South Africa
What a splendid, sunny, country. Even in autumn, especially April and May, the temperature is similar to the Dutch summer. A country, pre-eminently arranged for the holidaymaker who loves the sun, sea and beach, wine and nature in general. South Africa has one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Cape Town, lying on the slopes of Table Mountain, stretching out to the seafront. Table Mountain, because of it's height can be seen from almost every place in the region.

For 30 days, The Multicats enjoyed the Western Cape where they also were able to exercise their hobby: perform as Harmonica Players all over the Cape. All organised by Art Daane.
That some organisations had cancelled their concerts and where others had organised new concerts was for the trio a new and unusual experience.

Long, exhausting days
Long, tiring days were in stall for the trio. On 3 April they boarded the plane at Schiphol Airport at 10 am. They arrived at Cape Town International Airport at 10pm. Our manager, Art Daane and his harmonica friend Johann Kok had to wait patiently for two solid hours since the customs were not in a hurry to get us through the checkpoint. From then on they took us to our destination in Strand, some 40 KM from the Airport, where a cottage was rented for our entire stay. The next day we had planned as a rest day but our manager already rang the bell at 10 am to take us to his home in Gordon's Bay where we enjoyed a fine day of rest. After a sunny day around the Cape, visiting the Penguins and Baboons, we sort of acclimatised. The Baboons however were not to be found on that particular day.
On April 6 we had an appointment with the charming Linda Bruce, radio announcer and programmer at Radio Helderberg where we had a half hour interview. It became clear to us that she had done her homework well. She knew exactly what to ask to make the interview interesting to the listeners as far as the harmonica was concerned. After the interview the listeners had the opportunity to enjoy some of The Multicats' music.
During the hole month of April Radio Helderberg played music from the CD of The Multicats. This station can be heard all over the Southern part of the Cape.

Tulbagh
Our first real performance was on 7 April in Tulbagh, a sleeping town with a large wine farming community. We stayed there for three days.
Our first concert was in the "Drostdy." This was the home of the "Landdrost," he exercised all powers of the community. His home and workplace is today a museum.
A special concert was organised for a select part of the community, mostly wine farmers.
The director of the Drostdy told us; "Here, in this area the first wine cellars of South Africa were built."
The Harmonica as played by The Multicats was unheard of by the public; "How is it possible that three harmonicas can fill a hall with the sound and volume of an orchestra?" Most of the public bought the Multicats CD which they had specially recorded for their South African tour which had a bonus track by South Africa's harmonica virtuoso and composer of traditional South African music, "Vincent van Rooyen."
Together with Art and Johann the Multicats they formed a new quintet. They successfully played three compositions by one of the leading South African composers of the past, "Danie Bosman."
The resting two days: 'Tulbagh goes Dutch' had three performances in mind for The Multicats in the center of the town. The only other Dutch artist besides The Multicats was "Liesbeth List", performing her Edith Piaff repertoire with much success.

Other Performances
It's no use writing about all our performances in South Africa since the one doesn't differ much from the other, but I do like to tell you about a special incident at a concert in Swellendam (some 300 KM from Strand). During the sound check, the organiser of the show asked me if we had any objection that there would be brass band playing formed by "Coloured People." To my question; "What he meant by that." He told me that if we had any objection, the brass band would be send away. I was astonished, unbelievable……!! that this is still happening in South Africa.

A Church performance
A performance was planed in a church in "Somerset West" by our manager. What can be expected of such a thing? Amazement…what an enormous accommodation: A fantastic Concert Hall with 600 seats and a permanent, complete, modern studio installation for TV and Radio recordings.
Tommy Dell, an entertainer and permanent radio programmer and popular figure in South Africa, was the MC. He asked me to keep in touch for an eventual reprise in South Africa.
Lots of advertising was done for the harmonica by several sponsors, and radio Helderberg.
Here too, we played as a quintet with Art Daane and Johann Kok, this too was again well appreciated by the public.

The Afrikaner language

"Afrikaans" is the only "Germanic" language spoken outside of Europe. It originated mostly from the Dutch language, which makes it rather well understandable for us. Disavowals are repeated or are doubled and consonants in the middle of a word are frequently omitted. Sense construction is thus very simple. It felt rather strange to be 13.000 KM away from home and yet we could speak to them and understand the South Africans speaking "Afrikaans."
Strange to us also was the fact that we met with Baboons, Springboks, Zebra's, Klipdassen, Penguins and Ostriches, when travelling thropugh the mountains in our free time.
What a beautiful country South Africa is. A country where the sun always shines!

But there where the sun shines, there is always a shadow or a dark side…..

The 'DARK' side of South Africa
In travelling folders one finds that the big differences between races are gone, but this is often besides the truth.
Still, millions of black people still live in so-called ghetto's. Huts, often no bigger than 4 x 4 meters, built of wooden planks and corrugated iron, some not even having a door, on a desolated piece of sandy land, sharing mobile toilets. Sometimes as far as the eye can see, as much as 25 - 30 KM in length and width.
A black page….no, a black chapter in this so beautiful country. I am not playing politics by putting my finger at anybody, whoever this may be. I just record. I understand that this is not the place to write about this…….but I feel that I have to get it off my chest.

Joop Winterberg

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