Normally, nights in the Cape Town neighbourhood of Bo-Kaap are quiet: there are no bars and few restaurants in the area, and many residents go to sleep early in order to rise for the first call to prayer at dawn.
But on summer nights in November and December a cacophony of brass horns blown fervently and drums beaten methodically may disrupt this usual calm. The sound and its meaning are unmistakable: the minstrels are here. Troupes appear unannounced and disappear as quickly as they come in order to evade police, giving residents just a glimpse of the glittering, boisterous festivities to come.
The Cape Town Carnival also includes performances by Malay choirs on New Year’s Eve and Christmas choirs on Christmas Eve. Groups of minstrels and choirs also compete against each other in January and February.
The carnival has its roots in the late 19th century, when troupes made up of slaves mimicked African-American minstrel groups on tour in South Africa. The minstrels soon became an integral part of the Cape Town culture, with troupes marching on January 2 to celebrate the slaves’ one day off a year and, later, the abolition of slavery.
Celebratory defiance
According to Lalou Meltzer, director of social history collections at Iziko Museums of South Africa and brainchild of Ghoema and Glitter: New Year Carnival in Cape Town, the first museum exhibition on the tradition (which opened in 2010), this history of celebratory defiance is an important part of the carnival. Kicked out of the central business district and other newly considered “white” neighbourhoods under the Group Areas Act of 1950, minstrel troupes, primarily made up of coloureds and some blacks, continued the tradition in the Cape Flats, with some keeping their original names, such as the Claremont Coronations, now based in Gugulethu.
The groups were banned from marching in the city during apartheid and, despite the first official carnival taking place at the Green Point Stadium in the early 20th century, were kicked out of the stadium when the neighbourhood was declared “white” in 1968. They were only allowed to resume festivities in the stadium in 1979, but tensions between the government and minstrels only began to ease under the new dispensation.
In 1996, Nelson Mandela attended the parade in Green Point Stadium, in his own minstrel suit made up of ANC colours.
Despite years of campaigning, it wasn’t until 2012 that the minstrels were allowed to conduct the march along their preferred, historic route from District Six to Bo-Kaap. “For people who were kicked out of town, to follow that route … which traces the history of the community and connects working class Cape Town [is] very emotional. It’s bittersweet,” explains Meltzer.
The full story: Kaapse Klopse still march to their own beat | Arts and Culture | Mail & Guardian.
