Words as Weapons

Benesch talks about Dubulu iBhunu, a song that rose rose a hailstorm of debate in South Africa. Among friends and fans at his boozy 29th birthday party in March 2010, the South African youth leader Julius Malema cocked his right thumb, pointed his linger like a pistol and chanted "Dubulu iBhunu." The crowd sang along merrily. Malema sang Dubulu iBhunu again a few days later at a rally at the University of Johannesburg, but this time it was aired on television and translated into Afrikaans, in which 'Boer' originally meant 'farmer' and is now a derogatory term for Afrikaner. Whites especially feared that the song was inspiring black South Africans to kill Afrikaner farmers. In recent years, hundreds of white farm owners and managers had been murdered, mostly in connection with robberies, but often with gruesome violence, and sometimes with their wives or children. But the ruling African National Congress (ANC) defended Malema, then head of its Youth League, and the song. Party spokesman Jackson Mthembu took responsibility for it on behalf of the ANC, saying it "was sung for many years even before Malema was born, and must be understood in the context of the anti-apartheid struggle.". Adapted from the source document.