My love for Fokofpolisiekar is a bit like the conundrum of the chicken and the egg. I don’t know which came first: my love for their rock ‘n’ roll or my love for their lyrics. In the beginning, though, there was no love. In fact, I did not like Fokofpolisiekar at all. There were two reasons why. Firstly, they were an Afrikaans band. Having been exposed to one too many sokkie treffers in my childhood, I refused to listen to Afrikaans music. Secondly, I got caught in a mosh pit at one of their gigs and spent the next morning washing beer out my hair and staring woefully at my bruised feet. I can’t remember the exact moment the turning point occurred, but it had something to do with my growing love for rock and the resonance of their powerful lyrics, once I took the time to listen to them properly. It spun off into a love that holds many memories: buying my first Afrikaans CD; playing Monoloog in Stereo on repeat; sitting in my garden, singing along to their songs, and the nervous excitement of a wild party that captured the musicians in Pretoria whenever Fokofpolisiekar was in town.

Continue reading [Di’s] Suid-Afrika: An Interview with Fokofpolisiekar →