SA Music/Theatre Genius
Short writeup on Taliep Petersen
News 24 link
Hi there.
I got this news today and it just made regular Monday a lot more blue.
Taliep was a musical genius that was born and raised in the Cape Flats.
Unlike what you would expect (given the apartheid era as backdrop) he chose to educate people about the life and cultures of District 6 and the Cape Flats by writing musical plays about it.
Working towards an understanding (and celebration) of the differences as well as working against apartheid.
I had the privilege of seeing ‘Kat and the Kings’ and it was brilliant. Humour, amazing musical genius and a roller coaster of emotion exploring the effect of apartheid on ‘Kat’ and his people, as well as the triumph of the human spirit over dire circumstances and rising above it.
He was one of the few that managed to bring a truly South African born cultural style into the main stream theaters of Las Vegas, Broadway and Westend.
This is a huge loss not only for the theater world in South Africa, but also for the greater South Africa.
Here’s to Taliep. Thank you for making a difference in this place and leaving it better than what you found it.
W.
P.S. More info on District Six :
District 6 on Wikipedia
D6 Museum
So, another dead Kleurlinge. The way those boys live their lives, what do you really expect?
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| So, another dead Kleurlinge. The way those boys live their lives, what do you really expect? |
boys?
What kind of mindset does it take to refer to fellow adult human beings as “boys”?
Giz,
I’d say Peter is aptly named… for a dick…
It’s a shame stuff like this happens Wihan… and then some idiot posts trash… ugh…
D
Gizmo - I am afraid its a little more than just weird.
In SA (and afrikaans) under certain ‘conditions’ you can use the word ‘boy’ in the same sense as the word ‘nigger’ over in The States…
I’m afraid it looks like Peter meant it that way.
I’ll have to word my reply in a way that he might understand.
edited out some overreactive rudeness …
I found this translation of Wihan’s bit of Afrikaans:
http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Afrikaans.1.html#so1
Anyway, as to the original story, that is tragic, Wihan.
Thanks for the link Tom…
(I think)
I must apologize as my response might seem rude.
It is difficult to explain the phrase if you don’t know a little bit about the ‘Cape Flats’ way of speaking. Just seeing the translation is a little weird.
Seeing that ‘Peter’ showed his ‘knowledge’ about the subject (and Capetown’s culture) I thought it appropriate to answer his rudeness (racism) towards the Cape Flats people with a choice Cape Flats insult…
W
Seems entirely appropriate to me, Wihan.
You want to take your head out of your backside Wihan. You are one of the moffie fools that made this country into what it is now. Largest AIDS epidemic in the world. A government full of corruption. Pollution and environmental rape. Crime rates are the highest they’ve ever been with murder and rape as the national sport. I’d go back to England but all my grandchildren are here and their fathers are both Afrikaners, and they have to live in what is prison camps and go to school in other prison camps. Apartheid was not perfect but it was better than what we have now. Open your eyes boy and see this country what it really is.
And all you others, have you been to SA? If you haven’t then you are talking out of ignorance. Live here for a while then I will listen to what you say.
Hey, I learned another bad word today - moffie! 
Well, Peter, are you serious or are you just yanking our chains, as they say? 
| Quote (Guest @ Dec. 20 2006,17:33) |
| ..I'd go back to England... |
No thanks Peter.
I had the pleasure and privelige of meeting a real Afrikaaner during the summer in France.
His views are quite different to yours.
You stay in SA. We don't want you back here.
Steve
This is for you, Peter.
http://www.aryan-nations.org/
Btw Tom, ‘moffie’ is an afrikaans ‘slang’ word for a male homosexual.
It is also used in a certain context to mean ‘wimp’. Like in ‘You too much of a moffie to bungy jump ?’
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| You want to take your head out of your backside Wihan. You are one of the moffie fools that made this country into what it is now. Largest AIDS epidemic in the world. A government full of corruption. Pollution and environmental rape. Crime rates are the highest they’ve ever been with murder and rape as the national sport. I’d go back to England but all my grandchildren are here and their fathers are both Afrikaners, and they have to live in what is prison camps and go to school in other prison camps. Apartheid was not perfect but it was better than what we have now. Open your eyes boy and see this country what it really is. And all you others, have you been to SA? If you haven’t then you are talking out of ignorance. Live here for a while then I will listen to what you say. |
I’ve lived in SA all my life.
Yeah its not perfect. Yes we have an idiot for health minister (and foreign afairs and and … the list goes on)
I want this country to work as much as everyone else.
But I can not see how it can work with people that are still clinging to Dr Verwoerd’s way of thinking.
You want apartheid back ?
Go and live with the inbred assholes in Orania.
The thing is that nothing is going to change for the better unless you give it time to evolve and mature. Everyone has been pushing it a little too fast.
You want to see a multi racial environment that works ?
Go and check out children in our mixed primary schools. They have a better understanding of the things we have in common than the things that makes us different.
When these children grow up and come into power things are going to change. It just have to.
In the meantime I’m trying to live my life and do my bit to make people of other culture/backgrounds understand that not all white afrikaners are supremest white-elitist nazi racist assholes.
Hate breeds hate.
Like I said - things are waaaay different from what they should be in this country, but I love this country and nothing would give me more pleasure than to see all our problems solved.
I just believe that standing outside pointing fingers is not going to achieve anything. I believe that (however small) I can make a difference in my own environment a little bit at a time and then I can hope and pray for things that I can’t change. (don’t even think about commenting on the ‘cliche-ness’ of that comment - its true)
I just believe that you are either part of the solution or part of the problem. (And I realise from your p.o.v. it looks like I’m part of the problem…)
And back to the topic at hand - Do you think that your stance on these matters makes a difference to the grief of the Petersen family ? “Daddy’s been murdered !” “Nah its fine. We are coloured and because of this we are expected to die violently” "Oh alright then. Can I have fries with that ?"
I think you might need to take your head out of your backside and realise that there are other people that also have dreams and hopes and pain and their own issues. You cannot go through your life thinking that other people are different, so they must be wrong…
You can always move to Cape Town.
Less of the violent crime and more moffies than up in die volkstaat.
W
/end rant
Sorry to the rest of you guys for having to be involved in this.
You sound like a man with hopes and dreams Wihan and I pray that those hopes and dreams come true. We all had those hopes and dreams in the early nineties but now they seem further away every day. They won’t come true in my life time and I don’t beleive they ever will come true. And I am not an Afrikaner and I would not be welcome in any Afrikaner volkstaat. Even my two fine young Afrikaner sons in law would not be welcome with their bruin wives and children. I was born in England and my father was English and my first language is English but my second language is my mother’s language, Bengali. When we first came to SA I was coloured. Then for a time when my father was head mine engineer we were white but for most of my life we’ve been Asian. So don’t talk to me about Apartheid, I’ve seen it from three different viewpoints. And I know that under apartheid my daughters could never have married their husbands but women and children could walk the streets without fear and we were allowed our culture. Can you say that today Wihan? These days the coloureds have no respect for family or culture. They have no past and they have no plan for the future. Some of the blacks are good people but most of them are trying to make as much money as they can while they can.
BeefySteve. Yes I know I would not be welcome in England. I travel to England a lot and I know that racism there is as bad as it is in SA, but at least here they were honest about it. So be happy Beefysteve because this is one #### Paki who won’t be coming back to England.
But it is my fault. I came to this Internet place to learn about N-track so I should keep my feelings to myself.
I apologise for calling you a moffie Wihan, but if I ever meet you I will never forgive you for your comment about my mother. If you would have had the fortune to have met her when she was alive you would never have said something like that.
| Quote (Guest @ Dec. 21 2006,22:11) |
| BeefySteve. Yes I know I would not be welcome in England. I travel to England a lot and I know that racism there is as bad as it is in SA, but at least here they were honest about it. So be happy Beefysteve because this is one #### Paki who won't be coming back to England. But it is my fault. I came to this Internet place to learn about N-track so I should keep my feelings to myself. |
Eyup!
Peter, you misrepresent me.
My reaction was to your words. I don't care what your skin colour is, or what your racial origins are.
This forum is a place of tolerance and respect.
You show tolerance, you earn respect.
We all get along here (mostly
) because we have one thing in common.Music.
You say you came here to learn about NTrack, well, you came to the right place.
I just think you got off on the wrong foot.
Steve
I was a little bit fast off the gun there I think.
The comment was more in reaction to the comment you made and in the context of the cape flats (as something they would have said) - It’s one of those things that is now just an insult rather than actually aimed at anyone’s mother. Looking back now I may have overreacted. I’m just so tired of people that have racist views without knowing why (especially with SA’s background) that I sometimes fire off too quickly in response to it without wondering what is behind the comment.
For that I apologize. And for the ‘JMSP’ comment I apologize too. I didn’t mean it in the way that you took it.
I was trying to insult you and not your mother 
(ok that was just a lame attempt at humour.)
But I still stand by my own hopes and dreams about something better coming this way
W.
Hey, guys, don’t let the insult fest devolve into a real conversation! Goodness, that’s not the way to solve problems!
It seems that the racial situation and racism in south africa is very complex .
But isn’t it strange that we all assumed Peter was ethnically white?
What does that say about our own racial preconceptions and attitudes, I wonder?
Deep down, are we really as unprejudiced as we think we are?