The Kaapse Klopse, as it is now known, primarily features the working class coloured population of South Africa these days, participating in a subversive act meant to reject white superiority and the images it has thrust upon them.

Since that time, a minstrel festival, first known as the Coon Carnival, has been held in Cape Town every year. The culture of blackface and minstrelsy in South Africa dates to the 1860s, when English settlers arrived.

and South Africa each have quite distinct and complicated histories when it comes to race relations, blackface has been a troubling issue for both countries. The Kaapse Klopse, as it is now known, primarily features the working class coloured population of South Africa these days, participating in a subversive act meant to reject white superiority and the images it has thrust upon them. The culture of blackface and minstrelsy in South Africa dates to the 1860s, when English settlers arrived. So is this really blackface, and should we be bothered by it?

“Awesome, right? That’s really exactly what we all needed to see today.” Breihan is attempting, I think, to convey his general puzzlement: The duo, Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er, who are white, are known as provocateurs. “ Die Antwoord totally wear blackface in their new video,” writes Tom Breihan at Stereogum. Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for “The Answer”), a South African rap-rave duo, have just released a new video for their song “Fatty Boom Boom.” Among the many batshit elements of the NSFW production is a get-up donned by one of the two that looks an awful lot like blackface.

Die antwoord videos youtube