Ik ben een Afrikaner (I am an African), is a group show by South African artists, Francki Burger, Hannelie Coetzee, Johann du Plessis, Pauline Gutter, Clare Menck, John Murray, Mea Ox, Henk Serfontein, Cobus van Bosch and Reney Warrington.

The first person recorded to have identified himself as an Afrikaner was Dutch settler, Hendrik Biebouw, who, in March 1707, stated, Ik ben een Afrikander (meaning I am an African).

In 1996 many years after colonial occupation, then-deputy president, Thabo Mbeki, started his now iconic speech on behalf of the ANC with the famous phrase, “I am an African” following ironically with the phrase “Not because I was born there, but because my heart beats with Africa.”

These two moments stand in stark contrast and sum up the challenges faced by the modern day Afrikaner who is claiming his place in South Africa.

Afrikaans identity has become all but subsumed by the legacy of their political position in a racially divided South Africa, and yet the origin of the name is rooted in the desire to establish this continent as their home.

A rising voice of new Afrikaans artists, poets and literary thinkers have been grappling with the concept of an Afrikaner identity that is not merely a now shameful label from a time the country is trying to forget, but a culture that in itself is as African as any other.

“In this series of paintings, I commenced into an exploration of the Afrikaner Masculine Identity. I focused on portraying the pelvic areas of 9 individual Afrikaner male subjects centering on their unique individual stances in the public arena. These ‘Under The Belt’ postures reveal each distinctive style and brings forth each character’s male mannerisms”, says Pauline Gutter, describing her work and one of the themes outlined in her work.

According to artist, Henk Serfontein,“Being Afrikaans in post-apartheid South Africa is certainly not without problems; I find myself constantly dealing with the historical baggage and shame intrinsically tied to being Afrikaans, but also desperately trying to construct a new identity from all this. There is a certain tension for me in this constant process of deconstruction of the old and simultaneous construction of a new identity.”

‘Verlate’, is a title of one of the works by Reney Warrington.

“The word ‘verlate’ is also one of those Afrikaans words that are difficult to translate into English but loosely it means deserted or left behind” says Warrington. “Looking at the work, the text and photograph in addition, also reflect what I felt when my family disintegrated, my sister could not accept the fact that I was gay and suddenly decided to deny me access to my niece and nephew. The toys in the photographs, left behind without much thought in the back garden, is all I have left of her and the children.”

Ik ben een Afrikaner contains artworks of mixed media. Artists Hannelie Coetzee elected the medium of public art. The 'Stranger' by Hannelie Coetzee, is an urban public artwork between Arts on Main and Main Street Life, on Fox Street near the open storm drain. “The work deals with my experience of moving into a new workplace… The day I stood at the storm drain I realized that I feel like a stranger amongst all these strangers around me,” says Coetzee.

Ik ben een Afrikaner is an exhibition by accomplished contemporary South African artists opening at Artspace, 1 Chester Court, 142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, 18:00 on 1 June.

The exhibition runs until 29 June.

Gallery hours:
Tuesday to Friday 10:00 to 17:30
Saturday 10:00 to 15:30