Johannes Kerkorrel was born as Ralph Rabie in 1960. He was a South African journalist and later a singer who publicly attacked the Apartheid system in his country. In 1987, Johannes Kerkorrel was fired by Rapport newspaper for using quotes from PW Botha's speeches in his music; he then became a full-time musician and performer under the name Johannes Kerkorrel en die Gereformeerde Blues Band (Johannes Kerkorrel and the Reformed Blues Band), a deliberate reference to the Reformed Church. The ban...
Johannes Kerkorrel was born as Ralph Rabie in 1960. He was a South African journalist and later a singer who publicly attacked the Apartheid system in his country.
In 1987, Johannes Kerkorrel was fired by Rapport newspaper for using quotes from PW Botha's speeches in his music; he then became a full-time musician and performer under the name Johannes Kerkorrel en die Gereformeerde Blues Band (Johannes Kerkorrel and the Reformed Blues Band), a deliberate reference to the Reformed Church. The band also included the Afrikaans singer-songwriter Koos Kombuis. Their brand of new Afrikaans music was dubbed 'Alternatiewe Afrikaans' (alternative Afrikaans) and exposed divergent political views to a new generation of Afrikaners.
Kerkorrel was the only white singer who performed at the inauguration of South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela.
He committed suicide on 11 December 2002, with some media still suggesting he was in fact murdered.
Kerkorrel was popular in his own country as well as in Belgium. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
