Sunday, March 17, 2013

Dubula Ibhunu "Shoot the Boer" -

APRIL 6, 2010, 1:00 PM

Dubula Ibhunu

“Shoot the Boer” – a lyric from an apartheid-era song which has become newly controversial in South Africa.

The words of the song “Ayesaba Amagwala” (“the cowards are scared”) have been found to violate South Africa’s constitution, which forbids the “advocacy of hatred that is based on race … and that constitutes incitement to cause harm,” The Economist reported:

Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the ANC Youth League, whose prominence and influence belies his 29 years, recently chose to perform “Ayesaba Amagwala,” a Zulu ditty with lyrics that say “Dubula ibhunu,” meaning “Shoot the Boer,” the Afrikaans word for farmer that is often held to refer to whites in general.

This choice of song has attracted sustained criticism, not least because more than 3,000 white farmers have been murdered since apartheid ended in 1994:

Mr Malema’s latest rendition has raised the question of whether his right to free speech should be trumped by the constitution’s ban on spreading hatred. The race-relations institute’s Kerwin Lebone says the ban should prevail. “These kinds of things are necessary if we are to protect what was achieved in 1994,” he says. “Otherwise, what’s the point?”

According to The Economist, the ANC “insists the songs are part of liberation history and will appeal against the court ruling.” However, Dan McDougall in The Times of London quoted Tom Stokes of the opposition Democratic Alliance who rejected this stance:

“Any argument by the ANC that this song is merely a preservation of struggle literature rings hollow in the face of farming families who have lost wives, mothers and grandmothers.”

 

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