When entering Potchefstroom, on your way to Aardklop, one of South Africa’s biggest arts festivals, the concentration camp into which Afrikaans women and children were herded during the South African Anglo-Boer War is largely hidden from view. Cars speed past the gravesites without a glance, their mostly white, Afrikaans-speaking occupants intently focused on arriving on time for their favourite “shows”.
The wound inflicted in those camps more than 100 years ago has not yet fully healed, and still evokes mutters of “daardie verdomde RooiÂnekke [those bloody Pommies]” from most modern Afrikaners. Just as the wound inflicted when his ancestors were forced off their land has not totally healed for mayor Maphetle Maphetle. Earlier this year, Maphetle made headlines when he announced that the name of Potchefstrom was to be changed to Tlokwe. He also angered many Afrikaners when he said the Aardklop festival was too exclusive. People do not tread easily where Maphetle has gone.
Potchefstroom is a town filled with history, most of it written by the Afrikaner. Although the Batlokwe lived here before Hendrik Potgieter and the Trekkers arrived and started an Afrikaner outpost, there is little evidence of that today. Now, only a few miles from where the Trekkers first let their oxen rest, Maphetle sips a glass of water in the hospitality tent of the Aardklop festival. The mayor simply shrugs off the storm that has erupted around him. VIPs and artists mill about in this exclusive tent, where he and two other members of his staff are the only Africans. “Just look at this and tell me if you think this festival is inclusive,” he says, waving a programme of the festival. Maphetle has a point.
While Aardklop is not exclusively in Afrikaans or about Afrikaans culture, most of its patrons are white Afrikaners — and the festival caters to their tastes. The festival is not only popular, it is also a huge money-spinner. Last year it generated about R40?million for the town, most of the money coming from the pockets of its privileged patrons. The municipal council also provides financial and logistical support. The attention that the festival’s success has attracted in recent years, as well as the general national trend to move away from monocultural events, has meant that the festival has had to break away from its roots as a purely Afrikaans festival to include other cultures. And because the council funds part of the festival, Maphetle’s call for more diversity carries a lot of weight. MarlizÃ