Contest Entry

[spuzzlightyear.livejournal.com]

Comments

Surprise--you're what's for dinner!

[siegferret.livejournal.com]

Cripes! That is just so... wrong.

Re: Surprise--you're what's for dinner!

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

Why?

[gotham-syren.livejournal.com]

Well THAT'S interesting. o.O

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

*ahem* as a South African here, I find this very interesting, and await to see the forthcoming comments.

That three legged pot is actually called a Potjie, South Africans use it to cook Potjiekos in (a stew) and also pap / putu which is maizemeal. The baby looks to be Xhosa or Ndebele. I'm unsure where the "cannibal" connotation comes from?

[flutterbychild.livejournal.com]

So it is possible that is an actual photograph, rather than staged or an illustration?

[kartoon-kompany.livejournal.com]

It came from stereotyped ideas of what white tourists believed Africans were like and somewhat expected.

Yes

[amiga500.livejournal.com]

I think the 'Surprise!' is what does it. I'm kind of in love with the fonts and that starburst thing, but want to know what the kid's wearing.

Re: Yes

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling the child is Ndebele because of the head beads, the circles of fur or beads, and the bare feet. The Ndebele are all about rings and patterns. The child looks to be probably a girl (1, she's in front of the cooking pot which is traditionally women's work, 2, her ears look like they are pierced, 3, she's wearing the leg rings of the woman's dress, if she is Ndebele). That's assumption but that's what I can gather from the image.

Re: Yes

[amiga500.livejournal.com]

The nude/adorned combo seems like perfect stuff for a toddler, and an image search is showing you're probably right here, and there are still adorable Ndebele kids.

My reaction on this one was conflicted - the child seemed cute, then the cannibalism references made me wonder if I was just being oblivious to the intended message, then I wondered if she ever knew she was used for an ad campaign. Thank you for the information here, and I think I'll see this as an image of a very little person living in a time that had a lot of problems. Not that that's unusual.

[tudorlady.livejournal.com]

I was so hoping someone who actually knew what this was would speak up. Thanks.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Huh. I never even thought of cannibalism till I read some other comments. The child is beautiful. My objection would have been to apartheid in those days.

I've eaten pap, but here in NZ. :-)

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

My husband is Afrikaner and my first thought was that the pot was for preparing pap or samp, not humans. My hubby loves him some baie lekker pap 'n boerewors (I probably totally butchered the spelling)! We're in the U.S., but fortunately there's a South African food shop in our area that sells boerewors and biltong.

I didn't visit SA until 1997, so I didn't even think about the cannibalism connotation until others did and I was like "huh?" I just see an adorable child playing with cooking tools like all children do, but maybe people of the time read something racist into it. A lot of Americans did associate Africans with cannibalism back then.

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

Pikkewyntjie! We have a colony of Jackass penguins down the road from us :D

Where is your husband from in South Africa?

I know, it distresses me when the first connotation of a black child = Aids / poverty / magic / mysticism / cannibalism. Could it not simply be a black child? An individual? I guess it's a product of the culture you've been brought up in.

And your spelling was spot on. When I lived in Wales for a while I had some serious biltong depravation. I just couldn't get it anywhere and was one of the deciding factors (I'm serious) in emigrating back to SA.

[pikkewyntjie.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! I love penguins! I can make just as much noise, but I am not nearly as cute, unfortunately!!!

Hubby grew up in Port Elizabeth, but his family is from Pretoria. When his dad retired, they moved back there and that's where they live now, right next to the Presidential golf course. I lived in Pretoria for six months. It is so pretty there. I have only been to PE once, but I thought it was really nice, too. Where did you grow up?

I agree with your points about the child. AIDS probably wasn't around when this ad was made, but I did think that today a child like that could easily be an orphan.

I understand about the biltong, too. I never thought I would like dried meat, but biltong is awesome! Much better than the beef jerky we have here in American, IMO! :)

[vonjunzt.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I find it extremely disturbing that people's first thought would be cannibalism. It's a peculiar form of racism that imagines that if a black person is cooking something in a pot, it must be a human being.

South Africa has some really cool things going for it. Like Mapungubwe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Mapungubwe). And the Kimberley Diamond Mines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_diamond_mines). And flame-throwing cars (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9812/11/flame.thrower.car/).

Well, maybe not so much on the flame-throwing cars.

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I find it extremely disturbing that people's first thought would be cannibalism. It's a peculiar form of racism that imagines that if a black person is cooking something in a pot, it must be a human being.

Yep, and that's why I'm doing a research degree into the perception of Africa and South Africa in the Western world. :)

[bzul.livejournal.com]

On its own, the image doesn't rile me at all. In fact, I like it. It's a cute kid with elements of traditional dress and utensils. Doesn't seem strange or tainted with cartoonish associations or distortions.

The enormously objectionable and uncomfortable things here include the bent and irrational, repressive, segregated nature of the country at the time of the cheery invitation, and the callous-assed audacity of using a person subjected to those racist conditions as a marketing prop. The copy trumpets the natural beauty while deep and firm social/political ugliness was an established feature of the nation.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

This.

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

Yep. This. From a South African, you've hit it on the head. Most white South Africans knew very little about what was "actually" happening because it was kept so far away from us: the news media was HEAVILY censored and blacks and white (and coloureds and Indians and Chinese and non-Europeans and English and Afrikaans for that matter) were kept apart. I only had black children in my class in 1990 at the earliest.

[kartoon-kompany.livejournal.com]

But now, aren't mostly the Blacks in charge to some degree? I'm African-American and they don't post a lot of things about South Africa outside of sporting events here.

[bernthewitch.livejournal.com]

... it's a democracy, so the best political party is in charge. Supposedly. A lot of the people here still vote with the Heritage Vote (voting the ANCbased on the struggle, voting for the FF+ based on Apartheid narrowmindedness).

[fridgedicebunny.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[beetle-breath.livejournal.com]

fuck yeah, racism!