HUMOUR IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICANS CAN LAUGH AT THEIR OWN PREJUDICES

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34128, 14 April 1976, Page 20

HUMOUR IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICANS CAN LAUGH AT THEIR OWN PREJUDICES

(By

JOHN BORRELL,

in Johannesburg, [or the Observer Foreign Acu-s Serr

For a nation with a reputation for dourness South Africans have a s””prising capacity for laughing at themselves. One of the best-sellers at the momenf is a collection of jokes about the archetypal South African* a character called van der Merwe. Van der Merwe is an endearingly -t upid racial bigot who shows flashes of cunning and he lias, in the space of about 20 years, grown into an institution of the Andy Capp or Archie Bunker type.

i Van der Merwe jokes are tcld in bars, at dowagers’ morning tea parties in the affluent suburbs and at official functions. Even the Prime Minister, Mr John Vorster is reported to have told President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, a van der Merwe joke at their historic meeting in Zambia last year.

A van der Merwe comic strip has been appearing in a Sunday newspaper for some time and the strip’s artist was one of three people who got together to produce the book which in seven months has become a best-seller.

In this time 42,000 copies have been sold, a big sale for the restricted South African market. With the book in its fourth printing the publishers are preparing to bring out a second collection of jokes later this year. “It has gone like a rocket,” said Mr John Carver, director of Lorton Publications. “I think it disproves the old myth about

(South Africans not being (able to laugh at themselves." Large section Although most South Africans would be offended to be likened to van der Merwe the attitudes he reflects are very South African and his deep prejudices are those of a large section of the country s white population. For example the joke Mr Vorster is reputed to have | told President Kaunda goes I something like this: Van der Merwe, an old South African, farming in Zambia, takes his I first holiday for years and, goes back to Pretoria where' he meets Mr Vorster, with] whom he was at school, in j the street. “Hello there. Van.” saysi Vorster, “what are you ( doing these days?” “I’m farming up in Zant-| Ibia,” says ver der Merwe. i “What are you doing?" ' “Don’t you know," says: IVorster, a little surprised. i’T’m the Prime Minister here I in South Africa.” ' “Good Lord,” replies van der Merwe. “we have a kaffir (black) doing that job up where I live.” ; Many other van der Merwe jokes reveal the South Africans’ deep-seated ( racial prejudices and the I love-hate relationship they I have with the country’s 17 million blacks. One which has become popular recently as a result of South African attempts to improve its image goes like this: Vorster is making a

I nation-wide tour by helicopter when he sees two men ‘in a motor-boat on the I.im- : popo River pulling a black iman on water skis. '! Pulling out a loud-hailer I Vorster shouts: “Men. T want you to know that I am “(very proud to see such co--1 loperation and friendship be- ■ tween the races. Keep it l U P-" ■ I Down in the boat a puzjzled van der Merwe turns to (his friend: “Vorster’s a good Ibloke.” he said, “but he sure (doesn’t know the first thing (about crocodile hunting. i. ’White contempt i But while van der Merwe 'shows the deep-seated conI tempt many whites have for i blacks, some van der Merwe !jokes display a perhaps sub (conscious awareness that Africans are often more intelligent than their white ■bosses. When van der Merwe is sent to measure the flagpole iat the Government head (quarters in Pretoria he climbs up the pole with his tapemeasure. But th, pole falls over and tan der Merwe puts the pole up , again and climbs it once I again. But the pole falls iiover again. ( His black helper vatchc (this performance until he (can no longer keep quiet. “Baas,” he says, “why don’t you measure the pole while , it is lying on the gound?” Van der Merwe shakes his head pityingly. “I don't want the length. I want the height, you fool.” —O.F.N.S. Copyright.