Although all South Africans became citizens of their country in 1994, Grant Farred argues that “Coloureds can only become full citizens if their ‘partiality’ is historicized, addressed, and recognized as both an articulation of difference and a desire for a reconfigured understanding of what it means to be a South African” (2001:176, 197). The partiality to which he refers is the Coloured experience of not being able to associate with either Black or White and being marginalised by both races. Farred also suggests that the Coloured community struggle to overcome their “history of marginality within the South Africa body politic” and that the ‘rainbow nation’ has not allowed Coloureds to “transcend particularity and difference” (2001:177). It is therefore essential to recognise Coloured identity as a unique experience in South African culture to reconfigure South African identity. Just as Coloured and Griqua identities are forever intertwined so is their music. The research of Jorritsma suggests that Coloured music is for the most part imbedded in hymnody, just like the Griqua music, it also places Coloured music. In the musical practise of the Griqua people, traces can be found of a creolised history and the performing of their unique experience as South Africans.
The research into Griqua identity reveals a cultural identity that is telling of their history and reinventing of their current status as Khoisan descendants. During the Khoisan revivalism after the democratisation of South Africa, most Khoisan groups rejected the Coloured category in favour of Khoisan categories (Besten, 2006:321). Griqua cultural practises which rely heavily on the West and Christianity, are not African, but represent a South African culture. At conferences held between 1994 and 1998 where Khoisan aspirations were discussed a display of Khoisan culture were occasionally exhibited to affirm a contemporary Khoisan indigenous culture. During these displays Griqua choirs would also sing their hymns (Besten, 2006:316). This is yet another illustration how Griqua hymn tells the story of their past, it is also a means of reinventing their present and serves as an identity marker.
Music, then, represents a remarkable meeting point of the private and public realms, providing encounters of self-identity (this is who I am; this is who I’m not) with collective identity (this is who we are; this is who we’re not). (Hesmondhalgh, 2008:329)
The singing of their hymns is the manner in which the Griqua perform a part of their collective identity. Their unique cultural identity is the product of colonialism, apartheid and even post-apartheid experiences. Hymnody as it occurs in Griqua culture serves not only as a tool in the collective cultural memory, but it forms an important part in the self-identity of group members. To declare that you are Griqua is to identify with certain cultural elements such as hymn singing. The exact occurrences of Griqua hymnody performances in the lives of individuals are brought to light by ethnographic narratives in the subsequent chapter. The musical style and elements as well as the performance practice unearthed with these narratives will underscore the hymn as a marker of Griqua identity.
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