“‘Kwai’ is not an appropriate expression of God”: Stancetaking on Kaaps gospel music

Abstract

The release of the song Die Here is Kwai (The Lord is Cool) by South African gospel singer Neville D in 2019 sparked debate about whether Kaaps is an authentic language for worship and praise and whether it ultimately is relevant for the textualization of gospel music in general. Although many would easily agree in the positive, we submit this paper to highlight how scriptural purity and standard language ideologies are some of the main drivers to the textualized performance of Kaaps gospel music. In this paper, we set out to analyze the various stances toward the song Die Here is Kwai. Data was drawn from a larger, longitudinal qualitative study that investigates the recontextualization of South African gospel music as a Kaaps-infused genre of music. We argue that Kaaps gospel music maximizes the genre potential of South African gospel music and highlights the diversity of voices in South African church discourses. We demonstrate the affective, epistemic, evaluative, and sacrificial stancetaking of gospel artists and commenters who align, disalign, and react against the publication of Die Here is Kwai (the stance-object), mediatized on a variety of digital communication platforms. Our analysis reveals stances from conservative traditional-religious voices and liberal religious voices expressing views on the production of Kaaps gospel music as text and performance. We argue that Neville D’s Kaaps gospel music challenges religious-linguistic views that attempt to reframe the sonic and spiritual life of Kaaps-speaking worshippers as ‘disrespectful’ and contrary to Christian ideologies that are steeped in scriptural discourses of purity and standard language ideologies.