I went to The Green Dolphin jazz and supper club for some live music last night. I saw two excellent local bands - Love Jones, an eccentric rock band and The Rudimentals, who provide an eclectic mix of Bob Marley reggae and Madness funk with an African flavour. While watching The Rudimentals some locals were commenting on the multi-instrumental and multi-racial attributes of the band. The band has many members. There are guys playing a sax, trombone, trumpet, bass guitar, lead guitar, drums, keyboards, a very verbal vocalist and a couple of scantily clad ladies offering backup. What makes this band unique - besides their awesome sound - is the racial integration. The locals enjoying the music were saying that it was great to see black, white and coloured people together on stage having a blast! The American tourists sitting next to me looked very confused and horrified. They proceeded to ask (in hushed tones) what was meant by the term 'coloured' and was it not racist? It occurred to me that other countries have different terminology when talking about race and they cannot identify with, or don't have a reference for, the completely different ethnic group of 'Coloureds'.
It is not politically incorrect or offensive slang for this group of people, it is a categorisation term just like 'white' or 'black'. They originate from the Malay people brought over from Southeast Asia as slaves centuries ago by the Dutch East India Company. The predominantly muslim community has a rich cultural heritage and their own colourful traditions and life ways. They have caramel skin and are often incorrectly thought of as a mixed race by foreigners (and some locals) i.e. a black mother, white father or vice versa somewhere in the family tree.
Ethnicity is politically loaded and historically painful for South Africa, so it is important to get these things right. That said, I must admit that I find it amazing that everything, from our basic conversation, to the forms I filled in last week, to the most average reference, is still based in some form of categorisation. We always think of each other in terms of colour categories. Is it the same where you come from? Is everything still categorised by race?
I can only hope that these colour prefixes will eventually fall away. We are after all, Homo sapiens ("wise man"), the only living representative of the family Hominidae - biologically all the same.
6 comments:
I haven't been to see any great live music in ages, so I will make an appearance at The Green Dolphin soon!
Don't we all wish this ethnicity drama would end... thanks for the history lesson though!!! :)
We are all specimens of the human race, and I speak for myself when I say that I am a fine one at that! so I think it's something we'll eventually move beyond.
What I find great about The Rudimentals (and other bands such as freshlyground) is not just the fact that ppl of different races are working together (you see it in more formal environments all the time), but that they bring about a music style that has a kind of universal appeal. Black, white and coloured, it seems, can generally work and live side by side, but music is often what seperates them socially.
The Rudimentals have an awesome stage presence, don't you think? :-)
I would challenge your statement about the origins of the Coloured people though... I can't provide any reference other than Wikipedia, but from my own knowledge as a CT local, they are in fact mixed race, with the Malay being only one part of their heritage (along with white, black, Khoi, etc.) and are predominantly Christian. You disagree?
Yes, I believe we will eventually move beyond racial categorisation (mostly, anyway), but for the moment it is as convenient a categorisation as male and female, that is only made wrong if the context implies it to be offensive or prejudiced. We put things into boxes to make life easier.
I know a Welsh man who thinks he's part Welsh, part sheep and if you know him, I think sheep should be offended.
;-)
nice post xx
In America, "colored" is obsolete and considered rude. African American is the term of choice but black is still used. I don't really like any labels at all. Why am I not called peach or Dutch American? I wouldn't like it.
I noticed this thing when Tom came out - he didn't understand what I meant by 'coloured' - where he comes from, you're either 'white' or 'coloured' - it's a very 'us & them' kind of classification, and refers specifically to skin colour.
I agree that it'll be nice if we one day manage to ditch our labels and categories, but at the same time I sometimes feel that our labels refer to cultural categories - black, coloured, indian, afrikaans, english - I feel that these words give us more an idea of that person's background than anything else.
I saw the Rudimentals at Splashy Fen at Easter time. They're pretty cool, but ska isn't really my scene. I was also surprised (pleasantly) to see the racial mix on the stage.
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