When I heard about what happened at Huis Visser last weekend – the five stages of anger kicked in. After which, I moved on swiftly with my day.
The story goes (having been confirmed by the SRC), that Huis Visser, a male residence at Stellenbosch University (SU), had an Old Boy’s event where old boys sang “Die Stem”. There are many problems with singing this anthem, one being that it is racist at worst and problematic at best.
Huis Visser and all those affiliated with the residence should bow their heads in shame for allowing this to happen.
It is hurtful, disrespectful and undermines the small gains that have been made in the last 24 years. What Die Stem represents is a dark time in our history as South Africans. National anthems are songs of collective pride and to revert back to an anthem that is associated with said dark time in our history deserves the highest form of condemnation.
Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, of the Economic Freedom Fighters once described Die Stem as a musical ritual of war, saying it represents a ‘white supremacist consciousness’. Singer Steve Hofmeyr says: “I will sing it more and I ask that the ban on our sacred traditional song be lifted and all may be free to sing what they want, where they want, as long as it is not hate speech or preaches violence.”
The lines between these contending voices is nuanced and unclear and one can only make up their minds depending on how you view Die Stem.
How could these Old Boys feel arrogant and comfortable enough to sing Die Stem? How could they, in the face of an institution that claims transformation, feel comfortable enough to belt out this horrendous tune? It is a slap in the face of the institution and it is a slap in the face of black people and those who claim not to associate themselves with the anthem.
The Huis Marais Old Boy’s Club should be cancelled.
Not because they do not deserve to gather, but because their spaces are endemic to insult and injury – this much they have proven.
To this day, many white South Africans are still asking not to be blamed for the ills of Apartheid – how then does it make sense that we keep reminding ourselves of it via the symbol of singing Die Stem? It becomes clear as well during rugby games, be it the Springboks or Varsity Cup, that the Die Stem part of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika is sung with more gusto than what came before.
As a final thought, I wish to say: the Huis Visser Old Boys should be sharing a prison cell with Vicky Momberg, because it was racist of them to sing that anthem. Furthermore, this particular Old Boy’s event should be cancelled because it is a space that breeds insult and undermines how far we have come. In 2018, there is no time for such behaviour.