Cape Town - After a war of words, a restaurant owner and singer both claiming to be the rightful owner of the term AfroBoer have signed a peace treaty.
Michelle Cronje-Cibulka, the owner of Pretoria restaurant AfroBoer, who owns the trademark on the name, earlier threatened legal action against blues musician Gerald Clark for not withdrawing the name of his latest CD AfroBoer & the Golden Goose.
But this week, Cronje-Cibulka backed down and agreed to allow Clark to continue using the name on his CD and marketing material.
Clark agreed not to change his stage name from Gerald Clark to AfroBoer.
This follows an uncertain week for the two parties during which negotiations between their lawyers led to the settlement agreement on Thursday.
Cronje-Cibulka’s lawyer, Esmari Jonker of Smit & Van Wyk, said her client agreed Clark could use AfroBoer for the album.
“My client understands that he has already printed the CD and that he has invested money. She knows him personally and she enjoys his music,” said Jonker.
Clark’s lawyer, Carl Van Rooyen of Spoor&Fisher, said Cronje-Cibulka “has seen the light”.
“Gerald can’t change his name to AfroBoer but he and his girlfriend Melissa Fontini can go on tour as AfroBoer & Golden Goose, as they are known in their circle of friends,” said Van Rooyen.
Clark, a singer and songwriter since 2000 and whose album Sweepslag was nominated for a South African Music Award, said he was relieved about the agreement. He said it made him less nervous about his Gauteng launch on Tuesday at the Atterbury theatre in Pretoria.
“It’s not nice to be in conflict with someone. It’s like a dark cloud hanging over you, but in the end things came right and I don’t think there was a winner or a loser.”
Clark said all he wanted was not to change his album’s name. “That would have caused a lot of financial difficulties for me,” he said.
Cronje-Cibulka sent Clark a message three weeks ago to warn him he was in breach of her trademark.
But that was after he had already spent R200 000 on the album, produced 2 000 CDs and sent out hundreds of invitations to launch events.
Late last year, however, Cronje-Cibulka liked Clark so much that she took a picture of him when he visited her restaurant and posted it on AfroBoer’s facebook page.
The picture shows a smiling Clark standing in front of the restaurant beneath an AfroBoer logo and is accompanied by this comment: “We would love to adopt our blues brother as a mascot... sporting a fine afro there.”
The trademark dispute story, which first appeared in the Weekend Argus a week ago, has led to follow-up stories and created a buzz on social media.
An open letter to the restaurant appeared on The South African Music Scene blog while Afrikaans music website WatKykJy also wrote an opinion piece.
Both encouraged Cronje-Kibulka to invite Clark to do a launch event at the restaurant.
“That will be a win-win for both AfroBoere,” said Jaco Brill in the open letter.
Cronje-Cibulka, whose restaurant won this year’s Mercedes-Benz Best Everyday Eateries award for best coffee shop, said she received a lot of support from her customers this week.
She said before she registered the trademark, she had written poems or letters to friends, signing them AfroBoer.
“But it remained a secret until I had more confidence, first to use it as my restaurant name and then to register it as a trademark,” she said.
“To me, a boer means nomadic, like a gypsy, without roots.
“Whether I travel to Russia, Kenya or Tanzania, I take AfroBoer with me. It’s my alter ego, my sense of belonging, a safe haven.”
Weekend Argus