Page:Enter the imperceptible - Reading Die Antwoord.pdf/4

Smit, Cogent Arts & Humanities (2015), 2: 1064246 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2015.1064246 educated and working-class background of those, for instance, who worked on the mines in Johannesburg. Die Antwoord's interpretation of "poor whites" can be seen in the majority of their music videos, but it is probably the Zef Side video which accompanied the release of "Enter the Ninja" that introduced the world to Zef subculture. The short video reveals the three members of the rave-rap trio in their urban environment as Ninja, Yo-landi and DJ Hi-Tec. Working as a narrative of origin, Zef Side shows Die Antwoord in their home environment: a banal looking government housing suburb. These visual clues expand the concept of Zef as a "poor" or working-class phenomenon. One is given a sense of the interrelational "debris" that constitutes Zef culture. The video demonstrates a pastiche of outmoded fashion accessories from popular culture, such as, for example, Ninja's Pink Floyd shorts and his yin-yang shirt. The Dark Side of the Moon emblem and the symbol of the yin-yang are disassociated from their original context: "You see a kid in Liberia wearing a Tupac T-shirt. That's so Zef" (Lee, 2010). Visser's mullet hairstyle and the use of a Bronski Beat sample "The Perfect Beat" further exemplify the anachronous elements that comprise the Zef style. The result is comedic, as if the band consulted magazines from the 1980s to create their style. Die Antwoord have reinterpreted the idea of Zef: "what we see here is not a picture of original Zef, but the rebirth of Zef as a contemporary style, 'next level Zef' as they call it" (Van der Watt, 2012, p. 411). In this way, the outmoded and defunct idea of Zef becomes relevant and mainstream through Die Antwoord's re-appropriation of the term. The narrative of Die Antwoord's origin in Zef Side is of course completely fictitious as neither Yo-landi nor Ninja have ever lived in this neighbourhood. The new versions of Tudor Jones and du Toit have usurped their former selves.

The references to poverty and a disadvantaged background operating within the performance of Zef is a simulated one. It is an appearance of poverty pertaining to the idea of "white trash" or the "poor white" as it comes to fore in the imagery of the band. When asked about their "white trash" aesthetic, Die Antwoord were dismissive: "We're not trashy … maybe it's because your country is like much more first world than our country so maybe we look a bit trashy to you" (Interview Gone Wrong, 2010). In attempting to defend Zef style, Ninja also points out dominant, but sometimes invisible perceptions about African countries. Ninja's response, although humorous, is politically charged and brings attention to the "tripartite" division between First, Second and Third worlds.

3. The complexity of unity in diversity

Ninja's statements regarding race are often politically incorrect in tone, for instance, he has referred to himself as "die wit kaffir" in the track "Never le Nkemise" (2012). In "Fishpaste", Ninja raps that he is a Cape Coloured, for instance, insisting that he can take on this identity if he so desires, it need only be discovered within himself. Often Ninja professes to be an amalgamation of South African cultures, the most well-known example of this is in the intro to "Enter the Ninja", wherein he states that he is a combination of the different races and ethnicities abiding in South Africa. Ninja satirises ideas surrounding not only hip hop authenticity, but the construction of race and ethnicity in South Africa. In the post-election context, since the democratisation of South Africa and the breakdown of apartheid, emphasis has been placed on the notion of diversity. Brink Scholtz observes how work that represents diversity receives more support and funding (Scholtz, 2008, p. 34). This support is largely related to the discourse of the "rainbow nation". She argues:


 * Importantly, this notion speaks of differences, but not differences that would threaten an overriding unity. Particularly marked in representations of the rainbow nation circulated for purposes of tourism and advertising, are depictions of cultural diversity reduced to superficial representations of difference that fail to do justice to the richness or complexity of cultures, or to the real material differences in people's lives. Such depictions also reinforce a South African propensity for stereotypes, particularly racial. (2008, p. 36)

Ninja's statements regarding his "mixed" identity is a threat to this idea of unity by his attempts to channel and embody the "rainbow nation" in his problematic White skin, which is a marker of the continuing privilege of Whiteness in South Africa. Yet, in saying this, Ninja also emphasises how the very notion of a unified rainbow nation is extremely problematic if one considers the complexity of Page 4 of 9