Song By Zulu Playwright Calls For War On Indians

The Telegraph ^ | 6-13-2002 | tim Butcher

[blam]

Song by Zulu playwright calls for war on Indians

By Tim Butcher in Johannesburg

A respected Zulu playwright has reopened old racial wounds in South Africa by releasing a song calling on blacks to fight the country's Indian minority.

A court has ordered all sales of Mbongeni Ngema's AmaNdiya - the Zulu word for Indians - to be stopped and Nelson Mandela has joined the opposition Democratic Alliance to demand an apology from Mr Ngema to the 500,000 South Africans of Indian descent.

Mr Ngema, one of South Africa's best-established writers, who used drama during the apartheid era to call for change, was unapologetic, claiming that his song reflected the sense of resentment still felt by many blacks towards Indians.

"It is not hate speech . . . it is an artist expressing the feelings of his own people," he said. "The song is in demand - in one shop in Durban 100 people asked for it on one day."

Durban is home to the largest concentration of Indians in South Africa. Local Zulus still feel resentment that under the apartheid system, white politicians gave advantages to the Indian community as part of a policy of divide and rule. Tensions between the two groups often degenerated into violence.

Mr Ngema's song may be controversial but it is not particularly catchy in translation.

"My fellow countrymen, we need courageous men who will take on the Indians," one of the verses says. "I have not seen Zulus going to Bombay, India. But Indians arrive in Durban every day and they are packed at the airport."

[blam]

Ah, ain't diversity great!

[blam]

FYI

[germanicus]

I have not seen Zulus going to Bombay, India

Now that would be interesting!

[laconic]

I think this is called racism.

[Jen]

Pay up.
Ammo costs.

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[blam]

"I think this is called racism."

But, it's okay, he's black.