October 2008 | Vol 1 | Issue 42
Kurt Darren 46664 shame stuns world
LONDON. The performance of South African pop singer Kurt Darren in Saturday's 46664 concert in Hyde Park, and his subsequent shaming by reggae legend Eddie Grant, has left millions of South Africans stunned and traumatized. Human rights experts said it would take time to "figure out which was worse: the performance, or the shaming that followed it".
Tens of thousands of spectators in Hyde Park and a television audience of almost a billion watched as Darren joined Grant in a rendition of Grant's anti-apartheid anthem, Give Me Hope Joanna.
But according to stunned witnesses, interest turned to horror as Darren seemed to try to affect a West Indian accent, a move described by human rights experts as "unwise".
"Even people who are good at accents don't always get them right on the night," said Advocate Etienne Lafayette of The Hague's International Criminal Court, which is considering investigating the reason for the duet.
"But what happened to Mr Darren was unfortunate."
He said investigators were still trying to establish whether the accent Darren had attempted had been a Caribbean lilt, "or just Pretoria English gone tragically wrong".
However according to trauma counselors, who were inundated with calls after the concert, the shock of the performance paled next to the atrocity committed by Grant once the song had ended.
"We can only assume that Mr Grant felt that Mr Darren had been overshadowed, or had perhaps been overwhelmed by the occasion," said Lafayette.
"Perhaps he realised that the cameras had been following him and ignoring Mr Darren. Perhaps he simply looked at Mr Darren and took pity on what he saw."
Pointing to Darren as the South African skulked at the back of the stage, Grant told one sixth of the world's population that Darren had "come all the way from South Africa" and that he was "really popular there".
According to Lafayette, few civilians could recover from this intensity of embarrassment.
"I'm sure Mr Darren is his own harshest critic, which means he was probably flaggelating himself after the show; but for Grant to have to resort to telling the audience that he 'is really popular there' was simply excruciating, both for Darren and for all South Africans."
Meanwhile concert organizers have brushed off the incident, insisting that the 46664 event had achieved its intended purpose.
"The 46664 celebration has three primary goals," said organizer Sybil Thring.
"Firstly, and most obviously, to exploit Nelson Mandela while we still can.
"Secondly, to prop up the flagging careers of ageing British rock stars.
"And thirdly, to make middle-class British people and white South African expats feel really good about themselves.
"I think we nailed all three."
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