Profoundly South African singer-songwriter Koos Kombuis stirred up a storm in 2006 with a whimsical tune entitled “Fokkol.” The free download sapped the width of thousands of broadbands from Worcester to Wollongong. The song paints a bleak picture of South Africa. A tour guide’s monologue from the year 2010, the lyrics lament the plight of a fallen country and fanatically expose its ruins. Smug ex-pats were thrilled. Homecoming revolutionaries were indignant.
The song also appeared on a YouTube offering entitled “The New South Africa.” It was given English subtitles and accompanied by a montage of dystopian imagery showcasing the hack Movie Maker skills of a certain “sweetlove3ten.” While the song is described as “hilarious,” it should have been given the tag satire rather than parody. Nevertheless, most of the 314 comments generated by the video’s 58,860 views (circa the date of this post) push the idea of humour aside and vent an even direr glimpse of the state of the nation.
“Fokkol” has been embraced with enthusiasm by those seeking to confirm their pessimism about South Africa. Those in denial want to pillory Koos Kombuis for being unpatriotic. Few seem to realise that they are responding to a work of science fiction. The monologue, after all, performs an imaginative time warp that gives the song its satirical edge. The lyrics simply suggest that tour guides in 2010 will have lots to talk about what little the country has to offer.
Nevertheless, satire is also directed at the tour guide’s bleak and critical eye. Will South Africa’s poor self-esteem go so far as to infect those whose task it is to take visitors to our places of national pride? Has seeking signs of failure become a South African fetish? Mind you, the guide in question speaks in Afrikaans, which suggests that he must be addressing a group of South African ex-pats. Perhaps they’ve returned from exile to indulge in what they expect to be a World Cup disaster. Perhaps their tour guide is telling them exactly what they want to hear.
