It's a new year #1

welcome shy 1!!

welcome! cool pic

thank you. happy to b
here.
@ UP: so...i heard/read it started as a freedom parade. Could be wrong. Let me know what you find out (while your boss isn't looking of course:))
I had to squeeze past/through the crowds to take this pic, some people had been camping out in wale street all day.
& All I had was a roll of B&W film...
happy with the results though, i was pleasantly surprised.

Word — welcome!

No tanganedzwa!

I just don't get how Minstrelsy became "culture" -- considering its origins

@ shy 1: Yep, you're right, it started as a celebration of the end of slavery, influenced by the minstrels that came with the Alabama, which, by the way was a confederation ship, ironic if not just absurd...

'Christy's Minstrels premiered in Cape Town on August 20, 1862. Orpheus Myron McAdoo’s Virginia Jubilee Singers from Hampton, Virginia, the first black minstrels to tour South Africa, arrived in Cape Town to an overwhelming reception on June 19, 1890. According to Martin, the reception was overwhelming because, locals are recorded as having said in amazement, "they were black."

"Our songs come from our forefathers and their fathers before. They were oppressed when they came. They came here as slaves you know and they were always the oppressed and so the only way they could express themselves was putting it in words, singing, dancing, making music and being jolly. So that the next one would think we are happy. In the meantime we are expressing our feelings about certain things"

Other interesting facts:

Coons (blacks) - Probably refers to the Portuguese word for slave pens or barracks "baracoons". Could also have meaning as a shortening of "raccoon", as raccoons have a tendency to steal.
source: http://gyral.blackshell.com/names.html (the racial slur database)

also go to:
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/

The movie "Bamboozled" by Spike Lee is a must watch on the subject of cooning also.

There is just too much confusion with the exact objectives of these parades and how much do people know about it (both watchers and minstrels) influencing their take on it: between being cooned or cooning, with the risk of becoming just another tourist attraction and an excuse to dress up and party (if it's not already).
My opinion is that having its origins on a certain kind of social critique why not evolve with time and not be so stuck in tradition, why not make fun of our present politicians and rulers (there's enough there for 5 carnivals)?