The Misunderstood Farmer Boy
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The Misunderstood Farmer Boy | norient.com 16 Oct 2021 11:40:00
The Misunderstood Farmer
Boy
I N T E R V I E W by Thomas Burkhalter
With his project Gazelle, Xander Ferreira aims to show the
diversity of cultures in South Africa, and to translate the
political strategies of African dictators to the world of pop
music. Ferreira is white, which became an issue. An article
from the Norient book Seismographic Sounds (see and order
here).
[Thomas Burkhalter]: In January 2015 South Africa’s leading newspaper
«The Mail & Guardian» accused you of cultural appropriation, 1 alongside
white South African artists Die Antwoord, Black Noise, and Jack Parow
(Jason 2015). What was your reaction?
https://norient.com/stories/gazelle-two Page 1 of 5The Misunderstood Farmer Boy | norient.com 16 Oct 2021 11:40:00
[Xander Ferreira]: I never felt so misunderstood before. With Gazelle, my
aim was always to bridge gaps between different South African cultures
and to make social commentary through that. This journalist asked in our
interview why I was using African aesthetics in my music and imaginary. I
was so offended. Am I not African because I’m white? For ten generations
my family has lived in South Africa. I grew up in a very rural part, on the
border to Mozambique. The majority of people around me were Sotho. I
lived with their culture. If someone of Chinese descent is born in Germany
and speaks German, are they Chinese or German? Am I European? Then
provide me with a Portuguese, Danish, and British passport and rights,
please.
[TB]: You shot your video «Die Verlore Seun» (The Lost Son) on a farm. Is
this were you grew up?
[XF]: Yes, this video is my story of breaking free from unspoken restrictions.
It was filmed on my parents’ farm with people who work there and who I
know well. People ignore that when making statements like that journalist.
Others have expressed the same criticism, too. They might at least take
into account my ambition and mission: to celebrate the diversity of cultures
in our nation. Too many people here create ownership and entitlement: this
is ours, that is yours, don’t touch ours. If you live in a democratic society
and amongst many cultures, celebrating diversity is the only solution for
peace. Segregation creates misunderstanding and conflict.
[TB]: Can anyone mix markers of cultures freely?
[XF]: Just downloading foreign sounds from the Internet and mixing them
together is not enough; and taking from someone else without giving back
is always exploitation in some way. Personally, I feel that we should be in
contact with the culture we remix, at best submersed in it. Like Johan from
the London-based group The Very Best and Radioclit. He went back to
Malawi year after year, and he lives there now to record his new album.
There is a fine line between exploiting cultures and embracing and
celebrating them. It was funny. The day that article was on the cover of The
Mail & Guardian we were rehearsing for our last Gazelle show ever —
fourteen South African musicians from all different cultural backgrounds.
Was our effort, time, and passion to celebrate diversity so negative?
[TB]: Is the amount of income a project generates a criteria? What about
Paul Simons’ album Graceland (1986) that he recorded with the South
African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo?
[XF]: Whenever there is success and money, there’s more criticism. People
will be quick to judge. Some see Paul Simon negatively. I believe that
because Graceland was one of the most popular records worldwide it
helped people enjoy and celebrate South African traditional music until this
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day. It is about intention, sincerity, and fairness. Is it your intention to make
profit? Do you aim to create value for people involved in your project? Are
you creating value for the culture you are celebrating?
[TB]: How did you create value for the farmers involved in «Die Verlore
Seun»?
[XF]: It was about showing the human and joyful side of a group of people
that are otherwise looked down upon in society. These people are my
family; I show our home in this video. As I didn’t have a budget for the
project and filmed with a camera and a tripod only, I tried to at least be
creative in giving the people involved something back. One farmer’s biggest
dream was to be on TV, which we realized through the video. I further
convinced my father to give people the day off. This might not be much,
and, yes, I got a lot of criticism for that video: that I’m exploiting these
farmers, or that I can’t show African people working on a farm. People can
take something negative out of anything, and people can take something
positive out of anything. That is what it comes down to.
[TB]: Gazelle has an exotic look: you wear a leopard hat, and your partner
Nick Matthews wears a mask and a Basotho hat (see image above). Aren’t
these just cultural clichés?
[XF]: Gazelle was conceptual art before it was music. I had been a
photographer and I wanted to create an art project through which I could
speak my mind. It became an intensive study on the relationship between
socio-political behavior and modern day marketing. I studied the three
African dictators Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Muammar al-Gaddafi,
and I tried to understand how they convince people to believe in them. I
asked myself why we always end up with bad leaders. I researched all the
different steps and strategies these dictators took to become that
powerful. This led to the publication of my book The Status of Greatness.
Then I wanted to see what would happen if I copied these steps and
strategies, but through the use of pop music. So, I created this persona
Gazelle. I commissioned someone to paint a massive oil portrait of Gazelle
from a painting factory in China to establish the character. I made a poster
out of it and hung it everywhere in Capetown. I started working with
repetition: always wearing the same clothes, always using the same picture
in media, trying to create recognition and find followers.
[TB]: So what I saw as an «exotic look» is in reality a play with dictatorship
«culture.» This might indicate how difficult judging is whenever elements
from foreign cultures are involved. Should critics read liner notes, an artists’
biography, and other info before they publish?
[XF]: Basically, art should speak for itself. You can start a discussion
whenever the critiques are negative.
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[TB]: What is your opinion on the concept of exotica?
[XF]: I’m careful with it these days. Exotica started to have a negative
connotation, associated with exploitation and appropriation, which is
unfortunate because I think exotic is a beautiful word. Exotic means the
unknown. We’re stimulated when we see something foreign or alien.
Amazing architecture, visionary construction, food that you have not tasted
before, or new, unfamiliar, sensational sounds. Exotica inspires new things
to be born within yourself.
→ Footnotes
1. The term «cultural appropriation» came into use again in recent years. It
means the adoption of elements of a culture by members of another culture.
Privileged, white mainstream pop stars that create a new image and sound
based on stereotypical elements from another cultural context became one
classic example. Critics of this debate argue: cultures are not closed and
pure entities, and popular culture has always benefitted from inclusion of
«foreign» cultural elements.
→ List of References
Jason, Stefanie. 2015. «Blackface, White Guilt, Grey Area». The Mail & Guardian, January
22.
The interview was conducted via Skype, 22.4.2015. This text was published first
in the second Norient book Seismographic Sounds.
→ Shop
Seismographic Sounds – Visions of a New World
€35.00
The second Norient book «Seismographic Sounds – Visions of a New World» introduces you
to a contemporary world of distinct music and music videos. Written by 250 scholars,
journalists, bloggers and musicians from 50 countries.
purchase
→ Published on December 29, 2017
→ Last updated on August 19, 2020
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Thomas Burkhalter is an ethnomusicologist (PhD), interdisciplinary artist, and
music journalist from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient,
the Norient Space (Norient.com), and the Norient Film Festival (NFF). He co-
directed documentary films (e.g. “Contradict”, Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera
Witness) and AV/theatre/dance performances, is the author and co-editor of
several books, teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts
institutions. His experimental radio feature, “Gqom Edits – A Durban Visit”, was
nominated for Prix Europa in 2017. Currently, Burkhalter is working on a new music
project, and on the experimental podcast series “South Asian Sound Stories” with
musicians from the UK, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
→ Topics
Appropriation
Exotica
All Topics
→ Specials
Countries: South
Seismographic Sounds, Africa
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