Mr Entertainment - The story of Taliep Petersen by Paula Fourie

Mr Entertainment by Paula Fourie, published by Lapa Publishers (part of Penguin Random House South Africa), is a pioneering biography recounting Taliep Petersen’s life story and rich musical legacy. After extensive research and conducting numerous interviews over the past ten years with those who knew Taliep best, Fourie sculpts a multi-faceted and nuanced story about his childhood in District Six, his role in and contributions to the Cape Malay Choirs and traditional ‘Kaapse Klopse’, and his rise as a musician through the difficult years of apartheid and the restrictions it posed on non-white performers. She also touches on Petersen’s collaboration with David Kramer, which created some of South Africa’s biggest musicals and made it all the way to the West End.

It was Fourie’s research for her Ph.D. in musicology, which she obtained in 2013 at Stellenbosch University, that sparked her interest in Taliep Petersen's fascinating career and life. Based predominantly on oral history, Mr Entertainment brings Petersen to life through anecdotes told by his family and friends and various colourful reminiscences about the kind of man he was, his complexities, musical talent, work ethic, deep faith, and all abiding love for his children. Fourie said that, with Mr Entertainment, she asked and tried to answer the important questions posed about a man whose life and work constituted rich, mutually replenishing wellsprings; and that to write about Taliep without submitting to their entanglement is unthinkable.

Through the more than 50 interviews with Petersen’s family and friends, co-musicians and collaborators; and by capturing dialect, expressions, and nuances of the coloured culture, Fourie created an intimate portrait of Taliep. It is a multifaceted and highly readable biography of a personality that helped shape our musical and entertainment history and whose influence continues to reverberate in national life.

Mr Entertainment evokes not only Taliep’s life but also the music and entertainment scenes of the 1950s to 2000s and the diverse and irrepressible traditions that punctuated these eras. Fourie further explores the history of the Cape-coloured culture and its richly woven role in the fabric of South Africa’s history. Having researched the subject so comprehensively, she paints a thorough picture of the harsh realities of the apartheid regime’s Group Areas Act, which led to the forced removal of the citizens of the multicultural District Six and the long-lasting effects this had on the coloured community.

In my opinion, Fourie deserves every accolade for succeeding in her quest of bringing Taliep to life in the pages of an acutely observed and poignant biography.