The sound of one hand clapping

Can you hear one hand clapping?

  Growing up on the Cape Flats the sound of one hand clapping was quite common, however for maximum visual and audio effect it’d often play out in shopping mall.

Scene 1: Mom and loud obnoxious child (Afrikaans speaking family from Hanover Park) standing in the Shoprite queue. Other customers clearly upset by this scene.

Scene 2: Having reached boiling point mother turns to child, grabs arm and says “Shut up or I’ll somma clap you with one hand!” Kid shuts up and stares at its mother out of sheer bewilderment.

Living on the Cape Flats = taking a walk on the wild side

Back in Hanover Park it would have come out as “Hou jou bek, ek klap somma met een hand!” Question is why do some coloured folk still feel the need to speak rah-rah when they go to a fancy shopping mall? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I speak slang while walking in Canal Walk, but were I required to, I most certainly would. I am not ashamed to say that growing up I was exposed to Hanover Park in all its glory where the expression “Ek sal jou ‘n taai klap gee” rung out as frequently as gunshots.

Experiencing the good and bad of what the Flats had to offer greatly influenced me. It has taught me many valuable life lessons; one of which is that when you hear the sound of one hand clapping you know that somewhere in the hood there’s a disobedient child or drunken spouse on the receiving end of it.

Image (Rude kid): http://clipartof.com/102304