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Ingrid Jonker goes heavy metal

Johannesburg - Afrikaans music lovers used to popular singer Chris Chameleon's melodious adoptions of renowned South African writer Ingrid Jonker’s poems will have to stand strong: the latest renditions of these iconic verses may just make their eardrums burst.

Jonker’s only daughter, Simone, says her mother’s verses need a bit more oomph. That is why she asked a few of Afrikaans's most kick-ass rock bands to give her famous mother’s verses some punch, City Press reports.

Francois B Blom of the hard-metal groups KOBUS! and Voice of Destruction (VOD) has already covered Die Kind (The Child - here read by former president Nelson Mandela during his first opening of Parliament) in his typical heavy metal style.

The track is not yet available, but it is safe to expect sulfur and peat, especially for those familiar with Blom's dark and rough guitar work.

"This is our golden track," said Ernesto Garcia Marquez, Simone's husband, about next year's album, which will be released exactly 50 years after Jonker's suicide.

Anton Goosen is doing Plant vir my ’n Akkerboom (Plant an Oak Tree for me), Die Naaimasjiene are doing Mamma and Riku Lätti (now known as Victor S Wolf ) is doing Ballade vir drie vriende (Ballad for Three Friends).

Inge Beckmann of the rock group Lark and Beast will be singing Korreltjie Sand (Grain of Sand) and according to Garcia Marquez, they are still waiting for Karen Zoid's recording.

Die kind is nog jonger (The child is still younger) is a double album with 35 tracks. The album has been worked on for the past 18 months, and 31 of these tracks are already recorded in different styles: rock and roll, punk, reggae, industrial and of course, heavy metal.

"Ingrid Jonker was not mainstream, she was an alternative. Therefore we will now have alternative musicians putting my mother’s poems to music,"said Simone. 

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