Bruce Fowler from the Southern African Association in Hong Kong (SAAHK) sent word that there are still a few seats available for this year’s Sevens Dinner.
Springbok legend and former captain Morne Du Plessis (pictured below) will be the guest-speaker at the Hong Kong Football Club event next week, while the Springbok Sevens team will again grace us with their presence.
While I didn’t attend last year when “the voice of rugby” Hugh Bladen was the guest-speaker, every other Sevens Dinner I have been to have been a special event.
Needless to say, many South Africans will be flying in from back home, so if you’re looking for something to do in Hong Kong next Wednesday evening… come join us at the Hong Kong Football Club.
Contact Bruce Fowler for more details.
bfowler@pacific.net.hk
Below are some images from previous Sevens Dinners:
When I decided to start this category on Howzit-HongKong.com, I spent some time wondering just where to start. Not wanting to make it an academic topic, I decided to just start somewhere and see how it develops, and where it takes me. Besides, the aim is really to introduce readers to the rich and varied musical styles and sound that come from our country.
I decided to just go with with it and use one of my all-time idols (Bra) Hugh Masekela to tell you where he came from musically.
Also:
As I’m from Cape Town, the city’s beat (I dare say ‘heartbeat’) stems from it’s historical global position as a refreshment station for the old Dutch East Asian Company, which started a refreshment station in the southern-most tip of Africa for shipping companies rounding Africa en-route to India (for spices).
As Mac McKenzie (in the video below) will tell you, Cape Town was a confluence of all the nations of the world… right there in the Cape. That’s is also where my favourite genre originated… Cape Jazz: a mixture of all the “blood of the world” as per Mac McKenzie.
Lastly, I’ll play you a video of one of the foremost exponents of Cape Town Jazz, Abdulla Ebrahim (previously known as Dollar Brand) playing his famous song “Manenberg.” The song is named after a suburb of Cape Town where coloured people/people of mixed heritage were forcibly removed to during Apartheid.
I hope you will take this journey with me as I tell you about South Africa… through it’s music.
Here’s Hugh Masekela:
Cape Town music according to Mac McKenzie:
Abdullah Ebrahim’s Manenberg:
Of course South African music is not limited to only these two genres. There are also Afrikaans music, kwaito, rap/hiphop, pop music as well as many others.
With the Hong Kong Sevens 2010 and Hugh Bladen’s appearance at the SAAHK’s Sevens Dinner fast approaching, I was planning to introduce all our readers to a blog called “Over to Hugh.” Run by two very enterprising young blokes called “Blades” and “Chowgaps,” Over to Hugh parodies the famous South African commentator using everything from the real Blades’ love for a good Scotch to his trademark words and phrases.
Catch Hugh Bladen at the SAAHK’s Sevens Dinner in March 2010.
However, in the light of the sad passing of “the voice of rugby” Mr Bill MCLaren last month, a video on their website made me decide to use this opportunity to give you a sneak preview of “Over to Hugh” while paying tribute to the great Scotsman.
William Pollock “Bill” McLaren CBE (16 October 1923 – 19 January 2010) was a Scottish rugby union commentator. Until his retirement in 2002, he was known as ‘the voice of rugby’. Renowned throughout the sport, his enthusiasm and a memorable turn of phrase endeared him to many rugby lovers the world over.
The latest movie in the X-Men series, X-Men Origins: Wolverine starts in Hong Kong tomorrow. I dunno how many of you know it but this latest X-Men movie was directed by South Africa’s own Gavin Hood.
You will remember him as the director of the TV drama about rugby called ‘The Game’ and more recently of the award-winning movie Tsotsi.
In an interview with filmjournal.com, Hood had the following to say:
Hood was as surprised as anyone when Jackman contacted him. “I got a call from my agent-I remember it as if it were yesterday-saying, ‘Hi, Gavin, Hugh Jackman would like to meet with you about the possibility of your directing Wolverine.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, right, what are you really calling about?’” he says, chuckling. But Jackman had seen and liked Tsotsi, “So I went along to the meeting, not knowing a great deal about the Wolverine comics. I grew up in South Africa and was exposed to the wonderful Asterix and Obelix [René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's long-running, French cartoon-adventure strip "The Adventures of Asterix," starring the titular ancient Gaul and his right-hand warrior], but I hadn’t actually seen anything to do with Wolverine. I knew the [X-Men] movies,” he amends, “but I’d watched them as a casual moviegoer, not as an avid fan.”
In the spirit yesterday’s Freedom Day in South Africa, we salute Mr. Gavin Hood.
