Whilst the Anita Ronge, aka the Kasi Mlungu, is a polarizing hot topic for reasons that the nation just can’t seem to agree on, people like Refentse Morake and Zandre Delport fly under the radar.
In an almost Freaky Friday-esque experience, Refentse sings popular Afrikaans songs while Zandre can sing in six of South Africa’s 11 official languages.
Refentse Morake from Vereeniging gained the attention of the masses when this video of him singing popular Afrikaans liedtjie, De La Rey, went viral.
“I went to an Afrikaans school so I was always exposed to Afrikaans music. I liked it and so decided to sing along, and eventually I started to learn how to perform Afrikaans songs on my guitar” said Refentse in an interview with MTV.
Refentse has social media to thank for catapulting him to stardom.
“I was sitting next to the driveway outside my house playing guitar and singing when a lady passed and asked if she could record a video of me playing. I gave her permission to do that and upload it on Facebook. The next morning the video had 160 000 likes. People started contacting us for gigs and that’s where my label Select Musiek saw me and my journey started,” he explained to entertainment writer El Broide.
His debut album ‘My Hart Bly In n’ Taal,’ which was released late last year, has already gone platinum. Up until this point, Refentse has been doing covers but plans to write and record more original music for his next album.
His success thus far is probably due to the fact that gaining a fanbase has been quite easy for Refentse.
“It was not too difficult to crack [the market]. Being a black guy singing in Afrikaans gives me the overhand, because when I start to sing it’s easier for me to get the crowd’s attention,” he said.
Another singer who uses a combination of language and a good voice to get the crowd’s attention is Zandre, who we first heard/saw sing when we walked past a TV screen that just so happened to be tuned in to SABC 2. We were compelled to pause because here was this white girl singing Ma-Brr’s ‘Vulindlela’ without missing a word or a note.
We must admit, that had us like… okaaaaay…
But you can’t deny the girl’s talent.
Zandre currently has 4 albums to her name, with the most recent effort titled ‘Embracing Africa’ and said she sings in six different languages (all included in her album) because she grew up around them and decided to learn them all.
In an interview with Katlego Maboe on SABC 3 morning show, Expresso, Zandre explained that like Refentse, she also feels that her ability to sing in a language she is not expected to sing in gives her an edge over other singers as it is what makes her different from other singers.
Just check out this video of her singing a medly of African songs.
The reason these two aren’t making the waves DJ Duchaz made is probably because even though they are making money from their ability to sing in other languages, they aren’t pretending to be someone of a different race in order to relate to their fanbase.
Which speaks to the point that the problem with Duchaz is not that she loves house music, a house DJ or speaks Zulu, the problem is the pretense behind the persona.
Proving once again that embracing another culture or language doesn’t have to come with the gimmicky fake accent and the display of hanging out in the spaces belonging to those you’re trying to relate to. If it was really such a normal thing with altruistic intentions, there wouldn't be a need for a professionally shot photo album of you "chilling" ekasi.
Main image credit: youtube.com