Kameraad Mhambi

Gert Vlok Nel sings beautifully. Dutch documentary maker Walter Stokman recently made a documentary about this reclusive Afrikaans singer-poet -itself very good. Find a clip below from it withn the audio of Nel’s song Waarom ek roep na jou vanaand over the top of it. Here is some of the lyrics:

jou liedjies was so hartverskeurend skoon
te skoon te skoon om in te woon
hulle hoort nie in Afrika of hier êrens nie
jou liedjies belong eintlik nêrens nie.

your songs were so heartbreakingly beautiful
too beautiful to live in
they don’t belong in Africa or round here somewhere
your songs don’t really belong anywhere

The song is about Koos du Plessis, another famous Afrikaans poet-singer, and about the night he died in a car accident. I remember the night when Koos du Plessus died. My mother was shocked. She told us she knew his wife. And that he had three young daughters.

At university I had the good fortune to meet the daughters.

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