadia teruggetrek het na haar ma toe in die Kaap, “jy is nie my ma  nie” ( bl 53) het sy haar ouma toegesnou.

Die renons wat sy ontwikkel in haar ouma en die res van die grootmense stem grootliks uit die situasie van haar auntie Diana (Adriana). Eers het Mal Hannes aan Diana begin vat toe sy nog ’n kind was. Toe sy haar ma daarvan vertel, gee haar ma haar ’n helse pak. Dit was die eerste ontkenning deur die ouma aangaande Diana wat sy later wou laat bekeer. Diana het begin losbandig raak en het kinders van verskillende mans gehad. Sy sê (bl. 18),

“my gat behoort aan my, is al wat nog aan my behoort, ek maak net wat ek wil met dit…” 

Diana het eenkeer vir Nadia en haar niggie saam na die Kompoun geneem. Nadia se ouma was woedend en het gesê dat Nadia en haar niggie saam loop hoer het. Hierdie woorde was soos ’n dolk in Nadia se hart. Wat veral vir Nadia ontstel het was toe Diana geboorte gegee het aan ’n tweeling en haar ouma die tweeling “weggegee” het.

Net voor Diana se begrafnis breek ’n amperse bakleiery tussen Koos en nog iemand uit. Nadia se aunty Daphne tree tussenbeide en Nadia se vir haar “los hom” waarop haar auntie vir haar vra, “met wie praat jy, Nadia, dink jy ek is jou kind?”  Nadia se antwoord is soos koue water oor haar auntie se gesig, “met jou, ek praat met jou” en toe gryp sy haar auntie voor die bors, “jou man is ’n pedofiel.”

Die kinders van die McKinney familie was blootgestel aan so veel, g’n wonder hulle wou hulself onttrek van die familie nie. “Die mense sê Groenplaas is vol spoke en die appels groei nie meer daar nie. As hulle van my familie praat, loop daar ’n storie van ’n broer wat sy suster pregnant gemaak het met ’n tweeling en gelieg het dat dit is ’n jong van die kompoun se kinders.” Op hierdie punt besef die leser hoe oorweldigend al die drama en trauma nie vir Nadia en haar nefies en niggies moes gewees het nie. Die leser is so bewus van die intonasie van sexual abuse dat toe Nadia bebloed na ’n dokter geneem word die gedagte van sexual abuse opkom. Dis eers aan die einde wat Xavie hierdie raaisel ontknoop toe hy vertel van hoe Nadia se injury gebeur het. “Die bicyclepomp glip uit my nefie se hand uit en ek follow dit deur die lug, dit land teen Nadia se voorkoop en die bloed stroom amper instantly oor haar gesig.” (bl 247).

Maar mens kan met reg vra of dit moontlik is om regtig uit jou familie “te onttrek”. Nadia is vasgevang tussen herinneringe van goed en sleg. Sy verseg om na haar ouma se begrafnis toe te gaan maar droom van haar ouma. Uiteindelik beken sy,

“ek is so moeg van my ouma met haar negative groot-pantie-wisdom. Maak nie saak hoe ek teen my ouma se hold baklei nie, sy sit vas aan my soos ’n kak tattoo.”

Kompoun is a book not for the faint-hearted. It is a book about angry children, adults. Children deeply let down by their dysfunctional family, children who carry the consequences of this dysfunctionality, drug-addiction, alcohol abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse, fear, conditional love, co-dependency and poor communication.

The story is a hallmark of Ronelda Kamfer’s writing. It addresses issues in the so-called Coloured communities and the writing is unapologetic and honest. The characters are believable and the dialogue strong. However, I feel that Xavie as the extra narrator is unnecessary, Nadia carries the whole story and at some points Nadia and Xavie sound like one and the same person.  Also, time and place are confusing throughout the book and maybe there could have been fewer characters. Irrespective van die bogenoemde moet dit beklemtoon word dat hierdie boek universele waarde het. Daar gaan menige lesers wees wat met vele van die issues wat in die boek opgebring word, kan identifiseer.

Perhaps this book could be a learning curve for many people out there in that lying requires more lying to cover the first lie. Expecting children to lie to cover up for adults’ lying can be devastating in the long run. And here one must compliment the writer in that she exposes women characters in the book as antagonists. Upon further reflection one may ask how the brutal system of Apartheid and patriarchy contributed to their beliefs and action. But that is a story for another day.

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PAUL KHAHLISO
UNATHI SLASHA
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Archive About Contact Africa Open Institute