M Hartley, Chairman: Cape Malay heritage society
The Cape Malay choirs were a creation of racist Nationalist Afrikaner Professor ID Du Plessis in 1939 (“Choir competition left out in the cold”, Tatler, February 4).
This racist Nationalist Afrikaner was treated as a demi god by Cape Muslims of the Cape. I say “Cape Muslims” because most were not of Melayu asel (roots) because during the slavery period at the Cape, most of the Malay women were raped and abused by their white slave masters.
The first people of the Cape (Khoi, Khoi San etc) were not enslaved as per direct order of Dutch East India Company VOC.
The Cape Malay (sic) choirs claim that they were celebrating 200 years of existence which I challenged and they retracted and have amended it to 75 years. What a retraction – 125 years.
The “moppies” they are singing contain sexual innuendo. This was proven to be factual at a conference that was convened by the District Six Museum, and held at the Centre of the Book some time back.
This was said by Professor Desmond Desai, a linguist from University of the Western Cape.
The names of the choirs are Afrikaans or English and some have Christian gospel singers in them.
The creators of these lyrics do not hold any degree in either Afrikaans or Dutch.
Nobody wears any Malay cultural costume or plays any Malay musical instrument.
Lastly, when Indonesia gained their independence, the first thing Indonesians did was ban the oppressive Dutch language.
