Rian Malan | |
---|---|
Born | Johannesburg, South Africa |
Occupation | Author, journalist, documentarist, musician, songwriter |
Genre | Memoirs, investigative journalism |
Notable works | My Traitor's Heart , In the Jungle |
Rian Malan is a South African author, journalist, documentarist and songwriter of Afrikaner descent. He first rose to prominence as the author of the memoir My Traitor's Heart (1990), which, like the bulk of his work, deals with South African society in a historical and contemporary perspective and focuses on racial relations. As a journalist, he has written for major newspapers in South Africa, Britain and the United States.
Malan grew up in a middle-class and pro-apartheid Afrikaner family in a white suburb of Johannesburg. He attended Blairgowrie Primary School in Randburg where one of his contemporaries was the columnist, Jani Allan. He then attended Woodmead School, South Africa's first non-racially based high school. He has described how, as a teenager, he formed a rock band that associated with black artists and wanted to rebel against the apartheid system, at a time when he in fact had virtually no interaction with black people. He attended the then Witwatersrand University for a year. To avoid conscription, which was compulsory for all white males, he moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and worked as a journalist. [1] [2]
Returning to South Africa in the 1980s, he wrote My Traitor's Heart , [3] his memoir of growing up in Apartheid-era South Africa in which he explores race relations through prominent murder cases. [4] In addition, he reflects on the history of his family, a prominent Afrikaner clan that migrated to the Cape in the 17th century and included Daniel François Malan, the South African Prime Minister who was a principal ideological force behind Apartheid doctrine. [3] The book, which became a best-seller, was translated into 11 languages. [1]
Malan began his journalistic career in 1975, as a reporter for The Star . During his stay in the US, he served as managing editor for Music Connection (1978), as news editor for LA Weekly (1979), as staff writer for New West Magazine (California) (1981), as senior writer for Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (1984) and as senior editor for Manhattan Magazine (1984). Since then, he has been a freelance writer for various magazines, mainly in the US (e.g. Esquire , Rolling Stone , The Wall Street Journal), Britain (e.g. The Spectator and The Sunday Times ) and South Africa (e.g. The Star, Time and Noseweek ). [1] A number of his essays are collected in the volume The Lion Sleeps Tonight and other stories of South Africa (New York: Grove Press, 2012), ISBN 9780802119902.
In 2000, he wrote a widely disseminated piece in Rolling Stone about the origin of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", tracing its history from its first recording by Solomon Linda, a penniless Zulu singer, through its adoption by The Weavers, The Tokens and many of the folksingers of the 1960s, and its appropriation by The Walt Disney Company in the movie The Lion King . [5] Malan reveals that Linda never received any royalties for the song; however, an ensuing court case established that 25 percent of the song's past and future royalties should go to Linda's three daughters. [6]
Malan has generated controversy by repeatedly questioning the seriousness and scope of AIDS in Africa. In articles in Rolling Stone, The Spectator and Noseweek, a controversial South African monthly, he proposed that AIDS statistics are greatly exaggerated by researchers and health professionals who are trying to obtain more funding. [7] [8] [9] His hypothesis was roundly criticised by national and international AIDS organisations, and Malan was accused of endangering lives in Africa. In an interview in the Afrikaans magazine, Insig, Malan said, 'I get a kick out of it when the Treatment Action Campaign attacks me; it's like sport.' [10] In 2007, he said, 'In truth, I never claimed that Aids was not a problem – on the contrary, I described it as a terrible affliction that was claiming countless lives. At the same time however, it was clear that Aids numbers were being exaggerated and good news suppressed. I stand by that story.' [11]
In 1990, Malan appeared as the presenter of an episode of BBC Television's Omnibus, titled Tales of Ordinary Murder: Rian Malan in South Africa. [12]
In 1994, he appeared as the presenter of BBC Television's travel documentary, Great Railway Journeys (series 2, episode 2). The episode was titled Cape Town to the Lost City. [13]
In 2004, he appeared in an episode of Channel 4's Without Walls, titled The Last Afrikaner. A Search with Rian Malan, written by Malan and directed by Don Boyd. [14]
In 2005, his struggle for justice for the heirs of Solomon Linda (see above) was documented in A Lion's Trail , directed by François Verster. [15]
In 2009, Malan, together with Lloyd Ross, produced the documentary The Splintering Rainbow for Al Jazeera. The film documents a journey through South Africa, investigating unfolding political dramas and taking the pulse of the Rainbow Nation. [16]
Alien Inboorling | |
---|---|
Studio album by Rian Malan | |
Released | 2005-10-28 |
Genre | Afrikaans, folk, world, country |
Length | 58:05 |
Language | Afrikaans |
Label | Shifty Music/Sony BMG |
Producer | Lloyd Ross |
He has released a CD of his own songs, titled Alien Inboorling. [17] The title translates as "Alien native"; the songs were described by one journalist as "parables of contemporary South Africa told in the voices of Afrikaners who have stayed and those who have left. The songs are dusty, weary, a stream of consciousness for the Afrikaans 'tribe'." [4]
The CD was listed as number 23 on Afrikaans newspaper Beeld's list of 'Albums van die dekade'. [18]
He also performs with Hot Club d'Afrique, a gypsy jazz band. [19]
Malan contributed lyrics to Stoomradio and Opgestook, the first two albums by Afrikaans roots music/boeremusiek band Radio Kalahari Orkes and appears on guitar on their second CD, Die Nagloper [20] He also contributed lyrics to Say Africa by Vusi Mahlasela. [21]
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a Dutch-born South African politician, scholar in applied psychology, philosophy, and sociology, and newspaper editor who was Prime Minister of South Africa. He is commonly regarded as the architect of apartheid and nicknamed the "father of apartheid". Verwoerd played a significant role in socially engineering apartheid, the country's system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and implementing its policies, as Minister of Native Affairs (1950–1958) and then as prime minister (1958–1966). Furthermore, Verwoerd played a vital role in helping the far-right National Party come to power in 1948, serving as their political strategist and propagandist, becoming party leader upon his premiership. He was the Union of South Africa's last prime minister, from 1958 to 1961, when he proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Africa, remaining its prime minister until his assassination in 1966.
The National Party, also known as the Nationalist Party, was a political party in South Africa from 1914 to 1997, which was responsible for the implementation of apartheid rule. The party was an Afrikaner ethnic nationalist party, which initially promoted the interests of Afrikaners but later became a stalwart promoter and enactor of white supremacy, for which it is best known. It first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It merged with its rival, the South African Party (SAP), during the 1929-1939 Great Depression, and a splinter faction, the Re-United National Party became the official opposition during World War II and won power in 1948. With the National Party governing South Africa from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994, the country for the bulk of this time was only a de jure or partial democracy, as from 1958 onwards non-white people were barred from voting. In 1990, it began to style itself as simply a South African civic nationalist party, and after the fall of apartheid in 1994, attempted to become a moderate conservative one. The party's reputation was damaged irreparably by perpetrating apartheid, and it rebranded itself as the New National Party in 1997 before eventually dissolving in 2005.
Daniël François Malan was a South African politician who served as the fourth prime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. The National Party implemented the system of apartheid, which enforced racial segregation laws, during his tenure as prime minister.
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom, also known as Hans Strijdom and nicknamed the Lion of the North or the Lion of Waterberg, was a South African politician and the fifth prime minister of South Africa from 30 November 1954 to his death on 24 August 1958. He was an uncompromising Afrikaner nationalist and a member of the largest, baasskap faction of the National Party (NP), who further accentuated the NP's apartheid policies and break with the Union of South Africa in favour of a republic during his rule.
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and first recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube", through South African Gallo Record Company. Lyrics of Linda's original version were written in Zulu, while those of the English one were later written by George David Weiss.
General Magnus André de Merindol Malan was a South African military figure and politician during the last years of apartheid in South Africa. He served respectively as Minister of Defence in the cabinet of President P. W. Botha, Chief of the South African Defence Force (SADF), and Chief of the South African Army. Rising quickly through the lower ranks, he was appointed to strategic command positions. His tenure as chief of the defence force saw it increase in size, efficiency and capabilities.
The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, D. H. C. du Plessis and the Rev. Jozua Naudé in 1918 as Jong Zuid Afrika until 1920, when it was renamed the Broederbond. Its influence within South African political and social life came to a climax with the 1948-1994 rule of the white supremacist National Party and its policy of apartheid, which was largely developed and implemented by Broederbond members. Between 1948 and 1994, many prominent figures of Afrikaner political, cultural, and religious life, including every leader of the South African government, were members of the Afrikaner Broederbond.
André Philippus Brink was a South African novelist, essayist and poet. He wrote in both Afrikaans and English and taught English at the University of Cape Town.
Johannes Kerkorrel, born Ralph John Rabie, was a South African singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright.
In My Country is a 2004 drama film directed by John Boorman, and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche. It is centred around the story of Afrikaner poet Anna Malan (Binoche) and an American journalist, Langston Whitfield (Jackson), sent to South Africa to report about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
Solomon Popoli Linda OIG, also known as Solomon Ntsele, was a South African musician, singer and composer best known as the composer of the song "Mbube", which later became the pop music success "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and gave its name to the Mbube style of isicathamiya a cappella later popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Boeremusiek is a predominantly instrumental form of folk music that originated in South Africa. Initially intended to accompany informal social dancing, Boeremusiek developed through a fusion of European, African, and American musical traditions. While it remains a symbol of white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans, particularly among rural and working-class communities, the genre carries complex socio-political associations.
Many people of European heritage in South Africa are descended from Huguenots. Most of these originally settled in the Dutch Cape Colony, but were absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans-speaking population, because they had religious similarities to the Dutch colonists.
There is a wide range of ways in which people have represented apartheid in popular culture. During (1948–1994) and following the apartheid era in South Africa, apartheid has been referenced in many books, films, and other forms of art and literature.
My Traitor's Heart is an autobiographical book by Rian Malan first published in 1990 on his return from exile. It is subtitled South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe and His Conscience or Blood and Bad Dreams: A South African Exile Explores the Madness in His Country, His Tribe and Himself.
Die Radio Kalahari Orkes is a South African band, fronted by actor Ian Roberts, performing a mix of musical styles, focussing on Cape Malay and traditional Afrikaans styles. With authentic acoustic instruments such as tin guitar, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, violin and accordion, they had by 2011 produced the albums Stoomradio, Die Nagloper, Opgestook, Heuningland, and a "greatest hits" album, Grootste Treffers. In 2017 a new album came out, Mamba. Their collaborations include work with Chris Chameleon, Valiant Swart and Jack Parow, and they sometimes perform songs by Rian Malan.
A Lion's Trail is a 2002 documentary film by François Verster about the rights for the popular song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh", "Wimba Way" or "Awimbawe", a song written and recorded by the South African shepherd and singer of Zulu origin Solomon Linda with the Evening Birds as "Mbube".
Henry Allan Fagan, QC was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1957 to 1959 and previously a Member of Parliament and the Minister of Native Affairs in J. B. M. Hertzog's government. Fagan had been an early supporter of the Afrikaans language movement and a noted Afrikaans playwright and novelist. Though he was a significant figure in the rise of Afrikaner nationalism and a long-term member of the Broederbond, he later became an important opponent of Hendrik Verwoerd's National Party and is best known for the report of the Fagan Commission, whose relatively liberal approach to racial integration amounted to the Smuts government's last, doomed stand against the policy of apartheid.
ReMastered: The Lion's Share is a 2019 documentary film about the search by Rian Malan, a South African journalist, for the original writers of the famous song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
Jacques Philip Malan was a South African musicologist who held several prominent positions in South African music throughout his career. He was also the editor of the South African Music Encyclopedia, published in four volumes by Oxford University Press between 1979 and 1986.