The crowd howled and hooted as the young rieldansers stomped across the stage. Some were proud parents, encouraging their offspring; others had overindulged in the great wines available on the Solms Delta farm and were merely getting excited as the spirit of the Oesfees, Fransch-hoek Valley’s harvest celebration, consumed them.
‘Jou lekker ding [you sexy thing],” screamed a dancing farmworker over my shoulder.
It seemed hard to believe that this cultural dance, with roots in San ceremonial dances, was almost extinct less than five years ago.
The dance, which is traditionally performed by farmworkers and sheepshearers across the Cape, is an expression of rural life, depicting comical courtship rituals and animal actions.
As the dancers performed their moves, the crowd encouraged them, the enthusiasm growing as two male dancers re-enacted a square-off over a young female dancer.
Since 2006 the Afrikaanse Taal en Kultuurvereeniging has revived the traditional dance with a national competition at the Taalmonument at Paarlberg.
Performing at the Oesfees were Witzenberg Rieldansers, the high-energy group from Ceres/Prince Alfred who won the Senior 2010 ATKV Rieldans competition, and the junior runners-up Betjies van Betjiesfontein Rieldansers from Elisabethsfontein/Kleinwilliam.
Music, dance and food
The Oesfees is a fantastic annual gathering in March to celebrate the end of the wine harvest through the music, dance and food of the farmworking communities. All workers from the surrounding Franschhoek wine farms are given free tickets to the event.
Although the wine, food and dancing are top-notch, the real treat of the Oesfees is the music of the Boland, the beat of goema, the jive of vastrap and, of course, the riel dancing.
Born four years ago as an extension of the Solms Delta farm’s Music van de Caab project, which is responsible for opening up the world of Cape music to young children on the farms, it is hosted every year by lively academic and social reformer Mark Solms and philanthropist and music-lover Richard Astor.
The Oesfees brings the Cape winelands to life with music ensembles made up of farmworkers. This year there was the Delta Valley Entertainers, which included participants from all corners of the Groot Drakenstein Valley, the Langbroek Band, a smaller, more accomplished brass ensemble that mixes Cape traditionals with new songs in the vernacular style, and Die Soetstemme, a women’s choir.
They were all established by the Music van de Caab project, which was initiated by Solms and the late Cape trumpeter, Alex van Heerden, more than five years ago.
The love of music
For the past few years the music project has been headed by former Springbok Nude Girl Adriaan Brand, whose passion for the music and kids who make up the bands is something to behold.
‘It’s the one day when all of Franschhoek coheres through the love of music,” says Brand. ‘What could be better?”
Leslie Javan, the project’s songwriter in residence, Nick Turner, former Sons of Trout guitarist, Lynette Reid, the renowned Cape jazz diva, and Carlo Fabe, jazz drummer for legends such as Robbie Jansen, ably assist him with musical instruction.
‘The music performed at the Oesfees may be rooted in tradition,” says Javan, ‘but it is alive with the enthusiasm, hopes and dreams of today’s younger generation.”
Javan is a highly respected composer who was a member of Van Heerden’s Gramadoelas band that recorded the fantastic album, Gemoedsrus (New Cape), and the more recent Hiervandaan (Rhythm Records). The latter incorporates performances by local bands from the Solms Delta farm.
The story of Oesfees began when Solms returned to South Africa in 2001 after spending years abroad to avoid apartheid.
‘Western Cape farms come with people and in a way you become the owner of those people,” says Solms. ‘They live on your land and have done so for generations and they have nowhere else to go.”
Solms realised that he had to do something about the typical relationship that farmers and farmworkers have — his conscience demanded it.
Baas of the plaas
‘My family has been here for six generations,” he says. ‘I thought, if I can take on one piece of South Africa, if I can fix one farm, then I will have contributed to the new South Africa.
‘I met them one family at a time. I wanted to quickly shed the task of being baas of the plaas, but it can’t happen that quickly,” says Solms.
What followed is a heartening story of transformation.
Solms and his friend Astor approached Investec to borrow money against their two farms. With this they bought an adjacent farm and gave it to a trust that is owned by the farmworkers of all three farms. It is made up of 21 families and 190 people.
Then they set up a company to work all three farms as one business. Solms, Astor and the trust each received a third share in this company.
Yet it was only once Solms, some researchers and Van Heerden began to explore and document the music of the people of the Franschhoek Valley that he started to see real transformation in the lives of the farmworkers.
They had access to a social worker, Model C schools, the internet, DSTV and a crèche on the farm, but it was only when the investment touched the farmworkers’ cultural lives that Solms could see real change.
Musical centre
‘We had this old farmworker named Hannes Floors who hadn’t played his guitar since the Seventies when the strings snapped, so Alex restrung his guitar for him and next minute he was out on the stoep playing an old folk song,” recounts Solms. ‘This was an event and so the kids came along to watch and they wanted to play too.
‘Within a matter of days we had a band. Today the Floors, who once had a very marginal role on the farm, are the musical centre of the farm,” he says. ‘Then the kids said, ‘We want a marching band’, so we did that. It’s a 60-piece marching band and Alex brought in tutors to teach the kids.
‘Then we thought, ‘What are we going to do with this?’ So we started the harvest festival, he says. ‘The thing that has transformed the people’s lives the most on this farm is the music.”
Sanna Malgas, one of the musical leaders on the farm and a member of Die Soetstemme, says the music is the best thing that’s happened to the farm. ‘It keeps the children busy. For the parents it is a good thing. We now have musical houses and not ones where everyone is always fighting.”
Thirteen-year-old Marco Lackay who plays trombone says the music keeps him out of trouble and away from drugs and alcohol. ‘I always listened to bands and I always wanted to play with them,” he says.
Stephan Jacobs, a talented young trumpeter, says it is a huge privilege to play in the bands and that it gives him leadership opportunities.
‘It’s very important to show the small children where they come from, which we do through the music, through the beat of goema,” he says.
The story of the Solms Delta and its achievement with the Oesfees is remarkable. This hidden musical gem restores one’s faith in the country and its people — through the beat of goema.
For more details on next year’s Oesfees contact the Solms Delta farm at www.solms-delta.co.za or phone 021 874 3937