Notes

Anton Kannemeyer, sometimes working under the pseudonym of Joe Dog, founded Bitterkomix with Conrad Botes in 1992. The aim of the satirical magazine was to look at the foibles of White Afrikaners on the cusp of a new political dispensation. Revered for its dark humour and subversive stance, Bitterkomix quickly gained cult status among the old guard who could laugh nostalgically at themselves, as well as a new generation in search of an alternative Afrikaner. The present work, Nag van die Wit Skrik, appeared in the first issue of the comic book and was included in the later compendium, The Big, Bad Bitterkomix Handbook (2006). It relates the story (supposedly based on truth) of a young white university student (possibly Kannemeyer himself, who studied at the University of Stellenbosch at the time) mistaken as homosexual and consequently attacked by a group of white thugs. Heaving a sigh of relief when a policeman arrives on the scene, the young man is left stunned (not to mention battered and bruised) when the constable sides with his attackers. The themes of police brutality, homophobia, and right-wing conservatism that this work addresses were particulary relevant in the contemporary context. The story also comments wryly on one of the ubiquitous phobias of apartheid: the so-called 'swart gevaar'. Whiteness, Kannemeyer suggests, or 'die wit skrik', seems equally insidious. Andy Mason noted that 'Kannemeyer has displayed a Duchamp-like ability to manipulate the media by generating controversy, in a full-frontal assault on the Afrikaner mainstream. For Kannemeyer, it has been a concerted campaign of revenge against the hated authority figures of his boyhood – his father who abused him, 'Barries' [the teacher] who caned him, and all the headmasters, dominees, policemen and rugger buggers who in one way or another attempted to indoctrinate, punish and belittle him'.¹ Nag van die Wit Skrik can also be construed as a form of public, artistic confessional, through which things are revealed that are often swept under the carpet. As such, it constitutes, as Mason continues, 'a broader psychosexual, socio-historical critique of Afrikaner culture and South African society in general'.²

¹ Andy Mason. (2006) 'Silent Comics, Critical Noise, and the Politics of Pielsuig' in Anton Kannemeyer & Conrad Botes (2006) The Big Bad Bitterkomix Handbook. Jacana Media, page 7.

² Ibid.

Literature

Anton Kannemeyer & Conrad Botes (2006) The Big Bad Bitterkomix Handbook. Jacana Media. Illustrated on page 158.