Kasi Mlungu shrugs off the haters
ANITA Ronge isn’t bothered by any of the insults that have been hurled at her in the past week.
She has had to fend off haters for most of her life. Last week’s Twitter outcry about her “embracing her blackness” was nothing the house DJ couldn’t handle.
“I’m not bothered. I’ve been receiving backlash since I was 14-years-old. It’s old news to me now,” she told the Saturday Star this week.
The 26 year old, more popularly known as Kasi Mlungu or DJ DuchAz, outraged some lcoals after revealing on Twitter she gets bashed for embracing her “blackness”.
Ronge, who hails from the East Rand, recently tweeted: “I get rejected for not being black enough and being too black to be white... I’m #KasiMlungu and I’m proud.”
The Twitterverse responded with a number of users either testing her “blackness” with trivia or telling her she was not black, despite Ronge declaring she was a “black person trapped in white skin”.
She was insulted, with a number of people labelling Ronge a “nutcase”.
She is baffled. “I feel people who haven’t found their purpose in life will always judge people who are living to the full.”
In recent years, Ronge has created her public image as a “kasi mlungu”. Mlungu refers to a white person and kasi is a slang term for township.
Her publicity shots also portray her wearing traditional African wear or urban wear. But she says the ter m “kasi mlungu” wasn’t a nickname she has given herself.
“The name was given to me by my brothers from Hammanskraal who gave me my first and last DJ crash course,” she said.
“They said this is the name they are birthing me with. And I just went with it. It wasn’t something I planned or thought out. At heart, I’ve always been a kasi mlungu.”
Her public image as a “kasi mlungu” makes white people feel uncomfortable, she says. “Most white people think that, if you are a white person hanging out with blacks, you are downgrading yourself,” she claims. Many of her relatives feel uncomfortable with her “blackness”.
Her mother, Annatjie, is her only family member who has embraced her identity.
“I can bring my family to the water but I can’t force them to drink. I have the coolest mom ever.”
Ronge, who was raised in an Afrikaans-speaking home, adds that while she didn’t grow up in a township, she has embraced township life and spends a considerable amount of time in Tembisa, a township on the East Rand.
“There is so much entrepreneurial growth in Tembisa. When people put their talents together great things happen. There is so much potential not only in Tembisa but in every kasi in SA.
“Tembisa is my home, a place where I can be free and be myself. My skin is just white but inside I’m black. I feel like I’ve always had a more African spirit, even though I only completely started owning it in 2014,” she says.