- published: 07 Sep 2008
- views: 8725
The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers or Rehoboth Basters) are the descendants of Cape Colony Dutch and indigenous African women. They largely live in Namibia and are similar to Coloured or Griqua people in South Africa.
The name Baster is derived from the Dutch word for "bastard" (or "crossbreed"). While some people consider this term demeaning, the Basters proudly use the term as an indication of their history in the same way as the Métis ("Mixed") people of Canada.
While the current numbers of Basters remain unclear (figures between 20 000 and 40 000 are given), the Basters are concerned that their unique heritage will be lost in a modern Namibia.
The Basters were mainly persons of mixed descent who at one time would have been absorbed in the white community. It was, however, as much an economic and cultural category as a racial one and included the economically most advanced of the non-white population at the Cape. Among these were persons who acted as supervisors of other servants and were the confidential employees of their masters. Sometimes these were treated almost as members of the white family. The group also included Khoi, free blacks and persons of mixed descent who had succeeded in acquiring property and establishing themselves as farmers in their own right. The name Orlam was sometimes applied to persons who could also be known as Baster but was a more general name for Khoi and Coloured persons generally who spoke Dutch and practised a largely European way of life.
Away with the music of Broadway
Be off with your Irving Berlin
Oh I give no quarter to Kern or Cole Porter
And Gershwin keeps pounding on tin
How can I be civil when hearing this drivel
It's only for nightclubbin' souses
Oh give me the free 'n' easy waltz that is Vienneasy and
Go tell the band If they want a hand
The waltz must be Strauss's
Ya, ya ya, give me oom-pa-pah
When I want a melody
Lilting through the house
Then I want a melody
By Strauss
It laughs, it sings, the world is in rhyme
Swinging to three-quarter time
Let the Danube flow along
And the Fledermauss
Keep the wine and give me song
By Strauss
By Jove, by Jing, by Strauss is the thing
So I say to ha-cha-cha, heraus!
Just give me your oom-pa-pah, by Strauss!
(bridge)
Let the Danube flow along
And the Fledermauss
Keep the wine and give me song
By Strauss
By Jove, by Jing, by Strauss is the thing
So I say to ha-cha-cha, heraus!
Just give me your oom-pa-pah,