PicoBlog

South Africans have been turning up in new - and sometimes unexpected - places since the opening days of 2024. And they are doing it with enough frequency to allow myself the thought that we might be in the long-awaited phase two of the rainbow nation - at the time, the loveliest of terms originally coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to help South Africans visualise our specialness and connectedness as we transitioned from apartheid to a democracy.

This time ‘though the flow is outward facing, a sort-of reverse engineering of what America understood in the post-World War II period about the soft-power of entertainment, especially music, television and the movies. Now I’m not making a claim for the same force of cultural exports that has emerged from the US over the past seven or so decades. Plus there are plenty of historical examples of impact in the US by South Africans, starting with Solomon Linda’s “Mbube” (which was the basis of, first, The Weavers’ “Wimoweh” and, later, The Tokens’ “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) and including Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela and many more. But, what the heck, the currents I am tapping into feel as fresh as the first spring rains after a long, dusty and crackling dry Johannesburg winter.

“What the heck?” is actually what South African singer Tyla endearingly said when she won the Best African Music Performance Grammy Award this past Sunday, followed by “Oh my gosh, guys, this is crazy! I never thought I’d say I won a Grammy at 22 years old”. “If you don’t know me, my name is Tyla, I’m from South Africa and last year God decided to change my whole life,” continued the Joburg-raised singer, causing the hearts of South Africans everywhere to pulsate with pride (except perhaps those who got embroiled in a discussion on Facebook a few days later about what role auto-tuned played in her song’s recording and during which several South Africans - ok, white South Africans - once again revealed how little of the rainbow they can actually see).

Tyla won for her single “Water” which sailed into all kinds of charts on the back of scorching lyrics and a fizzy mix of amapiano beats with pop and R&B, along with a dance that turned it into a TikTok hit. One of these charts was the Billboard Hot 100: the FAX Records/Epic Records-released single debuted at number 67 on this all-genre chart in October last year and soon entered the top 10, peaking at number 7 and staying there for 18 weeks - and counting. Even if you don’t put alot of stock into the relevance of Billboard’s multiple charts these days, it’s a notable achievement and reminds me of the times, when I was the South African correspondent for the magazine, when I would be told that so-and-so was on the Billboard charts and headed for global glory but in reality the artist had made it into the outer edges of one of the magazine’s minor charts, an accomplishment of sorts but nothing like a Hot 100 strike.

Of course, even without a Tyla win, the Grammy Awards provided a lightning rod moment for the transmission of South African entertainment to the world. The host for the fourth time was Trevor Noah - who I always thought would achieve international success (if you haven’t already read it, here’s what I wrote about the time I did a Rolling Stone Interview with the comedian) although honestly, never on the scale that it is unfolding.  

But it was what happened the day after the Grammy Awards that made me think about the steady infiltration of South Africans into popular culture - in this case the most groundbreaking adult comedy show of the 21st century and the most anticipated final television season in our family since, well, forever.

I’m talking about episode 1 of the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, a show that, together with Seinfeld, has made Larry David the single most uncompromising comedic talent of the last 35 years. In an episode that aired here on February 5th, Larry is paid to attend the party of an African businessman with Maria Sophia (Keyla Monterroso Mejia), the star of his surprise Netflix hit, Young Larry, his lodger, Leon Black (J.B. Smoove), in tow. In a classic Curb turn of events, the African turns out to be Sharlto Copley who hams it up as the odious businessman Michael Fouchay (a play on the pronunciation of the Afrikaans surname Fouche) holding court in his nouveau riche Atlanta mansion.

Fouchay: “Oh my words. Larry David. Maria Sophia. Wow, guys! Welcome! It’s so nice to meet you, Larry. 

Larry: Nice to meet you.

Fouchay: What an honour to have you guys in my house.

Larry: Your house? You’re Michael Fouchay?

Fouchay: Yes.

Larry: You’re Michael Fouchay?

Fouchay: Yes, Michael Fouchay. It’s my birthday.

Larry: I thought you were African?

Fouchay: Yes, I am, I’m South African. Born and raised in Joburg. 

“You don’t tell people you’re from Africa if you are from South Africa,” Larry says to Leon as Fouchay turns his attention to Maria Sophia, and all of a sudden South Africa is a perfect reference point for a series that has quite brilliantly mined a multitude of country, cultural and religious quirks over its 12 seasons; a comedy of unflinching minutiae of manners that has sustained a degree of hilarity and cringe inducing identification and inspired fandom of a cultish devotion.

The rest of the scene includes recognisable South Africanisms (“Put it there,” says Fouchay to Leon, offering his hand before lightly punching his chest to indicate their shared brotherhood) and also an invocation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) when Larry turns up at Fouchay’s office to ask why he won’t pay his appearance fee (“You said you were going to be cordial, you weren’t cordial,” says Fouchay by way of explanation as he waves a contract around). The businessman then persuades Larry to settle this “the African way”, using the approach of the TRC because “that’s how we healed Apartheid”. “I am going to be Desmond Tutu and then I am going to ask you questions,” Fouchay declares and I will leave the rest for you to watch because it’s brilliant television. (The episode also includes a scene depicting Larry lunching with his manager, Jeff - Jeff Garlin - and his wife Susie - Susan Essman - where they learn that the service is slow because the waiter is in mourning which is just about as perfect a Curb scene as you can get).

Of course this isn’t the first time that a South African has turned up as a less-than-lovable character by scriptwriters who deem both the people and our accent to be on the villainous side of things. Here is Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, an Afrikaner arms dealer in Avengers: Age of Ultron fielding an accent that can best be described as whatever you get when you mix a New Zealand accent with a South African one to create a sound that see-saws between the two with the speed of a runaway rollercoaster. There are plenty more examples of why ours is considered the most difficult accent to master and I would recommend that anyone wanting to speak like a South African watches Copley himself giving a lesson on how best to do it because, what the heck, you’re not going to hear it better than from a boykie born in Pretoria, raised in Tshwane.

I leave you with this, dear reader.

Sharlto Copley isn’t the first South African to appear on Curb. That would be legendary golfer Gary Player who has a cameo as himself in The Smoking Jacket, an episode from Season 5. In it, Larry arrives at Player’s home in a green jacket that’s an exact replica of the one you get when you win The Masters, as Player did in 1961 (incidentally becoming the first international to wear it). Naturally, things take a swerve when Player suggests Larry tries on his original jacket and the golfer puts on Larry’s. Again, I will leave it for you to watch. Speaking of sport, here’s another place where South Africans are coming in thick and fast on the international stage - the Springboks winning last year’s Rugby World Cup and, in January 2024 in Canada, Dricus du Plessis becoming South Africa's first ever UFC champion (but still, as the meme doing the rounds after the historic win had it, only number eight in Boksburg *).

* For readers who are not South African, Boksburg is a town in the East Rand area of greater Joburg with a reputation for tough guys. It’s a short drive away from Benoni, famous for being the place where Charlize Theron was born and also the place where my dad spent some of his childhood when his father worked at East Rand Proprietary Mine and where my grandfather took the early steps to becoming a South African amateur golfing champion, long before Gary Player triumphed at Augusta - a story for another day. 

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