Cape Town’s annual minstrel carnival resumed Monday after a three-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, with large musical troupes — many in blackface — parading through the center of the city.
Participants take part in the Cape Town Minstrels Parade in Cape Town, South Africa, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. Thousands of people attend the annual carnival. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
The annual festival, which begins on January 2 — known as Tweede Nuwe Jaar, or the Second New Year — has its origins in the era of slavery at the Cape. The Dutch colonists, who arrived in the mid-17th century, imported slaves from the East Indies and from East Africa. They often celebrated the New Year on January 2, since it was traditionally the slaves’ first day off in the Christmas holiday season after waiting on the European colonists.
Participants take part in the Cape Town Minstrels Parade in Cape Town, South Africa, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. Thousands of people attend the annual carnival. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
Later, after the British emancipated the slaves in 1834, Tweede Nuwe Jaar became a celebration of freedom among Cape Town’s mixed-race, or “Coloured,” population. And with the arrival of American minstrel bands and Wild West shows in the second half of the nineteenth century, the traditions of vaudeville — including blackface — were incorporated into existing celebrations and musical traditions with roots in Africa and Asia.
As a result, the minstrel carnival emerged as a celebration of Cape Town’s rich cultural history. For decades, it was called the “coon” carnival, until that word was dropped in the 2000’s in deference to political correctness.
Participants take part in the Cape Town Minstrels Parade in Cape Town, South Africa, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. Thousands of people attend the annual carnival. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)
Under apartheid, when mixed-race communities suffered discrimination, segregation, and forced removals, the carnival suffered from the dispersal of its participants though Cape Town’s impoverished townships. But in the post-apartheid era, it has been revived, and is supported by the municipal government and corporate sponsors.
Members of the Playaz Inc. minstrel troupe sing and dance as they practice at a school in Mitchells Plain near Cape Town, on December 30, 2022, ahead of the upcoming Cape Town Minstrels Parade. – The Cape Town Minstrels Parade sees troupes dressed with bright coloured costumes that march while playing music through the centre of Cape Town. The “Tweede Nuwe Jaar” (Second New Year) celebration held on January 2 dates back to the time before slavery was abolished in the Cape colony, during which they were allowed to relax on the day following New Years Day. The troupes taking part in the parade also aim at creating social cohesion, activities for the youth, and connection with culture, in some of the mostly impoverished crime-ridden communities in which the members live. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP) (Photo by RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images)
The carnival was suspended in 2021 and 2022 due to COVID-19, but has fully returned, in person, in 2023.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.