Blues for the White Man
Blues for the White Man is an extended English reworking, complete with photos, of Wiegelied voor de witte man, published by Penguin Random House South Africa in 2021. It started with a question about the blues: what makes the music usually associated with the downtrodden black man so alluring to white middle-class ears? That’s where it gets interesting. Because blues is more than a simple musical genre; it’s a cultural phenomenon that spans several centuries on both sides of the Atlantic, from slavery to Black Lives Matter, from Jan van Riebeeck to Fees Must Fall, from Robert Johnson to Abdullah Ibrahim. In this book, I look for answers in America’s Deep South, drawing historical parallels with South Africa’s experience of colonialism, slavery, racism, civil war, segregation and protest. Travelling to Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta, I speak to musicians and black activists, but also Trump supporters. It’s a conversation that continues in South Africa, where I interview student protesters, white farmers and political thought-leaders to develop and understanding of white supremacy and black anger, white fear and black pain on both sides of the Atlantic. The book is a celebration of multi-culturalism.
Blues for the White Man: Hearing Black Voices in South Africa and the Deep South was published in 2021 by Penguin Random House.