Bittereinder
Bittereinder was a South African rap/electro band from Pretoria who perform in Afrikaans. Jaco van der Merwe, Peach van Pletzen, and Louis Minnaar founded the three-man band in 2009, and have since performed at major South African festivals such as Oppikoppi, across southern Africa, and the Netherlands. They are known for their high-energy performances.
The name Bittereinder originates from the Second Boer War. Towards the end of the war, so-called Boers, Afrikaans-speaking farmers, engaged in guerrilla warfare against the British despite the fact that they had already lost. They fought "to the bitter end", and were therefore called "bitter-enders", or, in Afrikaans, "bittereinders"; more colloquially, the English translation would be "diehard". Van der Merwe says that the band interprets the word more positively: "Today, it means more not giving up."
They have been characterised as more positive than Die Antwoord. Van der Merwe's lyrics are "a little more hopeful", he has said, because he tries to find things to be proud of in the Afrikaans identity, although it is difficult because there is "much to be ashamed of". Typical for Bittereinder's lyrics is the amount of code-switching between Afrikaans and English.
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