The Voëlvry Movement

The Voëlvry movement in South Africa was able to use music in order to spread the word of anti-apartheid beliefs. Voëlvry, meaning outcast or free as a bird, was used to explain the movement’s purpose. This movement has been said to have started on April 4, 1989 in Johannesburg in a packed club. This marked the movement in which has been stated as a ‘rock ‘n roll uprising’. The Voëlvry movement used Afrikaans music, music spoken specifically in South African in order to show pride.^[1] This movement was aimed to be focused on the Afrikaner youth. The main goal of this movement was to get the Afrikaner youth to realize the changes that needed to occur in the “authoritarian, patriarchal culture”.^[1]

History

South Africa was experiencing Apartheid, or the separations of race enforced by law. People of the non-white race were removed from political office or even worse, were removed from the country.^[2] Uprising and protests increased in number and lead to major anti-apartheid movements. One of these movements, in 1989, was called the Voëlvry movement.

The Voëlvry movement was started in the 1980’s with the opening of Shifty Mobile Recording Studio. Started by Lloyd Ross, this company began playing Afrikaans rock music, but it was too early for wide acceptance.^[3] Shifty Records asked three major questions when looking at music to accept: is it original? Does the music have quality? And does it allow for growth in South Africa’s music development? This lead Ross to allow music that was angry and music that directly sand in response to Apartheid. Ross was quoted saying, “But I am not a movement type of guy and never joined any political party or organization. What fascinated me was the culture coming out of it. That’s what I wanted to capture”.^[1]

Ralph Rabie, also known as Johannes Kerkorrel, is one of the major forces that drove this movement. Rabie used this name as a stage name in order to mock the Dutch Reformed Church. Johannes Kerkorrel is also the name of a trademark Dutch organ.^[1] Other musicians, such as Andre du Toit, James Phillips, Bernoldus Niemand, and Karla Kripelien were prominent in the movement.^[1]

Concerts: The tour

The tour focused on getting the youth in South Africa to realize issues going on in the government. The major surveillance and threats from police sparked trouble at the beginning of the tour. Because of this, there were major issues in having suitable venues in order to host the tour. The tour tried to get into University venues but were banned from most and not allowed to perform because of the “offensive language by the bands ran counter to the refined art of academic debate”.^[2] Instead, the tour found venues in abandoned buildings and were able to share the message they found important in the music.^[2][3][4]

During the tour, media coverage was negative.^[4] The media claimed that the lyrics of the songs were naïve.^[2] Kerkorrel later stated that, “They obviously don’t realize that our whole idea is to write naïve lyrics. We are liberating the language. If you can make a language into rock and roll, it can’t be an oppressive language anymore.”^[2] Rock and roll music was used in order to represent traditional Afrikaans songs and symbols.^[5] Songs in this movement portrayed basic symbols that were important in South Africa and making them obscure in order to represent the message that they wanted to bring out.^[1] For example, in the song Ossewa (oxwagon), the standard symbol of the oxwagon was changed to a car and helped to lead Afrikaners out of political turmoil and into the future.

References