<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

HAL
open science

# Chronicles of the Kaapse Klopse

## Denis-Constant Martin

► To cite this version:

Denis-Constant Martin. Chronicles of the Kaapse Klopse: Followed by Themes in Klopse Names. 2020. halshs-03414415

HAL Id: halshs-03414415

https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03414415

Preprint submitted on 4 Nov 2021

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 International License
CHRONICLES
OF
THE KAAPSE KLOPSE

Followed by

THEMES IN KLOPSE NAMES
I

CHRONICLES

OF

THE KAAPSE KLOPSE

with some documents on the sources of their music

compiled by

DENIS-CONSTANT MARTIN

Former Senior Research Fellow,
Fondation nationale des sciences politiques (Sciences Po),
Centre d'études et de recherches internationales, Paris, France;
Les Afriques dans le Monde, Bordeaux, France

part of a research project on

THE NEW YEAR FESTIVALS IN CAPE TOWN

funded by:

The National Foundation for Political Sciences (France), the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), the French Institute for Southern Africa (IFAS), and supported by the University of the Western Cape and the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies

1998

(revised, but not updated, in 2020)
# Avertissement

Les documents ci-dessous ont été, à l'origine, conçus en vue d'une diffusion auprès d'un public sud-africain pour l'essentiel ; les extraits de textes qu'ils reprennent ont été publiés en anglais, à l'exception d'un tout petit nombre d'entre eux traduits de l'afrikaans en anglais ; je n'ai donc pas pensé nécessaire de traduire en français les quelques éléments qui ne sont pas des citations. Je pense que, malgré cela, les lecteurs qui ne sont pas anglophones de naissance pourront tout de même les utiliser.
# Foreword

These chronicles consist in excerpts from articles or books that dealt with or alluded to the *Kaapse klopse*, and various aspects of Cape Town's New Year festivals. The texts have been reproduced as originally printed and no effort has been made to correct faulty information, or language that can today seem unacceptable. When absolutely necessary, additional information has been provided between crotchets. The material proposed here should therefore be treated as "raw material" and should be read with a critical eye.

The reader must be aware that these texts provide only a small, and biased, part of the story of the *klopse* and the New Year festivals. Most of them have been written by outsiders to the universe of the *klopse*, very often journalists writing for a white readership; many of them rely on clichés, stereotypes, not without a pinch of sensationalism, although one can also find here quotations from interesting stories written by talented journalists, such as Jackie Heyns and George Manuel, or more analytical contributions by Gerald S. Stone or R.E. Van Der Ross. These texts must therefore be read as an invitation to do more research: to collect interviews, songs, artefacts that may have been preserved by members of the *klopse*, the *sangkore* (Malay Choirs) and the Christmas Choirs; such research, using among others the techniques of oral history, must be undertaken without any delay as people who can still remember what happened in the 40s and 50s will very soon no longer be with us.

The present chronicles nevertheless give a sense of the chronology, contribute to a better understanding the dynamics that underlay the development of the *klopse* carnival, they allow to catch a glimpse of some of the major trends that affected them — in particular the disappearance of the “Privates” and the prevalence of the “Coons”, the shift from string bands to brass bands, changes in the organisation of festivals. They also bear witness to evolutions in the attitudes towards the “Coons” and show how they became, in the times of apartheid, the symbol of a rift between the working class and an intellectual petty-bourgeoisie abiding with the canons of Victorian morality, rift surfacing in polemics often loaded with political undertones, which started in the 1940s and lasted more or less until the end of apartheid. Finally, they record the multiplication of unruly behaviours at carnival time, as the constraints and violence of apartheid increased.

The ambition to shed more light on the transformations the New Year Festivals in Cape Town underwent led me to adopt a strictly chronological approach: the excerpts are organised according to the date or period of the event or practice they describe, whatever the time when they were written or published. The historical breakdown adopted is based on historical turning points which bore heavy consequences on the
New Year festivals, the only exception being 1906, because this year marked a major transition from informal festivities toward organised festivals.

The sources of these excerpts are diverse: articles printed in newspapers or magazines, or in scholarly publications; books written by academics or journalists and essayists. A list of the sources is provided at the end of this "foreword" and each will be identified in the *Chronicles* by a code (see below). Every effort has been made to provide the most detailed reference for each of the clippings; however, several remain incomplete because some information (page numbers, for instance) was missing in the press files of the South African Library I perused.

Today's political correctness favours the use of the Afrikaans *Kaapse klopse* when talking about the carnival troupes and their members. *Klopse* refer to the origins of the troupes, when they were emanations from social and sports clubs; it seems therefore perfectly legitimate to recycle this word in the 21st Century. Many revellers, however, when speaking in English about themselves and the troupes they affiliate with, still use the word "Coons", and some talk about "Minstrels". Outside observers may object to the use of such words because of the meanings they have been given in the United States. While it is true that "coon", an abbreviation of racoon, became, in the 19th Century, associated with blackface minstrelsy and was given a racist meaning, one should not forget that words may have a life of their own and that, when they travel, their meanings change. The signification a word has in the United States cannot and should not be considered as the only signification a word can have in English. In Cape Town, the understanding of "coon" was totally transformed and came to signify the main character and the main mask in the New Year festivals; the great majority of those who use it — and would jubilantly claim "I am a coon" — do so without knowing the history of the word and its acceptation in the United States; to them it just connotes "sports", fun, New Year enjoyment, satin, dancing and singing. As for "Minstrels", those who object even to this word should be reminded that there were minstrels in Europe long before Europeans set foot in North America, and that they were jesters, jugglers, story tellers, singers and dancers whose "acts" were tightly intertwined with carnivalesque traditions... "Minstrel" does not at all appear unfitted to Cape Town's New Year festivals<fnref n="1" />.

This compilation was prepared in the course of writing: *Coon Carnival, New Year in Cape Town, Past and Present*, Cape Town, David Philip, 1999. These *Chronicles* should be treated as a working paper circulated for academic purposes in order to stimulate more research on Cape Town's New Year festivals. They can be freely used on the condition that the work done by Denis-Constant Martin in selecting and compiling these excerpts is acknowledged. Most of the material reproduced here has been

<footnote n="1">¹ See: "Prologue, A word about words" in GAULIER (Armelle) & MARTIN (Denis-Constant), *Cape Town Harmonies, Memory, Humour and Resilience*, Somerset West, African Minds, 2017: xvii-xxvii.</footnote>
published a long time ago and is therefore no longer covered by copyrights. It remains,
however, the responsibility of those who would want to use it in new publications to
make sure that there are no rights attached to the texts they intend to reproduce.

These *Chronicles* and the following *Themes in Klopse's Names* have been revised in
2020 in order to correct misprints and other form errors (which does not preclude the
possibility that I may still have overlooked a few; my apologies if this is the case), but
they have not been updated and still close with the 1996 festivals, when President
Nelson Mandela appeared at the *klopse* Carnival.

Since the time the following clips were compiled, Denis-Constant Martin has
authored two more books on Cape Town musics and festivals:

- *Sounding the Cape, Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa*, Somerset West, African Minds, 2013;

- *Cape Town Harmonies, Memory, Humour and Resilience*, Somerset West, African Minds, 2017 (with Armelle Gaulier).

Both can be bought as printed books but are also available free of charge in PDF from
the publisher's website:

- https://www.africanminds.co.za/sounding-the-cape-music-identity-and-politics-in-south-africa/;

- https://www.africanminds.co.za/cape-town-harmonies/.

Finally, a large part of Denis-Constant Martin's research material collected during
more than 20 years of fieldwork has been deposited in the archives of DOMUS, the
Documentation Centre for Music located in the Music Library of the Music
Department, University of Stellenbosch, where they can be consulted on site (Denis-
Constant Martin Versameling / Collection:

(http://www.domus.ac.za/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/)
References cited in the *Chronicles*

Books, chapters in books, and articles in academic journals

**AA** = academic articles or chapters in a book

**AB** = academic book

**AD** = academic dissertation

**HW** = historical works

**NAE** = non-academic essays

**AP** = unpublished academic study

Vivian BICKFORD-SMITH 1994, "Meanings of freedom, social position and identity among ex-slaves and their descendants in Cape Town, 1875-1910" in: Nigel Worden and C. Crais, eds., *Breaking the Chains: Slavery and its Legacy in the Nineteenth Cape Colony*, Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press. [AA]

Vivian BICKFORD-SMITH 1995, *Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice in Victorian Cape Town*, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. [AB]

Vivian BICKFORD-SMITH 1996, *Aspects of leisure and social identity in Cape Town, Cape Colony, c.1838-1910*, Paper presented at the Third International Urban History Conference, Budapest. [AP]

W.W. BIRD 1823, *State of the Cape of Good Hope in 1822*, London. [HW]

Jan BOUWS 1946, "Het muziekleven in de Kaapkolonie gedurende die tweed helft van de negentiende eeuw", *Belgish Tijdschrift voor Muzikwetenschap* (Antwerp). [AA]

[quotations translated from the Afrikaans by François Verster]

Jan BOUWS 1966, *Die Musieklewe Van Kaapstad 1800-1850 En Sy Verhouding tot die Musiekkultuur van Wes-Europa*, Cape Town, A.A. Balkema. [AB]

[quotations translated from the Afrikaans by François Verster]

I.D. DU PLESSIS, *Die Bydrae van die Kapse Maleier tot die Afrikaanse Volksleid*, Cape Town, Nationale Pers, 1935. [AB]

[quotations translated from the Afrikaans by François Verster]

Richard ELPHICK and Robert SHELL 1992, "Intergroup relations: Khoikhoi, settlers, slaves and free blacks, 1652-1795", in: Richard Elphick and Hermann Giliomee, eds., *The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840*, Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1992: 192-193. [AA]

Veit ERLMANN 1991, "'A feeling of prejudice': Orpheus M. McAdoo and the Virginia Jubilee Singers in South Africa, 1890-1898", in: *African Stars, Studies in Black South African Performance*, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1991: 21-53. [AA]

Veit ERLMANN 1999, *Music, Modernity, and the Global Imagination, South Africa and the West*, New York, New York University Press. [AB]
Bruce FRANCK, Denis HATFIELD, George MANUEL 1967, *District Six*, Cape Town, Longmans. [NAE]

Lawrence G. GREEN 1951, *Grow Lovely, Growing Old*, Cape Town, Howard Timmins. [NAE]

Alan F. HATTERSLEY 1973, *An Illustrated Social History of South Africa*, Cape Town, A.A. Balkema. [AB]

David HOLLETT 1993, *The Alabama Affair, The British Shipyards Conspiracy in The American Civil War*, Wilmslow (Cheshire), Sigma Leisure. [NAE]

M. Shamil JEPPIE 1990, *Aspects of Popular Culture and Class Expression in Inner Cape Town, circa. 1939-1959*, Cape Town, University of Cape Town, 1990 (MA dissertation). [AD]

Robin KNOX-JOHNSON 1989, *The Cape of Good Hope, A Maritime History*, London, Hodder and Stoughton. [NAE]

H. LICHTENSTEIN 1928-1930, *Travels in Southern Africa in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805 and 1806*, Cape Town, Van Riebeeck Society, I. [HW]

George MANUEL 1977, *I Remember Cape Town*, Cape Town, Don Nelson. [NAE]

R.W. MURRAY 1894, *South African Reminiscences*, Cape Town, J.C. Juta. [HW]

Sheila PATTERSON 1953, *Colour and Culture in South Africa, A Study of the Status of the Cape Coloured People Within the Social Structure of the Union of South Africa*, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. [AB]

Hymen W.J. PICARD 1969, *Grand Parade: The Birth of Greater Cape Town, 1850-1913*, Cape Town, Struik. [NAE]

Eric ROSENTHAL 1938, *Stars and Stripes in Africa*, London, George Routledge and Sons. [NAE]

Eric ROSENTHAL 1960, *Heinrich Egersdörfer, An Old-Time Sketch Book*, Cape Town, Nasionale Boekhandel BPK. [NAE]

Robert ROSS 1989, "Structure and Culture in pre-industrial Cape Town: A survey of knowledge and ignorance", in: Wilmot G. James and Mary Simons, eds., *The Angry Divide, Social and Economic History of the Western Cape*, Cape Town, David Philip, 1989: 40-62. [AA]

Gerald S. STONE 1971, *The Coon Carnival*, Cape Town, Abe Bailey Institute of Interracial Studies. [AP]

J.G. STEYTLER 1970, "Remembrances from 1832-1900", *Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library* 25 (1). [HW]

Carl Peter THUNBERG 1795, *Travels in Europe, Africa and Asia performed between the years 1770 and 1779*, London, printed for F. and C. Rivington, No. 62, St. Paul's Church-yard; and sold by W. Richardson, Cornhill. [HW]

R. E. VAN DER ROSS 1973, *A Political and social History of the Cape Coloured People, 1880-1970*, Bellville (unpublished typescript, 4 vols). [AP]

Christine WINBERG ca. 1992, "Satire, slavery and the *Ghoemaliedjies* of the Cape Muslims", *New Contrast* 19 (4), 76. [AA]
Daily newspapers and periodicals

**DN** = Daily newspaper

- *The Cape Argus or Argus*

- *Cape Times*

- *Die Burger*

- *New York Times International*

**WEE** = Daily newspaper week-end edition

- *The Cape Argus Weekly Edition*

- *Week End Argus*

**GM** = General interest magazine

- A.D.A.

- *Argus Magazine*

- *Die Banier*

- *Natural History* (published in the United States)

- *South*

- *Spotlight*

- *The Torch*

**WM** = Weekly magazine

- A.P.O.

- *Cape Herald*

- *Cape Mercantile Advertiser*

- *Drum*

- *Muslim News*

- *Sunday Times Extra*

- *Sunday Times Magazine Section*

- *The Cape Chronicle*

- *The Cape Standard*

- *The Cape Weekly Chronicle*

- *The Outspan*

- *The Post*
# Table of contents

## CHRONICLES OF THE KAAPSE KLOPSE

I. Origins and beginnings of the New Year festivals, till the abolition of slavery

II. From the abolition of slavery to the first formal “Coon Carnival”, 1840–1906

III. The multiplication of competitive carnivals, 1907–1939

IV. Facing apartheid, 1940–1968

V. Group Areas and forced removals hit the Klopse, 1968–1989

Epilogue: Klopse in a non-racial South Africa, 1990–1996

## THEMES IN KLOPSE NAMES

I. Klopse names

II. Main themes
# I. Origins and beginnings of the New Year festivals till the abolition of slavery

## Origins

### 1.

The Coons, black-faced and hilarious, prancing through the streets of Cape Town, are taking part in one of South Africa's oldest, most authentic, indigenous New year customs. It is a celebration which is a good deal older than most people realize — the remnant, in fact, of primitive ritual which has its root deep in prehistory. [...]

The black-face coon disguise has come a long way from the forests of West Africa. The old belief has died, but the outward form, hardly recognizable after hundreds of years of changes occasionally thrusts through.

Thousands of slaves from West Africa took their magic and their witch-cults with them when they were transported to the New World. Those old memories still survive in the Voodoo of Haiti. Among the Negroes of North America the black-faced coon survived as a carnival figure, to be taken up by Whites, changed into the Christie Minstrel and, at long last, to be brought back to the shores of Africa in an American ship.

Here the descendants of slaves — some from the East, others perhaps, originally from some of the same forests of West Africa — took him up again, changed him and gave him their own peculiar form, dressed him in striped silk pants and topper, outrageous bow tie and coat of many colours, bedecked with ribbons and rosettes.

Look at the coon — black face and staring white eyes, white lips and flashing white teeth. It is a mask. It is not the same mask, but it is cousin to the carved wooden mask of the Congo, of Switzerland, Germany, Italy, England. It is an echo from forgotten times of devil-worship and of dancing at the witches' sabbat. It has its links with the devil masks of the East [...]

"Coon Celebrations Go Back to Days of Slavery — and Beyond", by David Marais, *Cape Times*, January 1, 1958. [DN]
2.

[At the end of the 18th Century and at the beginning of the 19th Century]:

[...] The ordinary sailors could find entertainment in more than one sailor bar [...] where they danced to the wind and string music of one or more slave musicians, at times the men with each other*.

* Not all musicians that played in bars were slaves.

Bouws 1966: 138 [AB]

3.

[...] When the slaves were brought here, there was an obvious element of melancholy among them. So on Sunday afternoons they'd go down to the beach to discord themselves — and beat on the goema drum [...] The mish-mash of “coon” dance steps has also been drawn from and influenced by slaves imitating dances of their British rulers — the lances, the squares, the quadrilles. The klopse *passies* is in itself a derivative and variant of the French “pas” as in “pas de deux”, explains Mr. Kolbe. [...]

[based on an interview with Mr. Vincent Kolbe; the goema or goema is the emblematic Cape Town drum, made from the structure of a barrel]

“Renewed Interest in Goema Music in Cape” by Yazeed Fakier, *Cape Times*, December 17, 1988. [DN]

4.

[...] The Carnival has a long history. According to Cape Town based cultural historian, Mr. Achmat Davids, it emerged out of another kind of celebration — the emancipation of the slaves in 1838.

“At midnight on December 1, the people took to the streets of Cape Town to sing. It was a time for the enjoyment of all. They were invited into the houses, they were entertained, invited to eat. It became a tradition.

At a later point they shifted the day to New Year which was the original slave holiday,” says Davids.

“Coon Carnivals at the End of the Road?” by Shannon Neil, *South*, January 21, 1994, p. 8. [GM]

5.

[...] South Africa's double celebration traditionally comes from the junketing of the slaves in the time of the East India Company.

Travellers as far back as Burchell, and even further, bear witness to the fact that the first day of the year was given to slaves as a general holiday, and merrymaking was encouraged by gifts of wine and the like.
The second day became necessary as the first became more cheerfully celebrated —
as a day to sober up upon! [...]

“The World Goes By [...] Second New Year”, *Cape Times*, January 1, 1934: 8. [DN]

6.

[...] the veteran Coon captain, Mr. Davey Petersen, has an interesting sidelight on their
origin here. He says he has heard it from older Coon leaders that the idea was planted
here by American Negro seamen, who, while their ships were in port, would gather
and sing their songs to the accompaniment of a guitar or banjo. The local lads would
gather round and join in, and so the Coons were founded. [...]

“Origins of the coons, Anyone Can Join” by R.E. Van Der Ross, *Cape Times*, January 8, 1959. [DN]

7.

[...] Older members of our community will tell you that carnival troupes were not the first to go parading through the streets of Cape Town. In the last century, 1st December was looked upon as a significant day — the anniversary of the granting of freedom to the slaves. On that day those who had gained such freedom and their descendants marched through the streets from all parts if the Peninsula to Platklip, near the now vanished Mellish’s farm, on the slopes of Table Mountain to sing and dance away the hours — “ramkie en hoog skop” and feasting being the order of the day.

It was also the fashion for Coloured dance bands to advertise their playing ability by parading through the streets of Bokaap (Jordaan and Wale Street area) and Kanaldorp (District Six) on moonlit nights — especially during the festive season when frequent dances were held. Incidentally there were no White dance bands until the coming of Swalby’s round 1910. The bands were made up entirely of stringed-instruments — the piano and other instruments only began creeping in during the early part of the present century.

The most famous musician was one Adam Bull (violinist). His band was in great
demand at the houses and dances of the City's well-to-do and was the first choice of
our lodges (fraternities) and sports club.

Dances were an all-night affair then, as there was no public transport available to
take dancers home at a late hour, so they danced until dawn. No dance band was at his
best before the bewitching hour of midnight. After that, the bandsmen having been
well plied with the stuff that is good to look upon when it is red, the music would take
on a new lease of rhythmic fluency and the dancers twirl and pace with greater
abandon in the Postillions, Cotillions' Waltz D'Alberts, Tweede Set, Schottoche, Polka,
Muzurka and a host of others. Yet, both the band and dancers had to know their stuff,
not just Blues, Jive and Be-Bop of to-day. [...]
"Coons and Minstrels, Dances until Dawn and the Japanese New-Whites", by Pertinax, *Die Banier*, December 1961, p. 12. [GM]

8.

[...] In South Africa, the song [*Thomas Rice's "Jim Crow", introduced in Pittsburgh in 1836*] was soon circulated and in *De Verzamelaar*, the weekly paper of J. Suasso de Lima, Capetonians could read about the origins of the popular tune. In 1846, Sam Sly, in a satirical ballad to a famous singer, advised her to sing "Jim Crow" before she departed from the stage, "for", he wrote, "it is a song which we can recommend if circulation is your only aim."

In the same year, Boniface regarded this song as being so widely known that he used it with new lyrics. And two years later, W.F.H. Parker, at his puppet theatre in Long St., presented a doll in the role of Jim Crow who would dance a jig and sing a comic song.

"Serenaders" were originally spoken of in South Africa, as at the first performance in September 1848 of a group announced as the "Celebrated Ethiopian Serenaders", or as the "American" or "Darkie Serenaders", and even in Burgersdorp as the "Ethiopische Club".

The originality of the name "Serenaders" is clear from the evening music which groups of enthusiasts performed on Old Christmas Eve beneath the windows of their friends. The Capetonian John Rose, himself a serenader, noted, for example, in his diary in 1861 how they sang "Christy Minstrel" songs.

Then, in the following year came the first overseas group who called themselves "Christy Minstrels", and because of their success this was the name by which similar musicians were afterwards known. [...]

The songwriters were particularly productive during the American Civil War from 1861 until 1865, and although South Africa was far removed from the battlegrounds, songs like "Just Before the Battle", "Mother", "Ellie Rhee", and "Old Folks at Home" stirred the heart. They were sung again and again, and then not only in Cape Town.

All kinds of groups came to be formed by enthusiasts, some with rather odd kinds of names, like Roman Catholic Christies, that of the Psychological Association, the Afrikander Musicale.

In 1874 a concertina competition for a gold wristwatch was held in the garden of the Good Hope Lodge, and there is mention of a competition in which a duet "a la nigger minstrel" with the accompaniment by a banjo and "bones" was performed. We also hear at this time of amateur Coloured groups. [...]

How this recreation became part of the general delight can perhaps be best shown by a photograph in the first number of *De Goede Hoop*. In this picture, which was taken at Green Point, appear prisoners of war of the Second War of Independence, as the
"Green Point Starlings", complete with string instruments. And the faces are smeared like those of a Christy's Minstrel group. [...]

"Ook Minstrel Skyn die Ewige Lewe te Hê" deur Dr. Jan Bouws, *Die Burger*, November 12, 1966. [DN]

["Minstrel, Too, Seem to Go On Forever", by Dr. Jan Bouws; translated from the Afrikaans by Gerald Stone]

## 9.

It all started about 90 years ago with the Malay choirs who were based in what is commonly known as "Bo Kaap". They were singing groups who called themselves The Americans, the Canadians, the Good Hopes and the Arabian College group.

They were the people who introduced the moppies and gomma liedjies — the real pioneers. Take the song *Bobbejaan Klim Die Berg*. That was written and put to music by members of Roslyns rugby club. They were from District Six and their arch rivals were a team from Bo Kaap called Arabian College.

Roslyns had a stuffed monkey with a patch over the eye and after beating College they would march into District Six singing *Bobbejaan Klim Die Berg*.

Now of course the Afrikaner claim that they were the composers of the famous song.

What a lot of people don't realise is that the actual coons with the black faces were started by whites in Cape Town.

The original troupe was called the Periods and they performed outside hotels and bars in Cape Town. They blackened their faces and that is how the whole thing started.

Just before them were the minstrels. They were mainly tailors from Schotsche Kloof but they didn't blacken their faces. They wore outfits like the jockeys of today and their main aim was to entertain.

But the names that really stand out when you talk about coons were Runny Boxer who started a club called the Navy, Ted Adams whose stomping ground was Stalplein, and Mogamat Longfield.

They took over the Cinnamon Minstrels and turned them into one of the biggest names in Cape Town.

Then came the Tipperary coons which was started by the Tipperary family.

Following on their heels was the Ganzal family who went in for something different.

They used stilts. The most famous of them was James op Stokke'. Everybody knew him for his fantastic voice and his ability to manoeuvre on stilts.

The negro influence on the coons, as we know them today, was introduced by the O'Brien family who lived in Cowley Street. Together with the York family they introduced the Apaches with their distinctive American flavour.
Between 1915 and 1930 clubs were formed with well known names like Pine, Sign and Ali taking up the reins. They dressed like cavaliers and Jan van Riebeeck, and were a big hit in the city. [...]

The Dantu family of Cape Town showed their hand when they introduced the pompkolmpie — a musical feast with a Malay flavour. They used to perform on Greenmarket square and were eventually joined by a man known only as Kasatjie.

They had nothing to do with the coons but they were a big hit whenever they performed [...]

[Heirs to the 19th century “Dantu” family were still active in the *klopse* and Malay Choirs in the 2010s but then carried the name “Dante”; see: 1990.2]

"Why Aren't Coons Like This Today ?" by Solly Levy, *Cape Herald*, January 21, 1978.
[WM]

1707

10.

One of the earliest references to a *ghoemaliedjie* concerns a certain “Biron” who was punished in 1707 for singing dubious ditties “half in Malay, half in Dutch” in the streets of Cape Town [...]

Winberg ca.1992: 78 [AA]

[refers to Du Plessis 1935: 41]

1772

11.

[In 1772 Charles Thunberg attended a Muslim ceremony in Cape Town:]

On the 28th June, the Javanese here celebrated their new year. For this purpose they had decorated an apartment in a house with carpets, that covered the cieling [sic], walls, and floor. At some distance from the farthest wall, an altar was raised... The women, who were all standing or sitting near the door were neatly dressed, and the men wore nightgowns of silk or cotton. Frankincense was burned. The men sat cross-legged on the floor, dispersed all over the room. Several yellow wax candles were lighted up. Many of the assembly had fans... Two priests were distinguished by a small conical cap from the rest, who wore handkerchiefs tied round their heads in the form of a turban. About eight in the evening the service commenced, when they began to sing loud and soft alternately, sometimes the priests alone, at other time the whole congregation. After this a priest read out of the great book that lay on the cusion [sic] before the altar, the congregation at times reading aloud after him. I observed them reading after the oriental manner, from right to left, and imagined it to be the Alcoran that they were reading, the Javanese being mostly Mahometans. Between the singing
and reciting, coffee was served up in cups, and the principal man of the congregation at intervals accompanied their singing on the violin. I understood afterwards that this was a prince from Java, who had opposed the interests of the Dutch East India Company, and for that reason had been brought from his native country to the Cape, where he lives at the Company's expense."

Thunberg 1795: 132-134, quoted in Elphick and Shell 1992: 192-193. [AA]

## 1797

### 12.

[...] Lady Anne Barnard had most success among female society when she invited all "who wish to be merry without cards or dice but who can talk or 'hop' to half a dozen black fiddlers, to come and see me on my public day, which shall be once a fortnight, when the Dutch ladies (all of whom love dancing, and flirting still more) shall be kindly welcomed, and the poor ensigns and cornets shall have an opportunity of stretching their legs as well as the generals."

Bouws 1966: 139. [AB]

## 1800s

### 13.

Another tradition from the Dutch era was the dance music "which the slaves learnt to make in a lovely manner from all kinds of instruments" [Vincent Kolbe]. In the descriptions of ca. 1800 there is almost always mention of groups that made light music — mostly dance music. In each home there were a number of slaves who outside of their daily duties loved to play some or other musical instruments, in the city itself and its immediate surroundings as well as on the large farms away from the city. Augusta Uitenhage de Mist writes in her diary that she met families in the Cape whose servants could all play music. She was most surprised that nature — as she put it — was their only teacher in playing music. Lichtenstein, at the Cape at the same time, had the same experience and writes that neither teacher nor pupil knew a single note, and that everything was played "by ear". According to him the Malays had great talent in music. He further tells that he knew large households in which each slave could play some instrument so that a little dance orchestra could be formed immediately when young people visited each other in the afternoons to dance for a few hours. "Only one hint is necessary before the cook immediately grabs the flute instead of the tongs, the stable boy changes the curry-comb for the violin and the gardener puts the spade aside to play the violoncello."

A nice example of a home orchestra during the last years of Dutch government is that of Pieter van Breda, owner of Oranjezicht. A music tent stood in one of the gardens
of his estate. When Mr. van Breda was to have his slaves play music there, he raised
the flag so that music lovers in the city knew that they were welcome at Oranjezicht.
The orchestra consisted of 30 slaves who sometimes wore uniforms. Most of them
played flute or violin. Even after the lifting of slavery the house orchestra of the van
Breda family still existed. Thus Mr. Michiel van Breda let his musicians play in the
freemason lodge "The Good Hope" during the festival on St. John's Day, 1839. What
they played at this and other occasions is unknown.

We have more information about another slave orchestra. In one of his letters (2 July 1825) the Dutch visitor M.D. Teenstra tells of his experiences and his visit to the widow Colyn of Klein Constantia. He writes about how surprised he was by the music of 16 musicians who "belong to Miss Colyn as slaves": "they perform perfect fieldmusic [veldmuzijk], with all wind and other instruments needed, clarinets, flutes, trumpets, bassoon, snake, cymbals and two large drums, and play them as well as the best English corps in Cape Town dare to think." At the beginning of 1830 this famous home orchestra came to an end. Miss Colyn sold 31 slaves and a complete set of instruments belonging to "a band, completely new" on 20 January [...]

Bouws 1966: 140-141. [AB]

14.

New Year's Day was celebrated by all classes but, with the gayest abandon by slaves
who, allowed special privileges for the occasion, were "as independent as their masters
and without passport or lanthorn" [...] Children of every colour would assemble at the
upper end of Strand Street, their eyes on the clock of the Lutheran Church, as the hands
approached the hour when fireworks would signal the advent of a new year.

Hattersley 1973: 154. [AB]

15.

[...] there had always been street music in the larger towns. "Promenade concerts" by
Malay minstrels in Cape Town were not confined to holiday seasons.

Hattersley 1973: 251. [AB]

1803

16.

[The activities of Cape Town's musicians did not please everyone and "Malays" were most
probably the target of the following government regulation:]

[...] no private bands of music shall play in the streets after sunset or before sunrise
nor any other musical assemblage, held in the streets, unless the military bands of his
Majesty or of the Batavian Republic, who of course will have the previous permission
from their respective commanding officers.
Bouws 1966: 150. [AB]

## 17.

On the ground that they were “disturbing the tranquillity of the town” street bands in 1803 had been prohibited from playing after sunset. But they could be hired out to accompany indoor dancing. Made up of Malay slaves, they were the private property of well-to-do burghers.

Hattersley 1973: 148. [AB]

# 1820s

## 18.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Lichtenstein* noted that every slave group had its own musical style and in the 1820s W.W. Bird ** observed:

> "The grand display is in the outskirts of the town, to which the black population rush, on a Sunday, and go through their various awkward movements in quick or slow time, according to the taste of the dancers. The Sunday dance is accompanied by native music of every description. The slave boys from Madagascar and Mosambique bring the stringed instruments of their respective tribes and nation, from which they force sounds, which they regard as melodious. The love of dancing is a ruling passion throughout the Cape population in every rank; but music, though a pursuit favoured by a small part of the society, is here a passion with the negro alone."

It stands to reason that the tradition embodied in such events would not have been extinguished by emancipation, although no doubt it was substantially altered. Perhaps the “Coon Carnival” as it was organised from the 1890s on, was in some ways a transformation of it [...] This supposition, moreover, is strengthened by the accounts we do have of slave celebrations of emancipation which describe parades through the streets of Cape Town with banners flying ***.

* Lichtenstein 1928-1930: 425. [HW]

** Bird 1823: 165. [HW]

*** see e.g. J.G. Steytler, "Remembrances from 1832-1900", *Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library* 25, *Kronos* 9: 83-115. [AA]

Ross 1989: 45. [AA]

# 1823

## 19.

A Cape chronicler of 1823 writes of bands parading the streets at the New Year, and it was apparently the slave owner's custom to allow their slaves a holiday at New Year, perhaps on the lines of the Roman *Saturnalia*.

Patterson 1953: 156. [AB]
20.

The first record of annual New Year celebrations was in 1823, when bands paraded in the street to welcome the New Year.

Stone 1971: 2. [AP]

21.

Historians seem to agree that the first mention of merrymaking bands of musicians parading in the streets of Cape Town at New Year, is that of such processions in 1823. At this time, New Year, slave-owners gave their slaves a holiday and "the authorities permit much greater licence to Coloured performers and audiences than at any other time."

Van Der Ross 1973: 598. [AP]

22.

In pre-Emancipation days, those in bondage at the Cape were given a large measure of freedom at the New Year and an old chronicler of the Cape records seeing in 1823 bands of slaves parading through the streets at dawn on January 1. It was a time when the slaves could sing, drink and caper with wild abandon [...]

"Coon Custom's Roots in Slavery" by George Manuel, *Cape Times*, December 30, 1979. [DN]

23.

In pre-Emancipation days, those in bondage at the Cape were given a measure of freedom at the New Year and a chronicler tells of bands parading the streets "dancing, laughing, drinking and beating the earth with sportive feet." [...]

"Coon Carnival, Its Roots Are in Slavery" by George Manuel, *Cape Times*, December 18, 1954. [DN]

1825

24.

In 1825 a group of slaves belonging to a well-known Cape resident, Mr. Colign, musically entertained his guests".

Stone 1971: 2 [AP]

1834

25.

[...] Not a single act of extravagance, as far as we have heard or can learn, occurred
throughout the day or night. Not a misled simpleton was there at the Police Office on the following day, charged even with inebriety, or the breaking of a pane of glass. — Large bodies of the “Apprentices”, of all ages and both sexes, promenaded the streets during the day and night, many of them attended by a band of amateur musicians; but their amusements were simple and interesting; their demeanour orderly and respectful.

"Abolition of Slavery, The First of December", *The South African Commercial Advertiser*, December 6, 1834

[reproduced in: "Emancipation day and the press, 1834-1984", *Kronos* 9, 1984: 97]

[AA]

26.

[November 30, 1834, a religious service is held in a Barrack Street shop used as a meeting place by Methodists:]

As the midnight hour draws near they are asked to kneel. "Take your freedom from the hands of God". All fall on their knees and a great hush rests upon the assembly while the seconds tick away. A sob breaks the stillness. The minister's voice, trembling with emotion, is heard: "Midnight has passed; slavery is dead; you are all free".

"Celebrations of Slave Emancipation, Midnight Services in City Churches, Scenes of 100 Years Ago Recalled", *The Cape Argus*, December 2, 1834

[reproduced in: "Emancipation day and the press, 1834-1984", *Kronos* 9, 1984: 104]

[AA]

1838

27.

In 1838, a witness to the celebrations ending apprenticeship said he saw processions of coloured people "singing a Dutch song, in which every verse ended 'Victoria! Victoria! Daar waai de Engelschen Vlaag.'"

Steytler 1970: 25, quoted in Bickford-Smith 1994: 298. [AA]
## II.
# From the abolition of slavery to the first formal “coon carnival”, 1840–1906

### 1840s

#### 1.

On various occasions Van der Schyff's popular “native” band — which consisted of Cape Malayans — took turns with their military colleagues; both groups were then praised for their playing. In the description of the ball in honour of Sir George Napier and his wife the quadrilles of the Malayan performers were called lively and spirited, but the manner in which the musicians of the 45th Regiment played the waltzes are described by the writer as “superlatively excellent”. At the beginning of this evening these two groups of musicians cooperated in the opening of the festivity. The important guests were welcomed outside by a guard of honour formed by members of the 45th Regiment. The latter was then taken over by the Malayan band when the governor entered the hall.

[the ball took probably place in 1849]

Bouws 1966: 92 [AB]

### 1845

#### 2.

[...] Sammons was sensitive to the musicality of the Cape Malays who “on moonlight nights, and in warm weather, will whistle and sing in concert about the streets, linked in brotherly affection, with arms around each other’s necks, and a small fry in the rear, endeavouring to mimic harmony” [...]

Bouws 1966: 141 [AB]

#### 3.

*De Versamelaar* reports “that on New Year’s Eve any music company displayed their talents by marching through the city.”

*January 7,1845*

Bouws 1966: 150 [AB]
1848

4.

[...] the first Christy Minstrels who visited South Africa were Joe Brown's Band of Brothers. Joe was the champion jig-dancer of the world when he came to South Africa [...] Joe's party were the first band of vocalists who gave South Africa a taste for nigger part singing. They were the first to sing "Come Where My Love Dies Dreaming*" in this country.

* Song by Stephen Foster, published in New York in 1855.

Murray 1894: 207 [HW]

5.

A touring group of negro minstrels first appeared at the Cape in 1848 (Bouws, 1966).

Stone 1971: 3 [AP]

[from an article by Jan Bouws published in *Die Burger*, November 2, 1966]

1849

6.

On his first New Year's Day in the Colony (1849), Archdeacon Merriman noted that observance of the anniversary of freedom "seems gradually dying out", whereas peninsular landlords never neglected to "have the coloured people on their estate assembled at their door on New Year's morning and make them a small present in money or clothing."

Hattersley 1973: 154 [AB]

1850s

7.

Small parties of Malays, about eight or ten in number, slowly strolled up and down the streets singing the most sentimental Dutch songs in perfect time and harmony.

[A "White observer" quoted in:] Bickford-Smith 1996: 20 [AP]

1855

8.

Already since the previous century dance music was played by small Coloured orchestras, who played this music completely by ear, since they could read no music. Similar little orchestras were also active in 1855. The newspaper announced that the "well-known Malay Band" played admirably at the performance by Parry's Theatre Company. Hamelberg writes in his diary of 2 January 1855 that the "Mammoth
Quadrille Band”, who played dance music on occasion of the fall of Sebastopol, consisted of “6 violins, 2 violoncellos, 1 trumpet, 1 clarinet, 1 Turkish and 1 ordinary drum, instruments played in part by Negroes.”

Bouws 1946: 104 [AA]

1857

9.

The 89th Regiment band being unable to play at a ball, Malay musicians, although already hired for another function, are brought over for the “moderate sum of fifteen pounds.”

Bouws 1966: 93 [AB]

1859

10.

At Bloemfontein, a person named De Vos has been tried before the Landdrost, accused of being guilty of perpetrating a public nuisance, by beating during the night a drum, which was generally accompanied by a violin and singing — and fined in the sum of £1.

“Music charms the savage breast. Vice Versa”, *The Cape Weekly Chronicle*, May, 27, 1859: 5 [WM]

1860

11.

[...] The Serenaders comprise a select company of Vocalists, who will entertain the Public with CHOICE NEGRO BALLADS; and the OPERA TROUPE from New Orleans will, it is guaranteed, soothe with their Musical Charms the savage Breast of any Beast that may escape from the Caravan [...]

There will also be a GRAND LINGHO and KALIFA DANCE by some two hundred Malays, got up in a style of Oriental magnificence. To those who have never visited the East, this will form a charming opportunity of judging of Oriental Manners, Agility, Strength, and Gorgeous Costumes [...]

“Grand fete and fair in honour of H.R.H. Prince Alfred”, *The Cape Chronicle*, September 7, 1860: 1 [WM]

12.

[...] Arrived at the Malay stage, the Royal party took the seats provided for them and
the Kalifa commenced. We need not enter into the details of this semi-barbaric
ceremony, but suffice it to say that his Royal Highness appeared highly interested [...]

"The Prince", *The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, September 21, 1860. [WM]

1861

13.

THEATRE ROYAL, GRAND ENTERTAINMENT, Monday Evening, March 11th, 1961, MR. ST. GEORGE IN 15 CHARACTERS. ETHIOPIAN MINSTRELS !! SPANISH DANCERS ! The performance will commence with a variety of Comic and Sentimental Singing by DURBAN'S ETHIOPIAN MINSTRELS !! [...]

*[advertisement for a show given by "Mr. St. George and his local troupe of talented amateurs"]*

*The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, March 8, 1861: 1. [WM]

14.

[...] The performance which was of a very varied character commenced with a selection of negro melodies by the "Ethiopian Minstrels", alias the "Fête Serenaders". I am sorry to say that I cannot speak favourably of this portion of the entertainment, inasmuch as the songs were badly chosen, the choruses badly sung and the solos, with one or two exceptions, given without the least regard to time or tune. The pieces most worthy of mention were the duet "The Gipsy Countess" and the song and chorus "Ring, Ring the banjo", the rest I prefer leaving for oblivion [...]

*The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, March 15, 1861. [WM]

15.

NOTICE, J. Jacobs, Professor of music (lately from Germany) and P. Van Der Schyff, having succeeded in forming a superior QUADRILLE BAND of sixteen performers are now prepared to attend Balls, Picnics or any other Assembly where their services may be required, on the shortest notice.

Any number of the members can be engaged from four up to the full band. TERMS
LIBERAL.

Applications to be made either to P. Van der Schyff, 96, Rose Street or to J. Jacobs, 1, Lelie Street.

*The Cape Chronicle*, September 13, 1861. [WM]

1862

16.

Among the Cape Malays there were good dance musicians "with a precision and feeling quite unequalled, except by Strauss' band, and a variety which seemed endless" as Lady
Duff Gordon wrote in 1862 about a Malay harmonica player, who played all dance music by ear at New Year's ball together with a halfblood Negro. On asking whether he could read music, the answer was "music came into the ears, not the eyes".

Bouws 1946: 104-105. [AA]

17.

[...] our ears are suddenly startled by series of the most demonic yells and shrieks from the recess sacred to the performers, and out bounds a most frightful looking figure be-daubed with yellow ochre and burnt sienna. An application to my programme informs me that this is Mr. Leon impersonating an Indian [...] this one must belong to the tribe of *Circus-sien* Indians, I resolved to observe markedly the characteristics of the race. These apparently consisted of a decided predilection for war and whiskey, and a passionate devotion to field sports. In the latter he especially excelled, bringing down with an arrow an improbable animal from an improbable quarter. I endeavoured to get a glimpse of that popular American problem, a real "coon", but from the slight view I obtained, I am only in a position to state that it very much resembled a bloated tom cat [...]

[the presence among the audience of "Malays" and "dark skinned" persons is mentioned in the article]

"My visit to the circus" by O. Fogey Esq., *The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, March 14, 1862.
[WM]

18.

...this clever band of vocal and instrumental artistes [...] coming to this colony *en route* to Australia...

[first notice of the coming of Christy's Minstrels to Cape Town]

*The Cape Chronicle*, July 7, 1862. [WM]

19.

**THEATRE ROYAL**, Lesee: Mrs. C. Tellett, **CHRISTY'S MINSTRELS**. **PATRONIZED** BY Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, the late Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales, and all the Royal Family, their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of the French, and the most distinguished members of the Nobility and Gentry. **Under the Patronage of His Excellency the Governor and Mrs. Wodehouse, THE CELEBRATED AND ORIGINAL CHRISTY'S MINSTRELS, ORGANIZED 1842, From 472, Broadway, New York, and from Her Majesty's Theatre and Polygraphic Hall, London, where concerts in America and England exceeded over 6,000, will give their FIRST ENTERTAINMENT IN CAPE TOWN**
"The Christy's Minstrels", *The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, August 22, 1862. [WM]

23.

[...] The Christy's Minstrels have gone [...] well, they cannot go away and say we didn't patronize them properly, for there never has been a company here that reaped such a harvest in so short a time as did those self-same Minstrels [...]

"The Week" by Quiz, *The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, September 26, 1862. [WM]

24.

CHRISTY'S MINSTRELS. **JOE BROWN'S BENEFIT !!!** TO-NIGHT, AT THE CIRCUS, Joe Brown will take his benefit. **THAT'S WHAT'S THE MATTER! New Songs, Dances, and other Novelties!** NOTICE, Joe Brown will receive visitors This Evening (Friday), at the commodious Mansion in Rogge Bay, where a Feast (of fun) may be anticipated [...]

*The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, October 24, 1862. [WM]

25.

CHRISTY'S. the grand **BURLESQUE ON SOMNAMBULA**, and the, **FLYING DUTCHMAN**, With a select Programme, will be repeated (by special desire) at the circus THIS EVENING, FRIDAY [...] N.B. — novelties, eccentricities, &c.

CHRISTY'S MINSTRELS. SOMNAMBULA. **A Grand Morning Performance** at the circus, TO-MORROW, SATURDAY [...]

*The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, November 7, 1862. [WM]

26.

[...] The Christy's Minstrels have set everybody mad, and nothing now goes down but burnt cork, and Pompey's jokes. At Graham's Town they have been arranging some entertainments in aid of the distressed Lancashire Operatives, and of course, nothing could do but the young men must blacken their faces and don exaggerated shirt-collars. They must further be termed the "Graham's Town Minstrels" in imitation of their recent illustrious visitors, and are tossing, of course, the airs the "originals" have rendered famous. We must, I suppose, pardon this presumption in consideration of the good object for which it is assumed [...]

"The Week" by Quiz, *The Cape Chronicle*, Friday, November 7, 1862. [WM]

27.

The most successful entertainments ever given were those of the Harvey-Leslie Christy Minstrels. They remained in South Africa for over two years, playing all the time, and attracting full houses wherever they went. They were the best band of Christys I ever heard; preferable to my thinking, to Burgess's at St. James' Hall, for every member of
the band was a performer in the first rank of his own line. Dougherty alone was worth the whole cost of the ticket; he was always running over with humour when at his corner and the bones in his hands, and his was humour which came at the instant, fresh and sparkling from his lips. He manufactured jokes, and never repeated. His humour came as fast as he could give expression to it. And he was not only a corner man. He could dance splendidly and in comic opera he was first rate. Then there was Leslie, who had an enchanting voice. Braham, who sang modern English songs with much taste. His voice was clear, and with plenty of ring in it. Cox, as a violinist, was as good as was ever heard on the St. James' stage, and Truro, as a basso, was a tremendous fellow. Turner's violoncello performances were far above the average, and, best of all, Mr. H. Harvey was a first-rate manager and kept his team well in hand.

Murray 1894: 207. [HW]

1863

**28.**

[...] The origin of the carnival dates from the visit of the famous Confederate raider, "Alabama", to Cape Town in July, 1863. As the vessel approached the harbor, a Union barque, the "Sea Bird", which had desperately sought to avoid the Confederate ship for some time, made its appearance from the opposite direction. It was soon evident to the hundreds of local inhabitants, who had by this time lined the waterfront, that the raider was intent on seizing the hapless Union ship. The "Alabama" fired a blank charge at the fugitive, bringing it immediately to bay, and steamed triumphantly into Cape Town with the surrendered ship in tow. Visitors streamed on board the captor, and her captain was the hero of the day. The happy ending to this story came when the local Prize Court awarded the "Sea Bride" as a legal capture. For years this exciting event was discussed at every bar in the Cape and eventually found its way into song.

The curious American influence on this musical festival may have come from some members of the "Alabama's" crew who were inadvertently left behind when she sailed. Other sources are undoubtedly the many American movies shown in the theaters of Cape Town [...]

"Dixie in reverse" by Quentin Keynes, *Natural History* 59 (8), October 1950: 368. [GM (US)]

**29.**

[...] the confederate ship Alabama [...] called into the Bay between 29th July and 5th August 1863 to replenish her coal bunkers, whilst hunting for Northern ship during the American Civil War. [...] The incident is still remembered in South Africa because of the very popular song "Daar Kom die Alabama" (Here comes the Alabama).

Knox-Johnson 1989: 124. [NAE]
## 30.

Another scoop for the newspapers in 1863 was the appearance of the Alabama in Table Bay on the 6th of August [...]

The amazing story of this American Confederated vessel and its bold captain Semmes can be reconstructed from many contemporary sources. [...] Mrs. Dale (wife of Dr. Langham Dale) [...] just briefly remarks that "the *Alabama* created great excitement. She captured a Federal ship just outside the Bay, and in full view of many people who went up to the Kloof and out to Green Point to witness the fight. However, there was no fighting" [...]

Sir John Kotze [...] forgot the correct year when he afterwards recorded his experience.

"In the middle of 1864", Sir John writes, "the *Alabama* — Confederate Commerce raider under captain Semmes — put in at the Cape [...] Nearing Table Bay she fell in with the American vessel *Sea Bride* who tried to get within the three-mile limit from the shore between Robben Island and Bantry Bay [...]"

When the *Alabama* was signalled from Lion's rump, Cape Town turned out in a body. Early in the afternoon it was further signalled that the *Alabama* was in chase of the American barque *Sea Bride*. That made editor [R.W.] Murray jump from his desk, throw himself in the saddle and gallop to "the turn in the Kloof Road where you command a complete view of the entrance of Table Bay. And there sure enough was the *Alabama* pouncing down upon the *Sea Bride* like a hawk on a sparrow or rather like a shark after a herring [...] The rakish little steamer overhauled the barque, steamed round her, fired a gun across her bows, put off a boat and took her in tow [...]"

The *Sea Bride* was sold to auctioneer Marcus for £1,400 [...]

Picard 1969: 37. [NAE]

## 31.

A group of Boers, busy with their herds and native servants in the vicinity of Saldanha Bay, fifty miles north of Capetown, caught the first sight of the immortal *Alabama* in July 1863 [...]

[the crew was mostly non-American, recruited at Liverpool; Raphael Semmes, captain of the Alabama was invited by the Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, to visit Cape Town]

His arrival was more spectacular than had been foreseen. Colonists and natives swarmed in hundreds up Signal Hill, which overlooks Table Bay. Black men, half-castes, Malays, Hottentots mingled with leading white citizens.

Miss Matty Knox, an old lady who died at Johannesburg ten years ago, was among that crowd and described to me how, as a girl, she watched the *Sea-Bride* stealing into the roads, trying to avoid unnecessary exposure of her Northern colours.
1865

**33.**
But the most successful entertainment of this kind [American Minstrelsy] was provided by the Harvey-Leslie Christy Minstrels in 1862 and 1865. They performed their “nigger” part-songs, jigs and mocking caricature of American slaves in a variety of venues to all classes, and according to an *Argus* reporter: “even at the Cape, where the nigger character is so well understood, the caricature created a furore”. In closing the Agricultural show in the Gardens Mr. Leslie, in the character of “Broder Bones”, chose to make direct parallels between the Cape and America with his impressions of “life among Dutch farmers” and imitations of “Cape Dutch”.

Bickford-Smith 1996: 24. [AP]

1869

**34.**
Old-Fellow’s Hall, Plein Street, Amateur Coloured Troupe, Grand Entertainment, Under The Patronage of His Honour J.H. Brand, Esq., President of The Free State

[Advertisement for a show given by the Amateur Coloured Troupe; the programme includes: "Overture, Lucretia Borgia", "When you and I were young, Maggie", "De Darkie's Jubilee", "Malingo Hoy, the Cape Town Coolie (Dutch-Mozambique Lingo)", and an Ethiopian scene entitled the "Young Scamp"]

*Cape Mercantile Advertiser*, September 20, 1869. [WM]

**35.**
From at least 1869 the Amateur Coloured Troupe under Joe Lyal presented almost weekly full-scale minstrel shows to Cape Town audiences, nearly two decades earlier than the first “coon” carnivalists marched in the streets of Cape Town on New Year’s Day of 1888. By the late 1870s minstrel tunes had become so popular that the well-known Afrikaans folk song “Wanneer kom ons troudag, Gertjie” was sung to the tune of George Frederick Root’s “Just before the battle, Mother”, a minstrel tune composed during the American Civil War in 1864.

Erlmann 1991: 31-32 [AA]

[see also: Bouws 1946: 104-105]

1870s

**36.**
By the end of the 19th century [...] December 1 had become an unofficial holiday and
day of celebration by many descendants of the slaves. Meetings were held in District Six and festivities held throughout the night.

It was only with the growing popularity of Tweede Nuwejaar and the Coon Carnival that the traditional holiday of slave emancipation was eclipsed.

[Tweede Nuwejaar, literally the second New Year means January 2. During slavery times, it was the day when slaves did not have to work. After emancipation, it became a day of festivities when coloured musicians and singers, members of sports and social clubs paraded in the streets. When New Year festivals were formally organised in the 20th century, it became the day of the "road march": the klopse parade in the streets of Cape Town. For various reasons Tweede Nuwejaar and the road march are sometimes rescheduled a few days later.]

Nigel WORDEN, "When the slaves were freed", *Cape Times*, December 1, 1984

[reproduced in: "Emancipation day and the press, 1834-1984," *Kronos* 9, 1984: 119. AA]

## 37.

Coloured muslims have maintained a tradition of music in aesthetic and religious activities. They heavily influenced Dutch music at the Cape, and during the eighteen-seventies formed the nucleus of singing and sports clubs which were popular at the time. The Afrikaans term for Coons, "Klopse", derives from "Klubbe" (clubs), and originally referred to these organizations. Club members held festive street gatherings to greet the New Year, and would march ceremonially from adjacent suburbs to a yew tree in Church Square in the city, where a symbol of the Old Year would be buried.

Stone 1971: 2. [AP]

## 38.

[...] Singing organizations were popular in Victorian times when Cape Town was a military station and thousands of red-coated soldiers marched with bands along the highways. [...]

Coloured sporting clubs, such as the Wanderers turned out on New Year's morning wearing a motley array of outlandish costumes to "make sport", they said [...]

"Coon Carnival, Its roots are in Slavery" by George Manuel, *Cape Times*, December 12, 1954. [DN]

## 39.

[...] During the last quarter of the 19th century singing clubs were very popular in the Cape and so were sports clubs. Often the membership of the two consisted of the same men. They used to gather in halls attached to the taverns or in their clubrooms to harmonize a score of popular melodies.

A fresh impetus was given to the carnival spirit by an American Christy Minstrel troupe, the Jubilee singers who arrived in South Africa to give performances in the Old Castle Town Opera House and various other venues.
The Jubilee Singers returned to America after their tour. Three of their members, however, remained behind. They were Marshall, Taylor and Allen. They linked up with the famous family of singers, the Dantu brothers, who ran the Cape Of Good Hope Sports Club.

Together they formed the first Cape Coon troupe, the Original Jubilee Singers who were dressed in blue tailcoats and wore miniature top hats. Each had an eye circled in red. Their theme song was "Cherokee Maid".

The following year Mr. Mitchell — who was then the Cape Town fire chief — a prominent Cape judge, and a Mr. Crawford, became interested in the movement and the troupe changed their name to "The Darktown Fire Brigade" — a burlesque version of the real fire brigade whose uniform was used as a model for the coon costumes. The helmets were lent to them by the fire brigade and the local police. A big feature of this troupe was its parading with a real fire engine of those days — a "pomperlompie" — complete with pipes and canvas buckets. The following year another troupe, The Plantation Darkies came into being. It was also organized by the Dantu Brothers.

Other sporting clubs such as the Wanderers followed suit and turned out on New Year's morning in a motley arrey of colourful costumes "to make sport", they said. These clubs or "klopse", were out on the razzle-dazzle and today the coons are still referred to by the local population as the "klopse".

At first they performed on Woodstock beach, on the Rhodes Estate and later on the old pier and Green Point cycle track. In 1906 they were first formed into boards and competitions began to be held at the track in addition to the street performances. There were two kinds of these organized revellers — the American minstrel types and the "privates".

The privates were "of all nations" and included "The Cherry Pickers", "Cape Town Hawkers", "Lords of London", "Barcelona Bullfighters", "Beau Brummels", "Spanish Noblemen", "Highwaymen", "Desert Arabs" and "Mexican Cattle Thieves".

Then towards the end of the 1920s, it was decided to abolish the "privates" and the minstrels carried on the coon tradition. Two troupes of privates, however, remain till today.

"Coon custom's roots in slavery" by George Manuel, *Cape Times*, December 30, 1979:
6. [DN]

1875

40.

[The Cape Town municipality passed regulations enabling police to arrest citizens for making:]
[...] any loud and unseemly noise, in any street, square, alley, or public thoroughfare
either by shouting, screaming, or yelling, by blowing upon any instrument which may
disturb or interfere with the rest, peace, comfort or tranquillity of the inhabitants.

Bickford-Smith 1996: 21. [AP]

1878

41.

January 4, 1878: Grand Minstrel Night. Mr. E.H. Harvey and the Ethiopian Opera Troupe of “Black Diamonds” [...] Brother Bones and the Sable Brilliants [...] The Old Banjo

*Cape Times*, January 3, 1878 [DN]

1879

42.

"[...] Scottish singer David Kennedy, perhaps because of his own profession, had noticed Malay street singers on his visit in March 1879:

"In the beautiful starry evenings you hear their part-songs, some of the fellows singing at their open windows; and now and again a string of them extending across the broad street and shouting ballads to the accompaniment of guitar and concertina... the latest success of the concert-room is reproduced immediately in the streets of the Malay quarter" [...]

Bickford-Smith 1995: 188. [AB]

1880s

43.

"Emancipation Day" now means nothing at the Cape, but in the 1880's the liberation of the slaves only fifty years earlier was still celebrated. Outside the house of some dignified Malays in the Oriental quarter stands a group of Coloured people, who have brought along two "guys", one male and one female, in whose honour they play on a variety of quaint instruments [...]

[caption for an etching by Heinrich Egersdörfer; the musical instruments are concertina, violin and drum; the kids wear firemen's helmets]

Rosenthal 1960. [NAE]
44.

It is Guy Fawkes, and we all know this coloured orchestra, which is going from door to door, collecting pennies. With drum, fiddle and squashbox, their main purpose is to make a noise, and who will doubt that they have succeeded?

[caption for an etching by Heinrich Egersdörfer originally titled "Coloured Orchestra".]

Rosenthal 1960. [NAE]

1884

45.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Here comes the Salvation Army with the traditional tambourines, bugles and other instruments, they march along a Cape Town Street, their red and gold banners flying proudly. The scene belongs to the time when citizens still regard the "Army" as a strange innovation, but both its white and coloured members are thoroughly enjoying themselves and the attitude of the onlookers is not unfriendly.

[Caption for an etching by Heinrich Egersdörfer published in the *South African Illustrated News*, October 11, 1884: 316, and originally titled: "Salvation Army, Street Scene, Cape Town".]

Rosenthal 1960. [NAE]

1885

46.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the emancipation of the slaves in this colony in 1834. Some of their descendants expressed their appreciations of the blessings of freedom by all that was exasperating in the way of processions, accompanied with hideous noises.

*Cape Times*, December 2, 1885

[quoted in Bickford-Smith 1994: 298, AA]

47.

Round and round they whirl — these vigorous dancers taking their pleasure on the platteland. The men in uniform are members of the Barkly Rangers, lately returned from the 1885 expedition to occupy Bechuanaland. The coloured orchestra is one of Egersdörfer's masterpieces, particularly the man with the concertina on the left.

[Caption for an etching by Heinrich Egersdörfer published in: *The South African Illustrated News* 2 (39), September 26, 1885: 461, and originally titled: "The Orchestra, Last Days of the Bechuanaland Expedition"]

Rosenthal 1960. [NAE]
The frivolous coloured inhabitants of Cape Town, who take a holiday on the slightest pretext, indulged their peculiar notions in regard thereto by going about in large bodies dressed most fantastically, carrying “guys”, and headed by blowers of wind and players of stringed instruments, who evoked from their horrible monsters the most discordant and blatant noises that ever deafened human ears. At night time these people added further inflictions upon the suffering citizens of Cape Town in the shape of vocalisation, singing selections from their weird music with variations taken from “Rule Britannia” and the “Old Hundredth”. They also carried Chinese lanterns and banners as they proceeded through the streets playing their discords, beating the drum, singing and shouting, and the strange glinting of the combined light from the street lamps and the Chinese lanterns fell upon their dark faces, they seemed like so many uncanny spirits broken loose from — say the adamantine chains of the Nether World. But it was their mode of enjoyment and strange as it is that such noises should be regarded as pleasant, it showed at least the desire on their part to celebrate the birth of a new year.

On New Year's Day itself, beyond what has been already described, there were few organisations of pleasure trips or parties, the outing to Maitland of the Irish Volunteer Corps being the only one worthy of mention. Except for the displays of our coloured brethren, the town was very quiet [...]

*Cape Times*, Monday, January 4, 1886 [DN]

[...] Occasionally songs were overtly political. One variation of *Rule, Britannia!* that we know of, and that may not have been understood by English-speaking journalists included the lines:

“Kom Brittanje, jy beskaaf
Maak die nasies tot jou slaaf...
Jou dwinglandy sal gou verneer
Die wat hulle land eige noem.”
(Come Britannia, the civilising one,
Make the nations into slaves...
You tyranny will soon humble
Those that call this land their own)

Bickford-Smith 1995: 188 [AB]
[song and translation quoted from: Christine Winberg, *The 'Ghoemaliedjies' of the Cape Muslims: Remnants of a slave culture*, unpublished paper presented to the English Department Seminar, University of Cape Town, 1991; see also Winberg ca. 1992: 93]

50.

[...] In 1886 there were very active street parades of the Muslim street choirs and the Coons. In the same year there was a move to close the Muslim cemeteries in the Bo-Kap.

The people were able to organise resistance to this because of their tradition of organisation with the Carnival,” says Davids. [...]

“Coon carnivals at the end of the road?” by Shannon Neill [interview with Achmat Davids], *South*, January 21, 1994: 8. [GM]

51.

[...] The riots [following the closure of the Muslim cemeteries on Signal Hill in January 1886] took place in the depths of depression, when discontent born of poverty was at its most intense. The disturbances came shortly after an occasion which twentieth-century participants were to call the “Coon Carnival”: the parading of lower-class Black Capetonians through the city at New Year, the traditional slave holiday, in elaborate dress and to the accompaniment of musical instruments and popular songs [...]

We may suspect that the anti-authoritarianism and communal solidarity displayed in the weeks leading up to and beyond New Year's Day, as well as anger stemming from particular hardship caused by the depression, fed into the subsequent incidents during the “illegal” burial of a Muslim child on 17 January. Three thousand people took part in the burial, an act of defiance in itself. After the funeral part of the crowd attacked fifteen policemen who had followed the procession. Stones were thrown and several policemen were injured, one quite seriously. Two White onlookers were also hurt. The fighting stopped only when the Commissioner of Police assured the crowd that his men had not intended to prevent the burial [...]

Bickford-Smith 1995: 112-113. [AB]

52.

[...] madame Pearmain shows that she is an enthusiast in her devotion to her art when she condescends to appear as a negress and blacks her face in proper minstrel style [...]

[review of “a new and entirely original melo-dramatic farcical comedy in 3 acts by Mark Melford entitled TURNED UP!”, Theater Royal. One of the characters in the play is named Mr. Caraway Bones]

*The Cape Argus*, Thursday December 2, 1886: 2. [DN]
In 1887, a writer noted that “bands of musicians paraded the streets and played the young year into existence in a manner that would baffle description.”

Franck, Hatfield and Manuel 1967: 111. [NAE]

Cassiem Dantu remembered how he and his brothers formed the Cape of Good Hope Sports Club after a band of Negro minstrels had visited the Cape during Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations in 1887. A carnival troupe was formed, called The Darktown Fire Brigade, which paraded outside the old Town House in Greenmarket Square, to sing the ancient firemen's jingle "Pomperlompie", while swinging canvas bucket to and fro.

Franck, Hatfield and Manuel 1967: 110. [NAE]

During 1887, the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's coronation, Cape Town saw a variety of Coronation Jubilee Celebrations. Among these were the touring Negro minstrel "American Jubilee Singers". Several of their members won great popularity among the Coloureds and settled at the Cape, staying with the five Dantu brothers, who were prominent musicians and recorders of traditional Dutch songs (now Danti; the last brother died about 1965). These people started the Cape of Good Hope Sports Club, which paraded at New Year dressed as firemen. Green (1951: 193) states that the Dantus' descendants claim that "the first troupes appeared on January 1st, 1888, wearing the American minstrel costumes and with the blackened faces seen to this day.

Stone 1971: 3. [AP]

The origin which appears to be authentic is based on the visit of an American negro minstrel troupe to Cape Town during 1887, the year of queen Victoria's Jubilee. Their bright costumes and coon songs made an irresistible appeal to the music loving coloured people. Among those who heard the minstrels and memorized their songs were some Malay singers, members of the Dantu family. Their descendants claim that the Dantus started the coons, and that the first troupes appeared on January 1, 1888, wearing the American minstrel costumes and with the blackened faces seen to this day.

Green 1951: 193. [NAE]
57.

Dr. du Plessis has traced public appearances of these choirs [Malay Choirs] back to New Year's Eve 1887, when the Star of Independence Malay Club held a torchlight procession.

Green 1951: 195 [NAE]

[See 1888]

58.

The Army was very much in evidence on New Year's Day. Preceded by a band, consisting of a couple of cornets, two or three drums and the inevitable trombone, the Army marched round the streets from the afternoon till late in the evening, gathering forces as they progressed. At half past seven, after a final short circuit, the band and its followers, whose complexions were of almost as many different shades as their raiment and the score or two of flags and banners they carried assembled at the Drill Hall in Loop street, where they spent a couple of hours in very vigorous vocal and instrumental music [...]

"New Year's doing", *The Cape Argus Mail Edition*, January 5, 1887: 4. [DN]

59.

H.A. DEVERE'S Novelty Company, Mutual Hall, direct from London

[Advertisements for a show by Devere's Novelty Company; Mr. H.A. Devere is a "celebrated banjoist and comedian"; the troupe probably included several Americans]

*The Cape Argus*, Saturday, June 11, 1887: 2, and Tuesday, June 14, 1887: 2. [DN]

60.

Suburban Choral Union, A Grand Jubilee Concert, Claremont Hall, Monday, June 20th, Miss Gertrude Wynne will sing "Home, Sweet Home" and "The Minstrel Boy".

*The Cape Argus*, Saturday, June 18, 1887: 2. [DN]

61.

Grand Jubilee Concert by The Cape Town Amateur Band, 22nd June, Exhibition Building, to conclude with the C.T. Amateur Band Minstrel Troupe of 20 Performers (including Bones and Tambo).

*The Cape Argus*, Tuesday, June 21, 1887: 2. [DN]
## 62.

Grand Jubilee Performance, Mutual Hall, Christy Minstrel Troupe of H.M.S. Raleigh, full band of 30 performers; the proceeds will be devoted to the Sailors' Home at Simon's Bay.

[Most probably composed of members of the ship's crew]

*The Cape Argus*, Tuesday, June 21, 1887: 2. [DN]

## 63.

The Royal Scots Variety Company: Part II, Minstrel Troupe, songs, jokes and ballads; Part III, side-splitting Negro farce entitled: "Waxination Gratis".

*The Cape Argus*, Tuesday, July 5, 1887: 2. [DN]

## 64.

"Sir, — Will you allow me a small place in your valuable journal to draw the attention of our City Fathers to their decision in not allowing a band to perform in our public market? I speak as a respectable working man, who after a whole week's hard toil has now been robbed of his only few hours' amusement and pastime of a Saturday night, provided for us by these Malay stall-holders. Why should hundreds of my fellow workmen be denied a few hours sociable amusement for the sake of a few rowdies, as reported to the Public Works Committee by one Black and a Malay? [...]

British Workman

"Musical marketing, To the Editor of the 'Cape Argus'', *The Cape Argus*, Thursday, August 18, 1887: 2. [DN]

## 65.

[...] The programme was divided into two parts, the first consisting of serious and comic songs, interspersed with witty dialogues and racy jokes, and the second part consisting of a Nigger farce entitled "Rum' Uns from Rome" [...] a song by Mr. Tambo, "Duck Foot Sue" and "Dinah Said Yah" by Mr. Bones being re-demanded [...] As said before, the songs were interspersed with the invariable dialogues between Mr. Bones, Mr. Tambo and Mr. Johnson, which caused frequent roars of laughter [...] A comic song, a banjo song, and a piano-forte duet preceded the farce, and these three items alone were enough to make one's side ache, by the farce — well, the audience literally roared again [...]

[The troupe includes the names of several well-known local amateurs: Meessrs. D. Boonzaier, E.S. Steytler, G.H. Smith, etc. The performances were repeated in January 1888; see: *Argus*, January 9 & 13, 1888]

"Rover Minstrels", *The Cape Argus*, Friday, December 16, 1887: 2. [DN]
## 66.
The forerunners of Cape Town's revellers who traditionally brighten the New Year with hearty festivals of laughter, song and dance, once wore powdered wigs, satin breeches and feathered hats [...]

These men were unlike their present-day counterparts. They did not caper and dance with gay abandon to music that was full of vivacity and all the irrational valour of the poor. Instead they marched in serried ranks, like disciplined soldiers on parade. The emphasis was on their motley regalia, for they were masqueraders — dignified members of sporting clubs who once a year cut loose and, having thrown decorum to the winds, disported themselves in silks, satins and brocades, and doffed the gaily-plumed caps as they marched through the city streets.

The term “coon” was not a popular one then. The troupes who passed through the Mother City in broad, scintillating groups were known as “clubs” or “klopse”. They were “making sports”, they said, and dignity at the New Year was considered a dull virtue. It was a time when otherwise staid characters were prepared to cut a caper. The reason why they were so distinct in dress and demeanour from the glittering, lively coons processions of today was because they were more or less spontaneously-formed bands of revellers who were football players or cricketers during the year [...]

Side by side with these New Year Clubs evolved gradually the minstrel troupes [...]

The minstrels, who were constantly growing in number and in popularity, had modelled themselves on the dress and antics of the American Jubilee Singers. In 1888 such a concert party visited South Africa and after performing at the old Opera House, left an impression on the musically inclined Coloured people of the old Cape. It is believed the minstrel pattern of the present-day coons was copied originally from these Negro concert performers.

The club performers, who were also known as “privates”, disappeared for good from the New Year carnivals in the late 1920’s.

Manuel 1977: 72-73. [NAE]

## 67.
[...] Among many who heard the Negro minstrels [from America] perform, and who memorized their songs were a Malay family named Dantu. It is believed that the Dantu family were the originators of the Coon carnival, and that the first troupe appeared on January 1, 1888, wearing American minstrel costume with blackened faces [...]

“Coon Carnival” by Arthur Sidney East, *The Cape Argus*, January 26, 1956. [DN]
68.

The five Dantu brothers had founded one of the singing and sporting clubs, the Cape of Good Hope Sports Club. On 1 January 1888, members of this club appeared in American minstrel costume and with blackened faces.

Bickford-Smith 1994: 300. [AA]

69.

Mr. C.J. Cole, a well-known baker of the early days, has been singled out as the originator of the coons — though he certainly had no intention of holding carnival in the city. It was simply his custom to give his employees an annual picnic on New Year's Day at Protea, near Kirstenbosch. He used twelve-horse drawn bread-vans to convey the men, and brought up the rear in his own trap — thus making up the baker's dozen. The men were dressed in white and the leading van conveyed musicians. A newspaper report of the procession said, in 1888: "It was several times mistaken for Fillis's Circus".

Franck, Hatfield and Manuel 1967: 111. [NAE]

70.

A quaint custom was observed in the Cape in the old days by the less inhibited citizens. They used to "bury the old year" a few minutes before midnight and immediately afterwards they greeted the New Year with shouts of: "The year is dead — long live the year!"

That was in the days when New Year revellers of Cape Town belonged mainly to sporting clubs, and the Afrikaans name for them was *klopse* (clubs). The ceremony was preceded by festive marches to the yew tree that used to stand on Church Square. There they gave the old year, with all its disappointments, its fears and its sorrows, a symbolical burial, and one old writer describing the event in 1888 said that their torchlight processions with "impromptu bands innumerable" added "to the grandeur of the funeral rites of the dead year." [...]

"Coons 'buried' the old year" by George Manuel, *Cape Times*, December 29, 1979 [DN]

[see also: Franck, Hatfield and Manuell 1967: 111]

71.

A Malay torchlight procession paraded the streets during the evening; but it was a sorry turn out, consisting of about thirty torch bearers and individuals with chinese lanterns, the *cortege* being escorted by a couple of policemen in order to preserve order.

*The Cape Argus Weekly Edition*, January 6, 1888: 17. [WEE]
72.

Many of our readers have no doubt witnessed this strange spectacle, but generally in some dingy back-street tenement, surrounded by squads of odoriferous natives. They will this evening, however, have an opportunity of seeing it under more comfortable circumstances, as arrangements have been made for its production at the Exhibition building [...]

“Malay Kalifa”, *The Cape Argus*, Friday, April 20, 1888: 3. [DN]

73.

A melodramatic novelty, in the form of a Malay Kalifa, was enacted last evening in the Exhibition Building, in the presence of over a thousand visitors. Although of frequent occurrence in Cape Town amongst the Malay Residents, this is only the second occasion on which this singular celebration has been performed in public, the previous production taking place in honour of the visit to Cape Town of the Duke of Edinburgh some twenty five years ago. The curiosity evinced by the Cape Town people in the event was not unnatural, for the disclosures fully warranted it. A Kalifa, probably so called from the Indian Goddess Kali, after whom Calcutta was named, is a feast among the Malays, very similar in its import to that of a tournament in the days of Norman England. It is simply an exhibition of sleight of hand and activity in presence of dangerous weapons, and not a religious feast as many suppose. It has, in addition, a more interesting and gallant association, for, from amongst the more athletic young actors in the Kalifa, the Malay maiden actually accept her beau. The whole celebration as performed last evening, abounded with Eastern romance and mystery. The stage of the large hall had been nicely fitted up for the occasion. Palm trees stood on either side of the proscenium, and the stage was filled with Mahometan symbols and a miniature mosque like structure, behind which were seated a number of Malays, whose vocal efforts added considerably to the mystic nature of the revels. Seated round the stage were the drummers, who, with the indispensable tom-tom, kept up a continual boom from which actors evidently took their time. All the participants in the Kalifa were dressed in white, with green sashes across the chest. The whole of the production was under the charge of Hadje Saydien, who also presided at the Celebration of twenty five years ago. The proceedings opened with exhibition of agility with knives. The Malays, about twelve in number, ranged them in two rows up the stage, and facing each other. In each hand was a dagger, and, at a given signal, the tom-toms beat. The choir sang a monotonous lay, and the acrobats commenced a most eccentric dance at given intervals, and quite in unison, carrying the knives as close to their bodies, with rapid motion, as they might without actually stabbing themselves. A loud round of applause greeted this effort. The next item was a similar exhibition but with curved swords and to six eight time. The gambols were most erratic, but all thoroughly in unison; and the
men seemed to be attempting to hack off their hands. One or two were actually
wounded, and they dropped out, being disqualified from taking any further part in the
Kalifa. The number gradually diminished and only seven were left when two swords
each were served out. Then the most extraordinary feats were performed. The actors
slashed away seemingly in a most reckless manner, and dancing all the time. The
swords points were placed into their eyes and ears, and the edges round their throats,
but such was their ability that not a scratch was sustained. This performance gained
the loudest plaudits from the audience. After further and similar feasts had been
performed, some very pretty Eastern dances were given by fair votaries of Terpsichore
and the men went through the wonderful [...] dance, of which much has been written
and said. The intervals were very pleasurably enlivened by the presence of the band of
the Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers, who under Mr. Wallace played some very choice and
enjoyable selections.

“Malay Kalifa”, *The Cape Argus*, Saturday, April 21, 1888: 3. [DN]

1889

74.

[...] The fact that specimens of many a nationality are to be met during such a stroll is
not, perhaps, one calling for any boast; but the motley gatherings are by no means an
unmixed evil. They are happy, good-humoured crowds which hold high carnival in the
streets of Cape Town at holiday season. Compared with the English "high ripper" or
the Continental cut-throat or garrotter, the Cape boy is a veritable treasure. All he
desires is to amuse and to be amused, and if, in achieving his object, he makes a greater
noise than nervous people relish, there is the satisfaction of knowing that his love of
funs ends there, and that he has not to resort to more violent measures to gratify his
holiday humour. Given a violin or a banjo, and the Malay is a king for hours, and has
no soul for breaking down trees, up-rooting shrubs, and generally maliciously injuring
everybody and everything that comes in his way [...] Plein street was of course the
centre of attractions on New Year's Eve [...] as the evening wore on many of the people
wended their way towards various places of worship to take part in Watch Night
Services, whilst the groups of Malays paraded the streets chanting a favourite lay.
There was little other minstrelsey [...]

“New year’s eve in Cape Town”, *The Cape Argus Weekly Edition*, January 2, 1889: 4.
[WEE]

75.

Negroic minstrelsy, as a popular amusement, has been known throughout the world
for the last half-century. When E.P. Christy (the founder and originator of this class of
entertainment) first started in New York City in 1842, the *quid nuncs* said it would have
an ephemeral existence. But at St. James' Hall, London, the Christy's have warbled their sweetest strains to large audiences for twenty two consecutive years, and without any apparent diminution in popular favour. On the first appearance at the Mutual Hall, some years ago, of the Harvey, Dougherty, Braham and Leslie Minstrels, they crowded the place for weeks together, and subsequently played a six months' season in Kimberley at prices ranging from five shillings to half-a-guinea. Mr. Braham, in introducing his new troupe of Empire Minstrels to the play going citizens of Cape Town, may rely upon every encouragement to his enterprise; provided the lines he so successfully carried out on his previous visit are followed. The new troupe is reported to be very strong, both vocally and in instrumental music, and doubtless a full house will witness the opening performances at the Mutual Hall on Monday next.

“The Empire Minstrels”, *The Cape Argus*, Wednesday, December 4, 1889: 3. [DN]

76.

[...] The curtain rose on the semi-circle of minstrels on the stage, of whom W. Boyce and W.B. Moseley, who supplied the nigger element, had blackened faces [...] the minstrel part of the programme was brought to an end with an amusing phantom chorus, entitled “Somnambula” in which the Niggers were alarmed by the appearance of a ghost. The second part was of the music hall order, but it was entirely free from vulgarity [...] the entertainment concluded with a burlesque of “Il Trovatore”, which proved to be very laughable, while the music was first class.

“Braham’s Empire Minstrels”, *The Cape Argus*, Tuesday, December 10, 1889: 3. [DN]

1890

77.

The Malays of Cape Town have not made such a show for several years as they have presented for us at the Cricket Tournament at Newlands this week. However we may have lamented the spread of Asiatic influence in Cape Town, we have always had a saving clause for the Malays. They have not come here to try for their own fortunes against the European, but their fathers were brought here against their own will as slaves for the convenience and comfort of our predecessors, and they have the same rights as Europeans have to regard this country as their home. Of all the people benefited by emancipation day, they have proved themselves most worthy. We have had no Hayti in Cape Town by reason of the presence of Malays in our midst. As far as men of alien race can amalgamate with a European community, they have become an integral part of the population of Cape Town. We fancy that old inhabitants of Cape Town, although they may occasionally say unpleasant things of the Malays and regret that Cape Town should be exposed to the reproach of being a “Malay Town”, would feel a little sorry if they saw no more of the familiar figures in the street — the
trustworthy Malay mason who knows exactly what kind of work we require, the Malay
laundress whose preparation of our shirt fronts is a fine wit, the steady Malay driver
who can complacently skirt a precipice, or the invaluable "old Malay man" who knows
as much as an old English factotum, and perhaps a thing or two besides.

The Malays have been subject to some changes during the last few years, but such
changes are not noted in our concern for the still more remarkable changes going on
amongst the European community, owing to the race for gold. Old observers of local
life in Cape Town saw how the Malay community was thrown completely out of gear
by the small-pox epidemic to which they were the principal victims. The epidemic was
followed by some exceedingly distressful years which told upon all classes, and not
least upon the once gay and happy Moslems. The picnic party and the smart Monday
turn out, were under a cloud for some time, and Malay costumes, always a picturesque
local feature, suffered a sad sea-change. With the return of general prosperity,
however, the Malays have pulled themselves together again. The Kalifa and the
weddings have again drawn European spectators, and the great demand for masons
and other handicraftsmen have put money in the Malay pocket, and restored something
of the old buoyancy to the community. Anyone watching the departure of the main
line night trains will have seen how largely the Malays have availed themselves of the
opportunity of going to Johannesburg to make their fortunes. Just a few years ago they
went to Kimberley. At Johannesburg, as at Kimberley, the Malays have established
themselves as a distinct branch of the population; and if they are as useful as they are
in Cape Town, Johannesburg will have no reason to regret their migration. A strong
corps of Malay laundresses will certainly be a godsend to the much tired
Johannesburgers. That the Malays of Johannesburg intend to hold up their heads in the
world is evidenced by their sending down a team of cricketers to try conclusions with
their old compatriots of the Cape Peninsula. The gaudy appearance of the Newlands
field during the matches seem to point to a complete revival of Malay prosperity, and
it says something for the tolerance and the good feeling of the European population in
Cape Town that the fortune of the olive-complexioned cricketers should have been
followed with no small degree of interest.

Will the Malays of Cape Town ever make anything of themselves in the sense that a
European attaches to the words? They have the ball at their feet, for if they choose to
educate their young people, nothing can stand in their way. We no more understand
them than we can understand any of the races of mysterious Asia; but that they are
capable of a higher degree of civilisation than the simpler African races there cannot
be a shadow of doubt. Whatever they are with their dark tendency to arts of magic and
their Asiatic fatalism, we shall always have them with us in this country; so their future
cannot be a matter of indifference to us. Their talent, as in music, runs at present into
grooves, more peculiar than pleasant; but that they are capable of great advancements
none who knows them can deny. The mere fact of the younger generations of Malays having taken to the English game of cricket as they have during the last few years points to an awakening amongst them, the results of which will be of the highest interest. Only the other day a young Malay who had distinguished himself at the South African College School was sent to Europe to complete his education as a medical man. If the Malays are really turning the corner and mean to enter the race of European civilisation, there may be a little outburst of old fashioned jealousy here and there; but on the whole the people of Cape Town will bid them God-speed.

“The Malays”, *The Cape Argus*, Wednesday, January 15, 1890: 2. [DN]

78.

Vaudeville Hall, The Jubilee Singers And Virginia Concert Company, Ten Coloured Vocalists From U.S. America, Will Give Six Of Their Inimitable Concerts Commencing Monday Evening, 30th June, Under the Distinguished Patronage and in the presence of His Excellency the Governor Sir HENRY B. LOCH and Lady LOCH. They sing their Weird Plaintive Melodies of the former Slaves of America, Solos, Glees, Quartettes, &c., by Modern Composers [...]

*The Cape Argus*, Thursday, June 26, 1890. [DN]

79.

The Virginia Concert Party made their first appearance in South Africa at the Vaudeville Hall last night. The house was packed in every part, among those present being His Excellency the Governor, Lady Loch and suite. Singing such as is given by the Virginia Concert Company has never before been heard in this country. Their selection consists of a peculiar kind of part song, the different voices joining in almost unexpected moments with a wild kind of symphony. At one moment one has the full force of all the voices, and the next is straining the ears listening to a melody which seems to be fading away. It would be useless for others to attempt to sing music of this description, it is without doubt one of the attributes of the race to which they belong, and in their most sacred songs they seem at times inspired as if they were lifting up their voices in praise of God with hopes of liberty. The solo vocalists were Mr. O.F. McAdoo, Mr. M.H. Hodges, Miss Belle F. Gibbons and Miss Mattie E. Allen. After each selection the audience were loud in their applause, and encores were frequent. Mr. O.F. McAdoo sang “A Hundred Fathoms Deep”: a song which is well suited to his voice, and for which he earned a well-merited encore. Miss Gibbons sang “Who Will Buy My Roses Red” [...] and quite captivated the audience by her excellent rendition. She has a sweet soprano voice and what is more, knows how to use it. Mr. Hodges sang “Afloat” and Miss Allan, “We Met Too Late”. In a short speech before the second part of the programme, Mr. McAdoo gave the audience particulars of the concert company and
explained that although not posing entirely as philanthropists, a certain amount of the money earned by his company was devoted to the foundation of scholarships and for the education of the coloured race at Hampton, Va. The Virginia Concert Company appear every evening this week.

[The Virginia Concert Party or Virginia Jubilee Singers was a troupe of African American minstrels organised by Orpheus M. McAdoo who played an important part in transforming the aesthetics of the minstrels; they had a very strong impact on South African performers, musicians and New Year revellers. See also: *Imvo Zabantsundu*, Thursday, October 16, 1890 and Thursday, October 30, 1890, and ERLMANN 1991]

“Jubilee Singers At The Vaudeville”, *The Cape Argus*, Tuesday, July 1st, 1890. [DN]

1892

80.

None of these [Netherlands songs] was written down in the early years, but about seventy-five years ago [ie. 1892] a Malay choir leader named Rasdien Cornelius, helped by a retired Dutch sailor, Frans de Jongh, began to record what was rapidly being lost. When Rasdien began, a mere twenty songs were all that could be recalled by the younger singers. Other songs were imported from Holland and the oldest Malays were persuaded to recall snatches of ditties sung in their youth [...]

Franck, Hatfield, Manuel 1967: 108. [NAE]

81.

The Jubilee Singers' first tour of South Africa closed with a performance in Cape Town on January 25, 1892. After a three-year tour of Australia, the troupe returned to Cape Town on June 29, 1895.

Erlmann 1991: 35. [AA]

82.

METROPOLITAN HALL, Burg Street, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 28th, 29th, and 30th, Grand concerts by the AFRICAN NATIVE QUINTET (Previous to their Departure for America). These Singers have had the honour of appearing before Queen Victoria (by special command) And have sung with great success throughout the United Kingdom.

*The Cape Argus*, Thursday, December 22, 1892: 4. [DN]
1893

**83.**
*[The Muslim Mara Soeker condemns:] [...] "the going about the streets singing and the jollification. It is all against our belief and religion, and I feel ashamed that these young people should be knocking about the streets in the way they do."*

quoted in: Bickford-smith 1996: 27. [AP]

1894

**84.**
Mr. C.J. Cole, a Cape Town baker, has been credited with bringing the coons to life. With an eye on publicity, Mr. Cole provided his bakery boys with top hats and costumes and followed the troupe in his trap. But that, I find, was six years after the first appearance of the coons. [ie. 1888]

Green 1951: 193. [NAE]

ca. 1900

**85.**
Early this century there settled in the Malay Quarter a sailor from Holland who was to have a profound influence on the choirs. He was Frans de Jong, he wore the fez and took a leading part in the singing [...] De Jong sent to Amsterdam for the song pamphlets used by street singers. In this way the Malays acquired many of the foreign songs which often puzzle the listener — the old Russian national anthem, for example and the "Marseillaise". Student songs in Latin came from the same source.

Among the pupils of De Jong was Rasdien Cornelius, greatest Malay singer of this century.

Green 1951: 196. [NAE]

1904

**86.**
*[Mr. Bert H. Hart (71 at the time of publication), life member of the Green Point Cricket Club, recalls how the first Coon Carnival competitions were organized at the Green Point Track "55 years ago", that is in 1904; see 1907]*

[...] The whole thing was the result of a gamble by a live-wire Australian. He was Harry Coggins, whom some old-timers will remember as a Western Province cricketer. Harry, a member of the Green Point club, knew that the club's finances were at rock bottom.
Yet he persuaded club officials to spend about £100 — mostly on tick — on trophies for the Cape Coons. In those days they performed only sporadically. He suggested that a Coon Carnival should be held at the club's headquarters, the Green Point Track, and that the club should take any profits from that venture.

You will appreciate that £100 was a great deal of money in those days and there were some people who felt the gamble might prove costly. However, Harry was right. The Track was crowded and the carnival such a success that it became a regular feature ever after.

The Green Point Cricket Club was put back on its feet and all the trophies were paid for. I know that because I was the man who sold them to Harry. I used in those days to work for a Cape Town firm of silversmiths [...]

“Carnival n°1 was gamble to aid cricket”, *Cape Times*, January 10, 1959. [DN]

1906

87.

Those early coons sang and danced without thought of reward. In 1906, however, *The Cape Argus* offered a trophy and organized the first Green Point Track carnival. That event has now become a coon tradition.

Green 1951: 193. [NAE]

88.

[...] Mr. Tobin, again raising, said a document had just been placed in his hands which redounded infinitely to the credit of District Six. During the whole of Christmas and New Year's Holidays there was absolutely no "lock-up" for drunkenness [...] and in fact the only charge in that period was one of smashing a window pane.

Mr. Petersen was rejoiced to hear this of much maligned n° 6. He was sorry to say, though, that, as a rule, they — the coloured people — did not behave themselves properly. He contrasted Sea Point and Green Point with Caledon and Hanover streets. In the former, all was quiet, in the latter, all was noise.

“Yesterday’s ‘Stone’”, *Argus*, January 8, 1906. [DN]
### III.

## The multiplication of competitive carnivals, 1907–1939

1907

### 1.

[...] The most popular features of the afternoon competitions were the troupe events such as the grand march past, and marching and singing competitions [...]

Their [the troupes'] clever performance was the result of months of conscientious practice.

It is very certain that the brilliant success will result in the carnival being an annual affair, and with the experience gained at this initial venture, the future competition will be national in character. The lessees of the Track were breaking new ground but they know that their efforts will be seconded by the coloured community and Europeans alike.

“Coloured Minstrel Carnival, Magnificent Spectacle”, *Argus*, January 2, 1907. [DN]

### 2.

Residents in the Peninsula were on Tuesday afternoon afforded an opportunity of viewing a gathering on the Green Point Track of two or three hundred of those coloured mummers without whom New Year's Day in Cape Town is not complete. The occasion was a coloured carnival, and apparently the event must have been considered one of the main events of the holiday, for close on 7000 people found the road which led to the Track, packed the grand stands, and bordered the railings for a considerable distance. Naturally the coloured community was in force to cheer their compatriots engaged in the competitions, but there were also upwards of two thousand Europeans on the ground.

[...] There were seven bands of mummers, decked out in the brightest colours, and accompanied by string bands. These formed the procession from the Parade. They created something of a stir on their passage through the streets, and were followed by a huge crowd of all colours, classes, and creeds [...]

The marching competition was the first item. The troupes paraded on the cinder path, every member of each troupe, with coat tails flying, prancing fantastically along the rattling of the bones, the tum-tum of the drums, the banging of tambourines, and the strumming of banjo and guitar [...] Each corps had its marching song. Sung in that half chart, half mumble of the Cape mummer, and almost drowned in the strumming
of the string instruments and the cheers of the spectators, it was difficult to ascertain
what these were. They were typical coon ditties, and the guitar and banjo formed an
effective accompaniment [...]

Despite the fact that the function was the initial one of its kind, the committee did
excellently [...] No awards were made on Tuesday, it being understood that the list
would be communicated to the press within the next day or so [...]

In the evening the grounds were illuminated and various competitions were carried
out, in the presence of a large crowd. The revels concluded at a late hour [...]

"Coloured Carnival Revels at Green Point Track", *Cape Times*, Thursday, January 3, 1907: 7. [DN]

3.

[When the first competitions were held] There were two kinds of these organized revellers: the coons, who blackened their faces and danced and the “privates” who consisted of sporting bodies whose members wore fancy dress and were led by brass and string bands. They marched in ranks like soldiers.

More and more troupes grew out of the existing ones. There were the "Cherry Pickers", "The Lords of London", "Bullfighters", "Beau Brummels", "Spanish Noblemen", "Highwaymen", "Desert Arabs" and "The Mexican Cattle Thieves".

Since then the "Privates" have disappeared and the coons with blackened faces hold
sway [...]

"Coon Carnival, Its Roots are in Slavery" by George Manuel, *Cape Times*, December 18, 1954. [DN]

4.

FINEST OUTDOOR SHOW EVER HELD IN SOUTH AFRICA, Second Annual Grand
*Coloured Minstrel Carnival* [...] 2000 Competitors [...]

*Argus*, December 12, 1907: 4. [DN]

5.

A general meeting of representatives and other interested in the second annual coloured carnival will be held this evening in the Workmen's Hall, Aspelling street, Cape Town, at eight o' clock. Captains of troupes are kindly requested to hand in their entry forms with list of members so that the committee can arrange the programme as soon as possible. Entries close definitely to-night.

"Coloured Carnival", *Argus*, December 13, 1907. [DN]
6.

Many years ago the Cape boys used to delight in marching round the streets of Cape Town and suburbs in bands, armed with guitars, banjos, and mouth organs, etc., with which they discoursed music dear to their hearts. As there was no system of training, the music which emanated from these instruments was often of an exceedingly crude and weird nature, but a few of the bands were really good. On a calm still evening the melodious twang of the banjo accompaniment to some popular cooon [sic] love song would have a soothing effect, and the song of "Lu-Lu's" love-sick swain would be greeted with great applause. Among these bands were also some fine singers, who although they clipped their words somewhat, put a depth of feeling into their songs, which seems to come naturally to them.

On some bank holidays also none were more indefatigable dancers than the dusky beau and his belle, and at Plumstead on the greensward such a scene of animation would be presented as wood [sic] be extremely hard to surpass, even in the Southern States of America. In fancy dress the Cape boy delighted. Give him an old uniform and a faded stove-pipe hat and he would emerge from his house in the most fantastic and gaudy outfit it would be possible to construct. However, in later years, these customs gradually fell into disuse, and almost disappeared entirely, until last year, when a committee was formed and, after many difficulties were overcome a most successful coloured carnival was held on the Green Point Track [...]

"Coloured Carnival, A Great Success, Coonland at the Cape This Afternoon", *Argus*, January 1, 1908: 5. [DN]

7.

[...] The object of this carnival is a good one. It is to concentrate the energies, to improve the efforts, and to educate the musical tastes of the numerous bands of coloured minstrels, which before the inauguration of the carnival used to perambulate the streets of Cape Town and suburbs on New Year's Day. These bands used to be a regular feature of the thoroughfares of the metropolis on the first day of the year, adding not a little life and colour to the otherwise deserted streets, through which they walked and danced for hours together. Their wanderings were generally of an aimless description, and so too were their musical efforts, but now that a healthy spirit of rivalry has been aroused an improvement is in many respects already noticeable [...]

With regards to the songs, it was a pity that nearly all of these were of THE AMERICAN COON variety; and that hardly a single Afrikander song was heard throughout the afternoon or evening. A little originality in this and some other directions should be attempted next year, for this slavish adherence to American coon
methods as portrayed in the pages of half-penny comic papers becomes monotonous
[...]

"Feast of Lanterns". All the troupes marched around the track carrying lanterns and headed by their bands. Much ingenuity had been shown in devising lanterns of quaint shapes, such as stars which were made to revolve, and as the troupes filed past the grand stands they were vociferously applauded. The scene was most picturesque [...]

The prizes will be distributed on "Competitors' Night", January 13, at the Green Point Track, when a special programme will be presented [...]

A condition of the carnival is that no troupe can take more than one first prize [...]

"Coloured Carnival at Green Point Track, Another Success", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1908: 3. [DN]

8.

Third Annual Coloured Carnival on the Track on January 1st [...] Admission - 1/-. Grand Stand - 1/-. Owing to the **Enormous Crowds** that the carnival has attracted in the past, **1,000 Seats will be reserved at 2/6**, including admission to Ground.

*Cape Times*, December 12, 1908: 6; *Argus*, December 22, 1908: 4. [DN]

9.

[...] Several novelties have been introduced into this year's programme that will enhance the reputation of the coloured carnival. The Kafir dance is being looked forward eagerly. The natives have been engaged, but owing to the fact that the natives of one tribe are not familiar with the dances of other tribes, representatives from several tribes will give their own dances. The natives will be dressed in their own savage costumes, and will be armed with assegais, knobkerries, and shields. In addition to the war dance they will give several other dances, such as the Amakweeta and the Abouta, illustrative of their customs. Another great attraction will undoubtedly be the Goomah dance, which, we are assured, will create a sensation without having anything objectionable about it. The dance will be performed by a number of Malays of both sexes, and they will be accompanied by music on their own peculiar instruments [...]

"The Coloured Carnival", *Cape Times*, December 19, 1908: 9. [DN]

10.

The various troupes of coloured minstrels taking part will assemble at the Parade at 1 p.m. on Friday, and will thence march in gay procession to the Track, escorted by the five brass bands playing merry and inspiring airs [...]

The evening performance will comprise an entire change of programme and there will be a dance by the Moslems. It is not often that the Moslem community can be persuaded to perform in public, but the carnival authorities have been fortunate enough
to secure a number of Moslems of both sexes to give an exhibition of the Goomah
dance. This is said by those who have had the privilege of seeing it to be one of the
most weird dances possible to imagine, while it contains nothing of an objectionable
nature.

Then the raw native is lending a hand to the coming carnival. It was hoped at first to have been able to show a Kafir War Dance, which would certainly have created a record sensation, as such a thing has never been shown in the Cape, at least within the memory of most of us. The coloured missionaries, however, took alarm, fearing perhaps that the savage instincts of their flocks will be aroused too much. Still, there is no objection to the tribal dances being given, and the members of the following tribes will perform: Fingoes, Bechuanas, Zulus, Gaikas and Cape Kafirs. The dances will illustrate native customs, and the principal ones will be the Amak weeta and the Abouta. In both the participants will be in savage array. The former commemorates the rites performed on the Kafir Youth attaining manhood, and the latter borders closely on war dance, inasmuch as the natives are armed with knobkerries. [...]

“The Coloured Carnival [...]”, *Argus*, December 29, 1908: 6. [DN]

1909

11.

[...] Unfortunately, the displays that were to be given by the Kafirs have had to be
abandoned on account of the opposition of the coloured missionaries [...]

“The Coloured Carnival, To-Day’s Programme”, *Cape Times*, January 1, 1909: 8. [DN]

12.

[...] The first carnival, owing to its novelty, was decidedly successful [...] The second carnival, held last year, was also a great success, but did not differ much from that held the previous year. But this year there seems to be some falling off — there seemed to be something lacking — although it was not easy exactly to say wherein the fault lay. There was, for one thing, not that enthusiasm of the two former years, nor were the costumes, generally speaking, quite so effective. It may be that the novelty of the thing has by this time worn off, or that the competitors are resting on their laurels, instead of having progressed a step further. Some of the costumes were better than last year, but on the whole they were not. It may be that the gloomy financial year has had its effect on the merry coons, or reduced their spending power [...]

“Coloured Carnival, Coons at the Track”, *Cape Times*, January 4, 1909: 8. [DN]

[In 1909, the *Argus* did not publish any account of the carnival; there will be no more mention of an organised carnival in the *Cape Times* and the *Argus* until 1920]
13.

A "troupe of minstrels" were reported as singing "Marsa's in de cold, cold ground" and
"De old banjo" in the Good Hope Theatre in 1909.

Bickford-Smith 1994: 300 [AA]

[see: *Cape Times*, 2 Oct. 1909]

1910

14.

[...] The "Diamond Eyes" formed the first Cape carnival club in 1910, and from that club all the others have sprung. When any single member of a club becomes sufficiently proficient, he starts a club on his own and "keeps the ball rolling". The number of clubs, therefore, increases annually [...]

"Coons Carnival Approaching", *Cape Times*, December 4, 1935. [DN]

1911

15.

[...] One feature of interest yesterday was the marching about of coloured coons — New Year's Holiday being, by common consent, dedicated to them. There was no carnival at Green Point this year, so the coloured folk contented themselves with tramping the streets, to the sound of coon music, and followed by large numbers of boys. Many of the costumes were in gorgeous colours, and showed no little ingenuity of design.

"A Wet Holiday, June in January", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1911. [DN]

1914

16.

[...] A conspicuous feature of the holiday was, as in former years, the parading of the streets by bands of gaily dressed coloured youths. These light-hearted and merry groups were many of them arrayed in most elaborate costumes, and went the rounds of their particular neighbourhoods dancing and singing to the accompaniment of guitars and banjos [...]

"The Holiday in the Peninsula", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1914. [DN]
1915

17.

[...] As usual on New Year's Day, the streets were paraded by processions of coloured carnival-makers, some of whose apparel could hardly have been eclipsed even by Joseph's coat of many colours [...]

"New Year's Day in the Cape Peninsula", *Cape Times*, January 4, 1915. [DN]

1917

18.

[...] New Year's Day and the day after are, by common consent, dedicated to the coloured serenaders. Many of these gentry, gaily bedecked with vari-coloured uniforms and strange disguises, paraded the streets to the thrum of a guitar or other musical accompaniment.

Several of the costumes displayed a great deal of ingenuity, and were noticeable for their striking effect. When it is remembered that all these troupes are purely amateurs — it is all done for the love of fine colours, music and display — a great deal of credit must be given to the originators of the more novel effects. Some years ago there used to be a great coon carnival at Green Point Track on New Year's Day, but that belongs to the past.

"Cape Town's Unofficial Holiday", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1917. [DN]

1918

19.

OUR DAY COLOURED COMMUNITY'S EFFORTS, Under Distinguished Patronage, A Grand Vocal and Orchestral Concert in the City Hall (Grand Hall) on Monday 23rd, December at 8 pm.: By the Spes Bona Orchestral and Choral Society

*Argus*, December 20, 1918. [DN]

1920

20.

One feature, which is unique in the Peninsula, is the procession of merry coloured coons to inaugurate the New Year. Many troupes, bedecked in brilliant colours, paraded the streets to musical accompaniment, under the direction of a marshall or arch coon, whatever his proper title may be.

Some of the costumes had been cleverly designed; and the effect was most striking. When commanded by an able chief, there were bands which performed their evolutions exceptionally neatly and smartly, and the apparently spontaneous, but often carefully
rehearsed, antics of the comic elements caused great amusement among the sightseers
[...]

"Coloured Coon's Carnival", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1920: 9. [DN]

21.

It was intended to close the Coloured people's effort with the Water Carnival and Regatta at Kalk Bay; but it is now decided to finish off with a Grand Carnival on Green Point Track on Monday, 26th January, at eight o'clock. The troupes will leave the Parade at seven o'clock sharp, headed by a brass band, and the grand march past the Stand will take place at eight o'clock. Among the items for competition are Combined Choruses, Cake Walks, Banjo Solos, Comic Songs, etc.; Buck and Wing Dances. The following troupes will take part: American Sporting Club, Dusky Dina Coons, Mexican Raiders, Dahomeys, Prince of Malabars, Young American Navals, Spanish Burglars, Mexican Outlaws, Ruby Lips Coons, Wild West Indians.

"The Coloured Carnival on Green Point Track, 26th January", A.P.O., January 17, 1920: 3. [WM]

22.

It may truly be said that on Monday evening all roads led to the Green Point Track, Cape Town, and that the close of the final effort of the Coloured people on behalf of the Governor-General Fund was an unqualified success, both financially and spectacularly.

Monday morning a steady downpour damped the spirits — to put it mildly — of the promoters, and must have been disappointing to thousands of people who had prepared themselves if not to pay for admission, at any rate to line the route to the Track.

At 1 o'clock the promoters decided to take "a sporting chance and carry on." Fortunately the weather cleared and one of the most enjoyable evenings was spent on Green Point Track.

The march past the Grand Stand drew rounds and rounds of applause from the spectators. Each troupe came up to the platform and sang a chorus. So well were these appreciated that troupe after troupe left the stage amidst thundering applause and showers of coppers. A long list of solos including dances, songs, and Cake Walks carried the programme to 11 p.m., every item being well rendered. Thus closed the final efforts of the Coloured people with a fitting and grand finale on the Green Point Track [...]

The whole arrangement were by choice of the troupes left in the hands of Dr. Abdurahman and Messrs. S. Reagon and Hoedmaker. Mr. Birch acted as Master of the Ceremonies. He and Messrs. Ball and Hendricks (representatives of the Troupes) were
responsible for the programme, which was carried out without a hitch. Mr. Diedericks
operated the megaphone.

Mesdames Willoughby and Hoedmaker were assisted by a number of young ladies
at the refreshment room.

The takings amounted to near £ 150.

[Dr Abdullah Abdurahman was born in Wellington and after studying in Glasgow became a medical doctor; in 1904, he became the first black person to be elected to the Cape Town City Council and retained his seat until his death in 1940. In 1905, he was elected president of the African Political Organisation (APO), the first influent coloured political organisation, dedicated to defending coloured peoples' political and social rights.]

"The Coloured Carnival, Green Point Track", A.P.O., January 31, 1920: 8. [WM]

23.

The coloured troupes are holding a great carnival on Green, Point Track on Monday, 3rd January, in aid of the Cape Peninsula Board of Aid.

We trust the Coloured people will not fail to turn up in their hundreds.

The carnival has been organised by Dr. A. Abdurahman and Mr. S. Reagon.

Chairman: Mr. D. Diederick. Secretary: Mr. J. Bull.

Don't forget! Green Point Track,

**Monday, January 3rd, at 2 p.m.**

Admission 1s. Stand 6s. extra

"Great Coloured Carnival", A.P.O., December 23, 1920: 7. [WM]

1921

24.

In 1921, we read of a Troupes Carnival held on 3rd January on the Green Point Track, organised by Dr. A. Abdurahman and Mr. S. Reagon. The event was reported in complimentary terms in the *A.P.O.*, and a cheque for £ 101 sh. 1 4d (R 202.15) was handed over to the Cape Town and Wynberg Board of Aid.

Van Der Ross 1973: 599. [AP]

25.

"Grand Coloured Carnival", in aid of the Board of Aid, Monday, January 3rd, 1921
Green Point Track. Chairman: D. Diederick; secretary: J. Bull; organisers: Dr. A.
Abdurahman, S. Reagon. Admission: 1s; stand: 6d. Troupes: American Sporting Club;
Dahomey Coons; Dusky Dinah Coons; Mexican Outlaws; Matabele Warriors; Egyptian
Burglars; Spanish Burglars; American Yanks; Travelling Star Coons. Programme:
Grand March by troupes, Combined Choruses, Cake Walks, Comic Songs, Coon Songs, Sentimental Songs, etc. etc.

*Argus*, December 30, 1920. [DN]

26.

"Monster Minstrel Carnival", at the W.P. Rugby Ground, Newlands. "The Real Thing", 400 performers. Under the direction of the Cape Town Cricket Club. Admission: 1/-; stands 1/- extra; special reserved area 3/- (including tax).

*Argus*, December 30, 1920; *Cape Times*, January 1, 1921. [DN]

27.

One of the unique feature of life in the Cape Peninsula is the procession along the principal thoroughfares of coloured minstrels during the New Year holiday. A good many years ago the different troupes were got to combine at the Green Point Track, and a highly novel entertainment was given. This annual event was repeated for a few years, and then interest seemed to fade, although individual bands still obtained permission to parade the streets.

Yesterday, in addition to the carnival at Green Point, eight of the troupes marched to the Newlands Football ground [...] One of the best of the troupes was the "Queen of Tar Tars" [...] The Queen was Mazepa (not Mazeppa). She was quite a young girl; rode in what looked like a grandiose or metamorphose peanut barrow, and had her guard of honour, which fired a salute from a solitary cannon. The Queen was attired mainly in couleur de rose and wore a paper crown. Her gallant henchmen wore yellow costumes with green stripes, white stockings with green ribbons, white feather hats, and black shoes [...]

"Coloured Minstrels' Carnivals at Cycle Track and Newlands", *Argus*, January 4, 1921: 8. [AP]

28.

Seats were almost unprocurable at any price at Green Point [...] Few if any of our ragtime and coon artistes of the stage could have put more jovial abandon and more variety of action into their work than did the members of these half-dozen coon bands [...]

"Coloured Carnivals Attract Large Crowds [...]", *Argus*, January 4, 1921: 8. [DN]

29.

The Troupes Carnival, held on the 3rd January at Green Point Track was a great financial success. From a spectacular point of view it has never been equalled, and both Coloured and White people who assembled there certainly showed their appreciation
by rounds of applause that greeted every troupe, both in its march-past and in the performance of the various other items.

After paying all expenses a cheque of £ 101 1s 4d. was handed over to the Cape Town and Wynberg Board of Aid. The organisers of the function, Dr. Abdurahman, M.P.C., and Mr. Reagon, Treasurer of the A.P.O., as well as Messrs. Diedericks and Bull and the rest of the committeemen, are to be complimented on the success which crowned their efforts.

"The Coloured Carnival, £ 101 1s 4d. Handed Over to Board of Aid", A.P.O., January 23, 1921: 5. [WM]

1922

30.

For the past two years a number of Coloured troupes held a Carnival on Green Point Track and handed the takings over to Charity. Last year the Cape Town and Wynberg Board of Aid benefited to the extent of over one hundred pounds. The Cape Town Cricket Club — a white club — ran a Coloured Carnival for its own benefit at Newlands. Whether that venture was a financial success or not, is not known. But, apparently, the Club saw more profits going into its pockets if it held the Carnival on Green Point Track that at Newlands, so it forestalled the Coloured Committee and booked the Track months ahead and held two Carnivals, one in the afternoon of 3rd January, and the other on the evening of the 23rd January.

How much money the white Cricket Club made out of these Coloured troupes is a secret. The profits will probably be devoted to improving the stands on the cricket ground on which no Coloured person will be permitted to sit.

We trust the City Council of Cape Town will note for what purpose the Track is being used by the Y.M.C.A., who have leased the ground to promote healthy recreation.

"Exploiting the Coloured Troupes", A.P.O., January 28, 1922: 7. [WM]

31.

[...] Soon Christmas will be upon us, and Adderley Street will be filled to its utmost capacity with a great mass of people — Europeans and non-Europeans, Christian and Moslem, Jew and Gentile, all jostling each other with smiles and good humour, all animated by the spirit of the season. Up and down the mass will surge, making the most awe-inspiring noises from all sorts of instruments invented to torture and deafen the human ear. Sirens, hooters, trumpets and klaxons, are all brought into action with the triumphant result of a fearful cacophony.

Our Coloured people have their own way of enjoying this seasonal respite. The usual sporting clubs in fancy dress will be out on New Year's Day. Spanish Vaqueros, Burglars, Cow Boys, Red Indians and Mexicans will be parading Hanover and Wale
Streets, the “Voorloopers” indulging in the most weird and mirth producing antics. The pavements of these streets will be co-opted by sightseers with their chairs and soap boxes. The whole atmosphere will be full of good humour and happiness. For the moment the drudgery of homes and children, and the struggles of the past year to make things meet, will be forgotten at the sight of these animated scenes. How one wishes these happy and care free days could be prolonged; but all things, good and bad, must come to an end, and so is also this article.

[Voorloopers = drum majors]

“Christmas in Cape Town”, A.P.O., December 23, 1922: 7. [WM]

1923

32.

Just as the white population of Cape Town make Christmas the occasion for joy and festivity, so the coloured community make the New Year season a time for celebration, revelling, and banqueting.[...]

Saturday night in the public thoroughfares of Cape Town was in a general sense not different from the Saturday night previous. The streets were thronged with young white and coloured people and there was the same spirit of carnival in the air — frivolity, gaiety and abandon.

The actual eve of the New Year, Sunday night, passed off very quietly, the only difference, from a public point of view, being that the crowds of coloured people in Adderley street were considerably larger than usual.

This Sabbath evening parade is something which the white population regard with rather mixed feelings, and there were fears that the spirit of the season might be responsible on New Year's Eve for some little disorder. The fears were unfounded, however... Nothing untoward occurred and the crowds conducted themselves with commendable restraint — until midnight.

The chiming of clocks, ringing of bells and screaming of ships' sirens which heralded the incoming of 1923 and the outgoing of 1922 were the signal for a complete change in the attitude and conduct of the crowds in the streets. Then all restraint was thrown to the winds and merry-making was the order of the day — or night.

In the native quarters of the town the streets were filled with people of all ages singing and dancing and, apparently, tireless in their activities [...]

“New Year Revelry in Cape Town [...]”, *Argus*, January 2, 1923: 9. [WM]

33.

[...] A final word about the wee mascot darkie who accompanies each troupe and stands in the foreground during the choruses. A typical young “Sambo” — all mouth and teeth
— with head and eyes turned upwards, reminding one of the coon whose mouth could not be made any bigger without putting his ears back!

“Coon Day at the Cape”, *Cape Times*, January 3, 1923: 10. [DN]

1924

34.

[...] Leading the Dahomey Coons are special little boys, black faces and white suits complete and thoroughly enjoying themselves. One of them apes Charlie Chaplin. Here is a coloured Jackie Coogan if ever there was one [...]

Suddenly some kind person showered a handful of coppers on to the asphalt in front of the stand. Seeing this rain of coppers, the little boy's eyes bulged, they stood for a moment astounded by this careless flinging away of wealth and then flung themselves madly on to the coppers. In less than a minute the whole of the cattle stampers had stampeded among a shower of falling coppers and little boys punched each other heartily, fell over each other, and grovelled in the cinders for the pennies that came to them.

This kind of fun could not be resisted. As each troupe came up to sing the shower of coppers would begin [...] towards the evening, the troupes set off to march to Camp's Bay, and continue the carnival spirit well into the night [...]

“High Jinks at Green Point — Happy Coloured Carnival”, *Argus*, January 3, 1924: 8. [DN]

1925

35.

[A musical production by Frances H. Gow, titled “Up from Slavery” is staged in 1925 at Cape Town's West Theatre. F.H. Gow was born in South Africa from Jamaican parents; he studied in the United States at the Tuskegee Institute. Back in South Africa, he became headmaster of the Wilberforce Institute (founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1905 at Evaton, south of Johannesburg) and, later, the African Methodist Episcopal Church's first South African born bishop. He was probably Cape Town's most prominent churchman and a leader of the Coloured elite. He was also President of the African People's Organisation and was appointed President of the Coloured Advisory Council]

[...] Labeled a “venture of the Cape Town coloured community”, the show was an attempt to put into dramatic form some of the ideas contained in Booker T. Washington’s celebrated work of the same title. Accordingly, among the musical fare offered in *Up from Slavery*, in addition to violin playing by Gow’s wife, Louise, were a variety of African-American genres including, of course, “Negro Spirituals.” [...]

Erlmann 1999: 162. [AB]
The Pier Today 2-5 pm., Tonight 7.30-10.30 pm. Great Festival of Fun, Grand Carnival of the Coloured Community. SPECIAL AREA RESERVED FOR EUROPEANS WHO YEARLY WITNESS IN THEIR THOUSANDS this annual event of the Cape Coloured population and marvel at the surprising ingenuity and novelties displayed by the various troupes in competing for THE HANDSOME SILVER CUPS GIVEN TO THE BEST DRESSED TROUPE, BEST COMBINED CHORUS, BEST ALL ROUND TROUPE. Admission 1/6 inclusive.

*Cape Times*, January 1, 1926. [DN]

Literally the enjoyment was carried from one year to the next. There were neither caste nor colour distinction in the riot of merriment. All night long grotesque figures parade on the road swirling their paper steamers [sic: i.e. streamers] in the faces of all and sundry with complete abandon. Theatrical make-ups seemed to be the order of the evening and wherever these happy spirits wandered there was the crowd [...]

"City's Welcome to 1926 [...]", *Cape Times*, January 1, 1926: 11. [DN]

The arrivals from other parts of the Peninsula [...] were heavy on New Year's day, big contingents of non-Europeans coming [...] to take part in the Carnival of the coloured community to be held on the Pier [...]

The troupes assembled on the Grand Parade and they made an interesting spectacle. They rejoiced in the usual fantastic names and variety of costumes and created no end of amusement. Jazz-stepping, tango dancing and cutting the most agile capers, they eventually left the Parade and proceeded down Adderley street to the Pier, where they competed for cups offered for the best dressed troupes, best combined chorus, and best all-around troupe.

The carnival was continued at night, when another very-large attendance of spectators, European and non-European, were attracted, and with the brilliant lighting of the Pier the general effect was very fine. [...]

There were also a number of the coloured troupes parading on the streets, mostly Wale, Adderley, Caledon and Hanover streets, and these were attended each by its crowd of friends [...]

"New Year's Day, How and Where it Was Spent [...]", *Cape Times*, January 4, 1926:10. [DN]
39.

An up-country visitor was heard to remark on Saturday that Cape Town on New Year's Day could be appropriately called “Coon Town”.

Capetonians can appreciate the reference. The New Year carnival gambols of coloured coons are nothing new to them [...]

All day long they parade the city, and even yesterday they were still to be seen jazzing and cake-walking through the streets [...]

The rivalry which exists between the many competing troupes is kept at fever heat, and throughout the year, the strictest secrecy is maintained regarding the title and distinctive dress of each party [...]

It may be well to explain that these coloured performers do not all class themselves as “coons”. Some are known as “privates” — these being troupes which set out to represent something more dignified in the way of fancy dress and ceremonial pageantry with less of the accompanying element of acrobatic dancing so noticeable among the “coons”. This marks a gradual change from the custom of a few years ago — and a change for the better, one may safely add [...]

“Coloured Carnival, Predominating Spirit of Pageantry, ‘Coons’ in the Background”, *Cape Times*, January 4, 1927: 11. [DN]

40.

[...] The Prince of Lilies whose troupe were dressed in red silk received the first prize for the “Privates” and the Alabama Coons dressed in dazzling jazz costumes, the first prize for coons.

It was a charleston carnival this year. The dances in the march past were definitely charlestonic, though at the same time strongly reminiscent of last year. Charleston critics from Johannesburg would have found plenty of proof that the coloured people dance the charleston as though it belonged to them. Some 3 000 people watched the long programme without being bored [...]

“Coloured Carnival”, *Argus*, January 3, 1927: 12. [DN]

41.

Grand Coloured Carnival, The Pier Cape Town, 2nd January 1928. Monster Programme, Massed Dancing Troupes [...] Special area reserved for Europeans. Admission: Europeans 1/8; Non Europeans 1/-

[participating troupes: Mexican Mash Riders, Desert Outlaws, Happy High-Born Coons, American Darkies, Happy Bar Boys, Red Eye Coons, Flush Glee Party, Smiling Coons, S.A. Independent Darkies, Coming Stars Moffees Troupe]

*Argus*, December 31, 1927: 10. [DN]
1928

42.

[...] Yesterday in a long procession, one detachment after another, they came marching through the city on the way to the Pier, singing, dancing and playing a variety of instruments, their costumes making a blaze of colour in the city streets. There were "Smiling" coons and "Red Eye" Alabama coons and representatives of the "California" cotton fields; there were Mexican Riders and Red Indians, complete with a canoe and bloodthirsty chiefs on horses, and there was a contingent which described itself as "the Desert Outlaws" and there were ladies of quality, dressed in crowns and gorgeous raiment and borne superbly on chariots that on ordinary days are harnessed to baser uses.

"A New Year of 'Jazz', Saturday Night's Celebrations in the City Streets, Bedlam of Hideous Noises", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1928: 10. [DN]

1929

43.

[...] The greatest crowds congregated between Strand Street and the Pier, where there was little vehicular traffic. All nationalities in the Peninsula were represented, but the merrymakers consisted mainly of young people of both sexes who were out to have a "jolly good time". Rowdyism and "free fights" however, were almost entirely absent.

Years ago Europeans used to take the lead in these street rejoicings, but last night the Coloured community seemed to be in the majority [...]

"Seing the Old Year Out", *Cape Times*, January 1, 1929. [DN]

44.

Cape Town's coons can compare with the best in the United States. I learnt this yesterday when talking to one of the judges at the Coloured Carnival at Green Point.

The judge was captain Douglas Butler who has watched and judged similar pageants in various parts of the world.

"These chaps are artistic" he told me. "What we have to learn in the way of music and rhythm comes natural to them. They show very good taste in their dress, and are about as smart as any coons I have seen.

The only thing they lack is a touch of discipline. If I had them on the square an hour every day for a month, I would turn them out so smart that they should be definitely the finest coons in the world."

"Talk at the Tavern [...] Our Excellent Coons", *Argus*, January 2, 1929: 15. [DN]
1930

45.

[...] The coloured people's revelry last night passed off without any serious incident or accident in any part of the Peninsula [...]

[a sergeant at Hanover Street Police Station declared that there has been no serious incident]

"But there is no knowing what might happen before day break" he added.

"The coons begin their dances when the New Year starts, and then we may be busy."

"Quiet New Year's Eve", *Cape Times*, January 1, 1930. [DN]

46.

[...] The Weeping Darkies arrange themselves in close formation in front of the little wooden open air stage facing the grand stand, making a brave display of Royal blue and orange yellow, and begin to sing the chorus of "Carolina Moon".

As the song ends, the banjos strum again and at once begins the click-clack of the bones; and the whole troupe is set in motion. Everywhere legs and arms shoot out in rhythmic eccentricities, as they move off.

The next item is a comic song by one of the Diamond Eyed Coons, with a chorus of banjoists. He is dressed in burlesque female attire, and carries a tiny parasol. His voice is carried away by the wind but his antics draw periodical bursts of delight from the spectators as he rolls his white eyeballs or prances up and down the wooden stage [...]

"Coloured Coons' Gay Carnival", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1930: 12. [DN]

1931

47.

[...] The weirder the contortions of the dancers, the greater the applause; and the more cacophonous the music, the more it was appreciated! The stilt-walkers provided an agreeable element of thrills [...]

"Coloured 'Coons' Carnival", *Argus* January 2, 1931: 12. [DN]

48.

[...] A police official at the courts said this year had been much quieter than last year. The coloured "coons" carnival at the Green Point Track he thought had something to do with it. Men who usually spent their time in the bars kept out of trouble by spending their day shouting themselves hoarse at the Track. Four "coons" however were found the worse for wear, in Hout street, in the evening.

"Well Behaved Cape Town [...] Carnival Attractions", *Argus*, January 3, 1931: 8. [DN]
49.

"Spanish Cavaliers" serenading on the stage at the Green Point Track on New Year's day, when more than 800 coloured "coons" paraded, in weird costumes that cost in all over £ 100. This annual event, as usual, scored a great success.

[caption of a picture showing revellers wearing sombreros, one of them mounted on a horse, playing guitars, banjos and violin.]

"At the Coon Carnival", *Cape Times Supplement*, January 6, 1931. [DN]

1933

50.

[...] Grouped on the pavement edge, on the broken stone stoeps of the old upper Wale street houses, and under the shop verandahs of the main roads to the suburbs, whole families took up their posts for the day to watch the fun.

They gathered there long before the procession assembled, and when it had gone they waited on through the day for its return march [...]

"Coloured People's Festival", *Cape Times*, January 4, 1933: 11. [DN]

51.

Between sunset on Saturday and noon yesterday, no fewer than seven coloured people were admitted to the Somerset Hospital suffering from stab wounds and cuts which had been inflicted by knives, razors and other sharp instruments, during brawls on New Year's Eve and early morning. [...]

In addition to this number, many others were treated for minor injuries received in common assaults.

During the Christmas week end, no fewer than four coloured people died as a result of stab wounds.

"Seven Coloured Men Stabbed", *Cape Times*, January 2, 1933. [DN]

1934

52.

[...] But there is more than mere entertainment in these coon carnivals; there is a cultural value that can hardly be overestimated. The costumes may be crude affairs which would be derided by any musical comedy impresario; the music may be simple, the singing may be shrill, the dancing untrained; but counterbalancing all this is the fact that the festivals are a direct and spontaneous expression of the soul of the people.
We Europeans are such a blasé lot those days that we can scarcely understand what spontaneity is [...]

It is this sincerity that annually triumphs over obvious shortcomings and draws large crowds of Europeans to applaud the show at the Track on New Year's Day and, on the following day, on the Pier [...]

There are two dangers to be guarded against: one is the pot-hunting spirit and the other is sophistication. Once the prizes increase out of proportion, competition will grow out of its present friendliness into a business; and business never goes hand in hand with the real folk spirit. Sophistication will do to the "klops" what it did to folk dancing and other festivals in England. They will die out, only to be revived in later generations by well-meaning people who don't realise that such things can't be revived. Unless they come straight from the hearts of the people they are merely "arty" and heaven save us from "arty" coon festivals!

"Coons in Carnival", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1934:10 [DN]
[editorial]

53.

[Rasdien Cornelius] lived to lead the Malay Choir which sang, for the first time in Cape history, in 1934 at Government House.

Green: 1951: 196. [NAE]

54.

Grand Floodlit Pageant, A Century of Progress 1834-1934. The Greatest Performance in Non-European History. Emancipation Centenary. Green Point Track, Cape Town. Thursday and Friday, January 10th and 11th, At 8 o'clock each evening. 500 performers, period costumes, authentic history, genuine settings, massed choirs, negro spirituals, tribal songs and dances, orchestra and brass band.

Reserved seats: 5/-. / unreserved seats: 2/6 and 1/6 [...]

Under the Patronage of H. H. The Governor General, His Hon. The Administrator, The Right Hon. The Prime Minister, Count and Countess Labis, The Right Hon. General Smuts, The Mayor and Mayoress of Cape Town.

Argus, December 29, 1934: 10. [DN]

1935

55.

[...] The carnival – and the preparations for it – is one of the finest outlets for the letting off of superfluous enthusiasm that could possibly be devised. It is one of those
entertainments at which it is genuinely impossible to say whether the performers or
the spectators get the greatest enjoyment.

Long may it flourish.

It is the lighter side to coloured activities over the holiday season. There is a more
serious side and that is in the Conference of the African People's Organisation which
begins as usual, on the second day of the New Year.

"The World Goes By, Coloured Activities, Coon Carnival", *Cape Times*, January 1, 1935. [DN]

56.

Dr. H.F. Gow, on behalf of the Emancipation Centenary Pageant to be held to-night, appeals particularly to the Europeans in to-night's audience to bear in mind that:

The pageant is entirely a Non-European effort, conceived, organised and produced
by Non-Europeans who are members of coloured races working together for the first
time in such a venture.

The pageant seeks less to show individual historical happening than to show what
those happenings meant to the spirit of the Non-Europeans and what they mean to-
day in his awakening consciousness of nationhood.

That only music can convey this meaning and that the meaning of music can only
be clear to those who listen with sympathy.

That it would be fairest to the coloured people if the audience provided itself with
the souvenir programmes which try to explain what acting — especially outdoor acting
— cannot; and finally:

That the night sea-air on Green Point Track may be a little cool for those who are
not accustomed to it so that it would be as well if the audience brought warm coats.

"To-Night's Centenary Pageant, Dr. Gow's Reminder", *Argus*, January 10, 1935: 15. [DN]

57.

[...] the natural miming abilities of the coloured people [...] This pageant is the first big public demonstration of the histrionic and artistic capabilities of our coloured population [...]

"Some Pages from Cape History, Coloured Pageant at the Track", *Cape Times*, January 11, 1935. [DN]
58.

A split in the ranks of the “Coon Cabinet” has resulted in the formation of the Jubilee
Coloured Carnival Board in opposition to the Western Province Coloured Carnival.

“Coon Carnivals in the Cape, Two to Be Held this YearDue to ‘Split in the Cabinet’”,
*Cape Times*, December 28, 1935. [DN]

1936

59.

Wednesday's performance, which was staged by the Western Province Coloured Carnival Board, was an excellent show, but was disgracefully managed.

Fully 6000 people were present, mostly non-Europeans. Hundreds climbed the fences
and gained access without paying.

As soon as the Grand March Past of Coons had begun there was a general stampede
of spectators from every quarter. Hundreds left their seats and invaded the arena itself.
Hundreds more followed, and the 11 policemen and one police officer present were
powerless in their efforts to keep the crowds back.

At 3 o'clock the entire grand stand, the lower half of which had been reserved for
Europeans, was occupied by coloured people [...]

This state of affair [the spectators' unruly behaviour] continued throughout the
afternoon, and the majority of Europeans present left early in disgust [...]

At times the police used sticks with which they beat the legs of those standing in the
front line, but that made matters worse, and several times sharp words and much rough
handling seemed to be on the point of leading to an ugly situation [...]

Six hours after the last Coons had left the Track the whole Grand Stand [at the Green Point Track] went up in flames [...]

“Coloured Carnival Fiasco, An Excellent Show Badly Managed”, *Cape Times*, January 3, 1936. [DN]

60.

A visit to the Track on Wednesday afternoon, when eight coloured troupes held their annual singing and dancing competitions under the auspices of the Western Province Carnival Board must have left the average European convinced that Cape Town has an asset in the Coloured Carnival, the value of which is not fully realised. The carnival spirit, which was strongly evident in the abandon, the good spirits and joyous dancing of the competitors, was marred by faulty organisation; and yet one realised that here was a material for a carnival which, if properly organised, would be one of Cape Town biggest attractions during the festive season. The spectators were considerably
inconvenienced by the lack of adequate booking and seating arrangements and the inability of the police to control the unruly crowd; but the main drawback was the lack of vision on the part of the organisers, which forced the respective troupes to advance to the grand stand in splendid isolation, where they had to check the ardour of the dance in order to clamber on to a small platform and resolve into a concert party, with the carnival spirit in abeyance until they retired to make way for the next troupe. The spirit of carnival is movement [...]

"The Coons' Carnival, An Asset which is not Fully Appreciated" from Dr. I.D. Du Plessis (University of Cape Town), *Cape Times*, January 6, 1936. [DN]

61.

[...] Although Cape Town's Coon Carnivals are confined mainly to the New Year holidays, the activities of the 30 or more Carnival Clubs that take part in them continue throughout the whole of January.

Motorists in Cape Town or the suburbs are almost certain to meet on any night in January at least one of these brightly dressed bands who dance along for miles with apparently tireless energy. For after the Carnivals are over the Clubs have a busy time visiting the homes of different members each night and giving concerts to friends and neighbours.

Sometimes a member who can afford to do so will provide refreshments for the whole troupe and the party will continue far into the night with songs and dances.

The climax of all this activity comes toward the end of January when the Carnival Boards to which the Clubs are affiliated hold a final concert [...]

Every effort is made to keep the uniforms a secret, and although the colour scheme chosen by a particular club may become an open secret, the captain of each club keeps the actual design to himself until the last possible moment.

Then, a week or two before the New Year, the secret is revealed to members and there begins a furious fitting and cutting and stitching to get anything between 30 and 50 elaborate costumes ready for the Carnival. Tailor members of the club take charge of the work which is done at night behind locked doors, lest some chance intruder might get a glimpse of the costume [...]

Recently several writers to the *Cape Times* have expressed regret that the troupes should be divided under three different Carnival Boards [...]

Members of the coloured community say, however, that there is an unfortunate and strong division, which could only be overcome if the Carnival were to be organised by Europeans. The Carnivals are, however, so essentially an institution of the coloured people that they are naturally reluctant to let them out of their hands. They are hoping that before long the rival groups will see the advantage of co-operation and find some
compromise whereby they can work in harmony and stage a [...] spectacular New Year Carnival.

“Coon Carnival Gaiety”, *Cape Times*, January 14, 1936. [DN]

62.

[On the opening of the Lion's Head Club by a Mr. Gibbs] [...] It was formed and exists for the convenience of coloured citizens whose tastes lie on a higher cultural plane than most of their contemporaries [...] I say in all seriousness that I have never been in any night club anywhere where everybody was so scrupulous of their neighbours' comfort and enjoyment [...]

Membership is confined to coloured people who are obviously of the school teacher, clerk and student class. [...]

I must hand out a small bouquet to the Pierce Brothers who gave a variety turn on the Mill's Brothers lines plus some excellent grotesque buck and wing dancing [...]

...the undeniable good it [*the club*] is doing in providing recreation for worthy people who otherwise might be tricked through sheer boredom into attending half-baked political meetings and listening to seditious clap-trap that such gatherings engender [...]

*Cape Times*, September 11, 1936. [DN]

63.

[...] it [*the carnival*] represents for many of them [*the revellers*] an escape from a life in the poorer areas of the city which is the very antithesis of the gaiety, colour and abandon of the carnival. In place of their drab, everyday clothes, they wear brightly coloured costumes; they have many happy hours of music and laughter.

“We don’t know what we’d do without the carnival” one of them told a representative of the Cape Times.

“Carnival Time is Here Again”, *Cape Times*, December 17, 1936. [DN]

1937

64.

Cape Town's coons — it occurred to me when I saw them on the Track on Saturday — are internationally minded.

For instance, there were the Broadway Gentlemen Singing Coons (I know Broadway — but I'd hate to try to define a “Broadway Gentleman”!). Then the Warriors of Mahratta, with bright yellow robes and fierce-looking, curved, scimitars, bringing a breath of the East to Green Point. They, in turn, were followed by the London Hawker Jubilee Coons. None of them has probably ever seen a London hawker, but that didn't
prevent them from very creditably impersonating the “pearlies”, complete with “moke”
and barrow.

From London to the Blue Danube — the Blue Danube Troubadours, singing plaintively, “Rose of No Man’s Land”. The troubadours gave way to the blood-thirsty Kikuyu Warriors with knives between teeth, and long, menacing spears.

Finally, from Africa to America's Southern State — The Millionaire Darkies, the Alabama Coons, the Dawn Darkies, and the Young Louisiana Coons, all with one common characteristic — dynamic energy.

As they marched past the grand-stand in a kaleidoscope of yellow, green and white satin, they resembled a cavalcade of contortionists, and their singing, guitar-strumming and dancing drew rounds of applause from the rows of closely packed spectators, of whom the European element provided at least 50 per cent.

If they did not have the polished technique and the mastery of all the intricate steps which belong to the “hoofers” I have seen down in Haarlem [sic], these coons showed no less energy, no less “pep and punch”, as they gyrated gaily and pranced prodigiously in front of the admiring crowd.

“Coons Make Merry at the Track, Internationally-Minded Troops, Broadway, London, and Alabama, Spectacular Singing and Dancing”, *Cape Times*, January 4, 1937. [DN]

65.

Bright parasols bobbing like poppies in the sunshine, gaudy colours flashing, coat tails fluttering in the wind, nimble feet dancing to the accompaniment of banjos, guitars and other instruments, dark bodies swaying in rhythm, swarms of black folks — such was the Coon Carnival on New Year’s Day [...]

At the Green Point Track amused white visitors sat in one end of the grandstand, a vociferous coon audience in the other. Little coons scrambled like squirrels over the roof. Mounted police chased coons off forbidden territory and kept the crowds off the field [...]

Eight groups competed for honours in appearance and entertainment. Vanity was gratified by vivid colours and dashing designs. Loud stripes were most popular, with top hats the favourite headgear [...] The White Eye Coons distinguished themselves by green and pink checked ginghams with caps and a smear of paint over one eye. [...]

Some coons wore splashes of red on their cheeks and some had blackened their faces to a darker tinge. Appurtenances included floor mops, parasols, canes, banners, floats, horses, wooden swords and musical instruments [...]

It was coons' day, and all through the night the haunting melody of their monotonous dance music their gaiety and their doleful songs danced into the dreams of those outsiders who were given glimpse of the Cape coloured festivities.
"The Coloured People's Day', Visitor's Impressions of Coon Carnival", (by Henrietta McKaughan, an American visitor to Cape Town), *Cape Times*, January 5, 1937. [DN]

1938

66.

[...] A feature was the presence of many young coons — some of them seemed scarcely more than babies — and hundreds of Europeans were keen to take snapshots of them. Many, however, were so timid that it was difficult to get them to face the camera [...]

In the march past often the leader of a troupe would advance with a broom for a baton, but it was manipulated with such dexterity that it ceased to be incongruous [...]

One comic singer brought with him his own stage properties, a pair of steps and a window and with these illustrated his song "When I'm Cleaning Windows".

The special item competition was a great success [...]

"Coon's Day in Cape Town [...]", *Cape Times*, January 4, 1938. [DN]

67.

[...] the "Malay" choirs were mobilised into a Cape Malay Choir Board in 1938 by Afrikaans cultural brokers Dr. I.D. du Plessis and Benny Osler.

"Coon Carnival" by Shamiel Jeppie, A.D.A. 8, 1st and 2nd quarter 1990: 23. [GM]

68.

[...] Last night a representative of the Cape Times made a tour through Cape Town's coloured quarters to see and hear the coon clubs at practice. Each of the dozen clubs visited consisted of about 60 members, who were packed like sardines in a tin in small attics, cellars and backrooms, which had been stripped of all furniture.

Nowhere were there electric lights. One or two candles stuck in the neck of a bottle, flickering in a corner, illuminated the stuffy and smelly rooms.

Each club must practice in relays, because of the lack of room. There was a variety of musical instruments including drums, banjos, guitars, mandolins, violins and violas.

Each "troupe captain" has been chosen for his musical qualities, and his experience in directing choirs of this kind. He indicates what song is to be sung, when the orchestra must play at its loudest and so forth.

If some coloured people dislike orderliness, they are not to be found among these coons. The discipline is very strict, the captain snaps his orders in real drill-sergeant style, the members of the club jump to it without a murmur and the rehearsal runs smoothly.
The majority of the songs have English words, but some clubs have several Dutch songs on their repertoire. Many of these are nearly a hundred years old and an attempt is being made to preserve them for future generations.

"Next Week's Coon Carnivals", *Cape Times*, December 29, 1938. [DN]

1939

69.

[...] A midnight film show attracted hundreds of people and long before 12 o'clock on Sunday, January 1st, the bioscope was crowded out. Hundreds gathered outside determined to see the first of the New Year Coons, since they could not see the bioscope show.

Scenes were witnessed in Hanover Street that were reminiscent of a busy Friday night. Long past midnight young people paraded the street, and scores of children scampered about, while innumerable cars sped their hooting way up this principal highway of District Six. At odd corners groups of boys with improvised bands played snappy tunes, while others performed "shimmy shakes" and other coon dances to the amusement of the onlookers.

## Lantern Coons

The first coons appeared about 1 a.m. They carried lanterns and ensigns, which informed the world that they belonged to some sporting club. Dressed in white flannels, they marched up and down.

Meanwhile, the merry bones of the boys continued. "*Januarie, Februarie, Mei*" they sang while the gyrations of the small dancers became all the more intricate and amusing.

Benches and chairs already lined the streets. Towards dawn the first carnival coons appeared, shining in their purple, green, gold, and crimson costumes, and fresh for the day's prancing, dancing, and singing. Hanover street was as crowded as ever.

## The Revelry Begins

The new Year revelry had begun in full force now. All day long hundreds of people lined four deep in places along the streets where the coons were to pass. Both the onlookers and their entertainers never seemed to tire of it all.

Brilliant costumes, flashy silk hats, emblazoned ensigns were the order of the day. Gaiety and sprightliness were the air. To the non-Europeans of the District "Coon Time" is a very merry dancing, laughing, and unthinking time.
## Coronation Carnival Board

[...] The Coloured Coronation Carnival Board which has under its jurisdiction twelve troupes, held their carnival at Green Point Track on January 3rd. The troupes were led by the Moravian Brass Band.

During the morning the members of the Coming Stars M. Concert Troupe entertained the early comers on the Track. The Malay Boys Brigade of Port Elizabeth smartly turned out were also present, and marched to town with the coons.

## Trophies Presented

Mrs. Councillor Z. Gool and Advocate Harry Snitcher presented the prizes and trophies. Addressing the troupes, Mrs. Gool said that their dancing, rhythmic movements and singing were of a very high standard. She expressed the hope that at next New Year festivities there would be a United Carnival Board, for she felt that only by unity could the troupes acquire strength and attain a higher standard of performance.

Two special awards were made to the Moravian Brass Band and the Moslem Boys Brigade of Port Elizabeth.

[Zainunnisa “Cissie” Gool was the daughter of Dr Abdullah Abdurahman; in 1935, she co-founded the National Liberation League (NLL), of which she was the first president; then the NLL melted into the Non-Europe United Front, and Cissie Gool was again elected as its president; both organisations were at the forefront of the struggle against segregation. In 1938, she was elected to the Cape Town City Council, and kept her seat until her death in 1963]

"Brilliant Coon Carnivals Greet the New Year, Gay Troupes Parade City Highways, Hanover Street Thronged at Midnight", *The Cape Standard*, Tuesday, January 10, 1939: 2. [WM]

## 70.

The fact that the Coloured coons sang imported songs was lamented both by Dr. I.-D. du Plessis of "Die Moleier en die Afrikaans Volkslied" fame, and Professor Kirby, who wrote "The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa."

At one of the coon concerts last week Dr. du Plessis and Professor Kirby suggested that the coons should combine, and get back to the melodies of the country and its people. The *Cape Argus*, strangely enough, in a sub-leader applauds the suggestion, and expresses its regret that the indigenous song and music as preserved by the Malay choirs should be overwhelmed by foreign importations.

One of Cape Town's foremost Coloured authorities on Coloured and Malay music in an interview with the *Cape Standard*, thinks the suggestion both ridiculous and impracticable.
"The Coloured Coons", he said, "are out to enjoy themselves. The American songs and music have a swing that suit the New Year revelry admirably. If the learned professors wish to remedy it, why do not the Afrikaner people write snappy little ditties suitable for the coons. The club members themselves have the originality and initiative to compose their own march or 'jol' to meet the immediate need and then drop it."

Anyway, why should the poor despised Coloured coons, who are looked down upon at other times of the year as disreputable and despicable people by most Europeans, be called upon to preserve the old Afrikaans culture for the Europeans. Why do the Afrikaners not follow the Malay Choir's example, and preserve the old songs and dances for their 'na gening' themselves."

"Coons and Afrikaans Culture, 'Ridiculous Suggestion'", *The Cape Standard*, Tuesday, January 10, 1939: 2. [WM]
IV.

Facing Apartheid, 1940–1968

1940

1.

[...] Here is an article written by a young Coloured man of Wynberg, who signs himself as “Coloured Student” [...]

“Don’t I like Coons?” you ask. No. Positively and emphatically not. I dislike them. If the term is not too strong, I detest them. How any body of persons can spend weeks, perhaps months, preparing costumes, rehearsing songs, organising on a large scale in order to appear at a certain date and, for the benefit (or otherwise) of the general public, perform a series of gyrations and other writhing and threshing movements more suited to a snake when its head is firmly held, I should imagine, or a fowl when its head has been chopped off, than to human beings, is beyond me. And, after all, that is practically all that Coons do [...]

A few days ago I saw an advertisement in a local paper: “Great Coon and ‘M’ Concert”, or words to that effect. What could “M” stand for, I wondered. Misery? No. Madcap? Hardly. Minute Brain Capacity? Improbable. Then it dawned upon me. Moffie. I almost turned sick with disgust. A Moffie concert. To think that people (that they are my people makes me more disgusted) could sink so low as to organise these people, who should be in a hospital or some similar place, away from the public, into a source of entertainment is terrible. They are sexually abnormal — hermaphroditic — in a pitiable condition, physically and mentally; the very thought of them should be repulsive to all but the scientists. I ask you, what type of mind has the person who organises these people — who uses this abnormality to furnish amusement for the public? And what type of mind has the person who patronizes these concerts? If these “Moffies” are not really sexually abnormal, then they as imitators are worse than the genuine hermaphrodites.

Throughout the last few years intensive agitation has been carried on for the Coloured people. We think back on headlines and mottoes: “Better facilities for Coloured people”; “Away with slums”; “Equality with the European”, etc., and every year all those who hope to see the Coloured people economically, socially and culturally improved receive the disappointing and disillusioning reply FROM THE COLOURED PEOPLE THEMSELVES in the form of Coon and Moffie festivals.

Why do the Europeans not have Coon Carnivals and Moffie Concerts? Is it because they do not feel happy and gay at this time of the year? Have they not also sexually
abnormal people? Yes? Why, then, do not they give expression to their happiness as we do, i.e. by means of Coon Festivals? Why do they not display their sexually abnormal people as we do? You may have many answers but mine is this — they have more race pride than we have! They think more of themselves than we do of ourselves. Why do they then patronise Coloured Coon Carnivals? Because it amuses and pleases them to think of the Coloured people doing what they themselves are too proud to do. It gives them a satisfying feeling of superiority over us. And can we blame them in this respect? Are they wrong? No!

If you do not participate in the shows you probably patronise them — you encourage them; you laugh at and with them; you spur them on to “better” and more degrading forms of amusement. Not more degrading to the Coons but to the coloured people — to YOU!

Do you not see what you are doing? Your children also see and follow the Coons. Hundreds of children participate in the shows — in the minds of these children are sown the seeds of vulgarity and hooliganism — the seeds that grow and eventually develop into the finished article — the skolly boy! [...]

Perhaps because the displays are attended by one or two local notables and perhaps opened by an important gentleman (all Europeans) you think that the Coons are “all right”. Consider these men are public men, they are practically obliged to attend these shows and say fine things; inwardly I am sure they feel disgusted at the Coloured people’s primitiveness — and those who don’t feel disgusted at it feel pleased with it. In the same way that the master does not wish his slave to become educated and improve economically, socially, and culturally, so many Europeans do not wish the Coloured people to grow out of the Coon stage of primitiveness.

[Moffies are men parading as women, most of them homosexuals; many troupes include moffies who march ahead of the rest; some of them also sing. Skollies may be just ill-mannered children, but most often rowdy young men, members of the gangs which haunt coloured townships.]

“Slashing Attack on Coloured Coons, I Don’t Like Them And I Give My Reasons, ‘Disgusting and Degrading Festivals’”, *The Cape Standard*, January 9, 1940: 3.

## 2.

### An Extract From a Letter Written Home by a Visitor From England

[...] The eve of New Year is used by the Choirs for parades through the streets to the music of their own bands. Bunting, waving across certain streets, indicated that here a Choir must pass. A group would form round the house of one of their number and songs would be sung. Sometimes, from one house would appear the elaborately designed “symbol” of the Choir... the Eiffel Tower or a football field or some other effigy, picked out in small electric lights. The streets were crowded and from numerous doorways one heard the beat of improvised drums and snatches of song [...]
[At the Green Point Track] We could not sit with our friends because there were SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR EUROPEANS. Why on earth this should be done at a carnival which is entirely produced by Coloured people passes my understanding. It might bring along a few white people to the shows, but it certainly keeps away quite a lot of thinking non-Europeans who naturally resent a Colour-Bar at such a time. Reserved seats are quite permissible, I think, and, in any case, white people who are interested will come along. And if some of the "pigmentocracy" stay away... well, the Carnival will not be the less gay on that account [...]

"Thank Goodness for Coons", *The Sun*, January 12, 1940: 3. [DN]

3.

ABOLISH COON FESTIVALS! [...] It may be fun to a certain section of the Coloured community but to others who are the proud possessors of a minimum amount of common sense these festivals make them vividly picture all the funny and nasty remarks that are bound to be passed by Europeans, especially at such moment as this when the Coloured community are trying to uplift themselves culturally [...] Why do these troupes [...] still persist in making some of the Coloured community look foolish? [...] "NOT AMUSED"

"Our Readers' Views on Coons", *The Cape Standard*, January 16, 1940: 3. [WM]

4.

CARNIVAL COONS DEFENDED [...] It is difficult to imagine a New Year's day without the Coons. It is the only time that a very large section of our people can enjoy themselves either as Coons or as onlookers. The carnivals definitely light up the dull existence of the labouring class [...] The Carnival, above all, keeps them out of the drunken brawls and other outrages which are more disreputable to the Coloured race than the so-called foolishness of the Coons. Perhaps it is perhaps [sic] the Coloured Carnival is typically Coloured and has no European counterpart here in South Africa that some of our educated people decry them [...] Perhaps Coloured Student has not studied sufficiently about the manners and customs of mankind to know that Europeans elsewhere are humans just as the Coloureds, and their revelry is not considered foolish and degrading [...] E.E.R. ABRAHAMSE

"Our Readers' Views on Coons", *The Cape Standard*, January 16, 1940: 3. [WM]
5.

COONS REDUCE HOLIDAY CRIME [...] Sir,— I, for one of thousands cannot understand in which way the Coons could be detrimental to the upliftment of our race. Be it the case, the Varsity Rag Day must be more so to the European citizens.

During the Coon Carnival season the police have very little crime to deal with, both serious and petty. The majority of these said Coons come from respectable homes, but owing to unfortunate circumstances are shunned by their brothers and sisters who are more blessed [sic] with this world's goods. Why should they be grudged the only free enjoyment they are allowed?

Hoping that "Student" will suggest ways and means for the upliftment of the Coons and thereby the edification of the Coloureds. KING COONS SON

"Our Readers' Views on Coons", *The Cape Standard*, January 16, 1940: 3. [WM]

6.

MOFFIES ARE HARMLESS [...] He ["Coloured Student" see: 1] asks: "Why do the Europeans not have Coon Carnivals?"

He would no doubt be surprised to hear that carnivals and festivals are held every year all over the world. Let him think but of the carnivals at Venice. That our Coon Carnivals are different shows originality. For "Coloured Student" to vent his disgust on the "Moffie", who is a harmless creature, is to reveal the pettiness of his spite.

"Our Readers' Views on Coons", *The Cape Standard*, January 16, 1940: 3. [WM]

7.

A COON CARNIVAL ORGANISER REPLIES [...] The Coon Carnival is no idle and vulgar sort of sport or amusement, nor is it degrading and disgusting, as it appears to our learned friend ["Coloured Student" see: 1].

The Coons or, to be more correct, those who partake in the Coon Carnivals are not all skollies. The Coon Carnivals do not nourish hooliganism, nor do they encourage vulgarity, but they tend to act quite the other way about, for during the time they occur a very serious attempt is made to compel the skollies to submit to some sort of order and discipline [...] First of all, the Coon Carnivals help to keep at least some of the skollies off the street corners during the New Year holidays and thereby assist in diminishing the number of crimes which they annually commit [...] Secondly, I can state that in the past my Board has provided valuable assistance to various charities by organising concerts and displays for the purpose of raising funds in their aid [...]

The Board is under the impression that the Moffies are just members of a Concert Party and is quite ignorant of their sex. The information that Coloured Student gives about their sex is indeed enlightening to the Board and it is apparent that he must have
taken a lot of trouble to obtain information [...] F. ROBERTSON [organiser of the Coloured Carnival Coronation Board]

“Our Readers’ Views on Coons”, *The Cape Standard*, January 16, 1940: 4. [WM]

## 8.

A EUROPEAN'S VIEW ON THE COONS. Sir, — With reference to the criticism levelled at the Coons, permit me to quote expressions of the people themselves.

**Doctor:** "The Coons are a great source of entertainment for the people. As for the 'Moffies', well, there are as many 'Pansies' among the Whites as 'Moffies' among the Coloureds. Whilst we laugh and joke about our sexual misfits the Europeans are more secretive on such a delicate question. As for skolly boys, it is a matter of skin or condition, or both."

**Vegetable Hawker:** "All the year I work and no one is going to stop me enjoying the 'Kloops' [sic]."

**European Resident for 40 Years in District Six:** "The clubs are not what they used to be. The art, songs, and general appearance seemed better years ago. Of course the non-European people used to be skilled workers in those days and wages were good. There was not that poverty and division between the Coloured people themselves. To-day it seems that the so-called better class Coloured look down upon their poor relatives. I am convinced, however, that the people themselves, with their love for music and laughter, will eventually come out tops. And we need a little less criticism and a little more work."

**Municipal Worker:** "I agree with the views expressed by the writer in the Standard ["Coloured Student" see: 1]. The Coons are degrading." [...]

*The Cape Standard*, January 16, 1940. [WM]

## 9.

When I first saw the coons some years ago, I was impressed by the way they took possession of the town. They were vivacious, jolly and yet considerate. Some Europeans regarded them with a benevolent indifference, others were interested and many crowded the concert space at the Pier where I watched their performance this year.

There has been, however, a decided dropping off in the number of spectators, and the level of entertainment is noticeably lower than it has been in former years. It is monotonous, and as an entertainment it is in danger of losing its erstwhile power of attraction, nothing new, except costume, distinguishing it from what we saw last year and the year before.

This is indeed a pity because there are great possibilities for the coons. Cape Town, like other big cities in the Union needs a festival time. The well wishers of the coloured
people ought to take this opportunity, and build on the structure on which the poorer section of our population has already spent so much time and energy [...]

The coons, for a few weeks of every year, are trying to show us a quick way out of the slums. They are victorious rebels against drabness, and they are rightly proud of their achievement. They introduce colour, movement, music and laughter which is so healthy in an unprivileged community.

“Coons and Coloured Ambitions” by Pathfinder, Cape Times, January 26, 1940. [DN]

## 10.

If the coon carnivals are losing their vitality as “pathfinder” [9] suggests, it is a fact of some interest, and I think it deserves a rather closer analysis [...]

The limitations of “pathfinder’s” analysis are shown when he refers to the music and laughter of the carnivals as “so healthy in an underprivileged community.” Is anything healthy in an underprivileged community except a conscious intention to become reasonably privileged?

It may be that the supposed decay of the carnivals is a sign of a growing consciousness of this sort, in fact of approaching maturity, and perhaps the artificial stimulus of the carnivals would inhibit, not cultivate, the embryo culture discernible in the coons’ acute sense of colour and rhythm.

Certainly I do not see how a true culture can be based on escapism. Rather is a true culture based on knowledge and conscious control of one's environment.

“Carnivals and Frustration” from Mr. H. Stoeffels (Gardens), Cape Times, February 1, 1940. [DN]

## 11.

In the annual Coons’ Carnival Cape Town has an asset of which the value is not fully realised either by the general public or by the troupes concerned; here we have material for a carnival which, if properly organised, would be one of the city’s chief attractions during the festive season.

The spirit of carnival is movement. That is why the street parades of the coon troupes, in which their abandon, good spirits and joyous antics are much in evidence, are important: and for the same reason the competitive singing at the Track and Rosebank should be replaced by a combined parade which would culminate in a grand march past the centre pavilion.

It would be much better to regard the competitive singing as a separate event, to be held in the City Hall, after which a prize-winners’ concert might be arranged [...]

To do this, the various boards which control their respective troupes would have to join forces [...]
"Co-ordinate the Coons" from Dr. I.D. Du Plessis, *Cape Times*, November 8, 1940.
[DN]

12.

"Many members of the Western Province Jubilee Coloured Carnival Board have rallied to the call, and this has meant that the depleted ranks of the Coon Troupes had to be filled with younger men. This applies particularly to the older clubs", said Mr. J.W.G. Allen, the director and secretary of the W.P.J.C. Board in an interview with the "Cape Standard".

"Many Coons Have Become Soldiers", *The Cape Standard*, December 7, 1940. [WM]

13.

For the first time in Cape Town's history a combined coon and Malay carnival will be held to-morrow and Thursday at the Green Point Track.

Mr. A. Lotz, municipal manager of beach entertainments, is responsible for the organisation. On the first day local charities will benefit, on the second day 75 per cent of the gross takings will be handed over to the Governor General's War Fund [...]

All the regular and best troupes of coons will take part as usual he [Mr. Lotz] said.
Most of them have been previously associated with the Coronation Coloured Carnival
Board [...].

Dr. I.D. du Plessis, who has always taken a keen interest in the Malay Choirs, has
been instrumental in arranging that the choirs will amalgamate with the coons at
carnival [...]

Both he and Mr. Lotz expected that this would be the first of a series of centralised
carnivals [...]

The Mayor of Cape Town, Mr. W. Brinton, has expressed his interest in the carnival and both Mrs. Brinton and he have given their patronage [...]

"Feature of Coons' Carnival, Malay Choirs To Sing At The Track", *Cape Times*, December 31, 1940. [DN]

1941

14.

[...] Will there be coons next year? This is what people said last time, when the war somehow seemed to say "stop" to this New Year gaiety. But Coons there were and Coons there'll be again [...]

First, let us have more coons in the streets. WHY SHUT THEM AWAY for two days at the track and at Rosebank where only a limited number can see and enjoy them? Why not organise MORE PROCESSIONS among the people who know and love them?
[...] For, though some may deny it, the competitions seem to restrain and reduce the spontaneity and verve of the people. Songs are sung in a much slower tempo; the leaders become somehow a little hesitant; the audience is too far away and the cold science of the microphone does not bring them nearer.

Next year, then, let the coons get nearer their audience in the streets. Give those crowds who cannot afford the prices at the grounds or who perhaps cannot leave their homes for so long, the chance of joining in the fun. Don't over-organise [...]

Those who remember Cape Town in the New Years past and gone, will have sighed this year for those dashing cavaliers and gay Spanish courtiers who made the coons so varied and exciting. Some of the costumes this year were brilliant and well designed but there was a sameness about most of them which need not be [...]"

"Coons For Everybody", *The Sun*, January 10, 1941: 3 & 10. [DN]

15.

"Well, the war has done at least this: the age-old rivalry between the coloured coons of Cape Town has been ironed out after 12 years of effort, and the two most important organisations have amalgamated [...] Half of the proceeds are to go to war funds [...]

*Cape Times*, December 31, 1941. [DN]

1942

16.

There was a strong patriotic note in the carnival this year, both in the designs of the costumes, and the decorations. Union Jacks, the Union flag and the American Stars and Stripes had all been worked into decorative motifs. One troupe paraded large cardboard figures of John Bull and Uncle Sam — both painted in bright colours [...]

Before the coons' parade and contests, a section of the Cape Corps marched round the field, led by the band of the Indian and Malay Corps from Ladysmith, Natal.

Major C. Stubbs, chief recruiting officer for coloured recruiting, appealed for more recruits. Besides receiving military training, he said, the men of the coloured units were trained in many trades and occupations to fit them for their return to civilian life [...]

"8,000 See Coon Carnival Finalists [...]", *Cape Times*, January 3, 1942. [DN]

17.

[...] There was a distinct patriotic air about the whole carnival — the Union Jack and the V-sign were much in evidence [...]

In his address at the conclusion, Dr. Du Plessis expressed the hope that when the next competitions took place there would be at least 30 choirs instead of 16. He spoke of the old folk songs that had been heard during the afternoon, and said that these had
been preserved by the Cape Malays, and handed down from generation to generation.
Many of these songs were original Dutch ones of past centuries. One of the songs sung
was at least 400 years of age.

This song about a 17th century Prince of Orange, was brought by Dutch settlers to
the Cape, and the Malay slaves learnt it and kept it alive during the intervening
centuries. The words include:

"Al is ons prinsje nog so klein
Alrevel zal hij stadhouter zijn."

Translated roughly, it means:

"Though our prince is so small, he shall still be our first citizen" [...]

*The Cape Standard*, January 13, 1942: 1. [WM]

1943

18.

[...] The costumes were as colourful as ever, although many of the troupes had
converted costumes from previous years into new designs and colour combinations.

The number of performers was about the same as last year, although not so large as
at pre-war carnivals, owing to the number of men in active service [...]

Because of the blackout restrictions only a few troupes were out dancing and singing
along the streets on New Year's Eve and New Year's Night.

"Colourful Coon Carnival", *Cape Times*, January 4, 1943. [DN]

19.

Our city is probably the only place in the world where carnival hold sway this year;
further evidence surely of our remoteness from the actual scene of war.

True, the costumes of the coons were less varied this year than in previous years.
Those vivid silks and sateens are hard to get these days. And there are fewer troops —
many a quondam coon is serving his country in the Cape Corps.

But last week the famous Checkers sang as well as ever, the coons of the Spes Bonas
danced as lithely as of old, and the patient crowds on New Year's Day sat for hours in
Wale, Rose and Hanover Streets waiting for the track to give them back their dancers
to amuse them before the sun went down.

The Americans, those two finely barbaric and befeathered tribes, were not on the
Track ("too rough", I was told) but as they stamped and pranced in their own streets,
with their brave feathers fluttering in the wind, I felt that here in truth is Cape Town's
indigenous Ballet.

"Coons Dance Again", *Cape Times*, January 6, 1943. [DN]
1945

**20.** Not the smallest in number in the stream of applicants for Government grants for clothing for ex-soldiers a fortnight or so ago, I heard yesterday, were non-Europeans asking for grants to buy materials to be made up into costumes for the coon carnival [...]

This year's coon carnival had few teams dressed in the traditional striped satin suits with top hats, gay sunshades and painted faces, but those that had this Pied Piper touch about them drew crowds as they danced through the streets.

One of the mysteries of the carnival was the skill in procurement shown by the participants. Many of those who watched and applauded must have wondered how the men secured the tweeds and flannel for their sports jackets and trousers, and where they found the white spats, and must have longed to ask the coons, "Where did you get that brand-new hat?"

"For the Carnival", *Cape Times*, January 4, 1945. [DN]

**21.**

[...] CARNIVAL SEGREGATION. Each Year we find advertisements in the daily press telling us that the Coon Carnivals that are given "with the blessing and cooperation of the Bathing and Seaside Attractions Department of the Cape Town Municipality" have a "special reserved stand for Europeans" and "booking at Darters for Europeans only." Perhaps some of our city Councillors might be able to explain these segregation arrangements, especially since the Coon Carnival of W.P. Jubilee (Col.) Carnival Board has one admission price "for all" and no segregation!

"From my tower" [a regular column signed by the "Watchman" a.k.a. G.C. Gibbs], *The Cape Standard*, January 9, 1945. [WM]

**22.**

[...] Many men who have returned from active service will be back in their old troupes. One troupe, in fact, consists, for the most part of men who have served in the Cape Corps [...]

"Coon Carnivals Next Week", *Cape Times*, December 19, 1945. [DN]

1948

**23.**

"The gaiety and carefree abandon of the Cape Coloured people will be given free rein on New Year's Day, when thousands of coons will take temporary possession of the city for the annual Coon Carnivals at Green Point Track and Rosebank Showground"
(Cape Times 27/12/47). And the pale, “base” [baas ?] will delight in the wild gyrations and inane cacophonies of the quaint Coloured folk. The annual throes of the death of a people’s spirit in the form of this volcano of primitive ritual-dance are a welcome sight to slave-drivers.

“X-Ray of the News by Dr. Pangloss [...] Dance of Death”, *The Torch*, Monday, January 5, 1948: 2. [GM]

24.

[...] the undoubted talent that is innate in the Coloured and Malay communities.

Much of this talent is untrained [...] but what they lack in virtuosity they make up by their wonderful sense of rhythm, their verve, their overflowing enthusiasm and their good humour.[...]

There are regrettably at New Year too many songs from Tin Pan Alley and too few from Schottsche Kloof. The individual troupes, particularly the juveniles among them, love the slow crooning songs which Bing Crosby can put over so well but which the Cape Town Gentlemen Jazz Singers or the Young Dahomey Crooning Minstrels, try as they wish, simply turn into something like a melting chocolate mould at a kids' party.

Fortunately, in recent years, largely through the influence of Dr. I.D. du Plessis, both the Malay Choirs and the troupes of Coons have been paying more attention to the songs of the Cape. Thus they are giving the New Year Carnivals a more truly Cape flavour than they had before [...]

“Cape’s Unique New Year Carnival of Music”, by George Aschman, *Argus*, December 29, 1948. [DN]

1949

25.

[...] A feature of the coon song competitions at the Green Point Track yesterday were the Afrikaans “moppies” or “liedjies”. The troupes were congratulated by Dr. I.D. Du Plessis, one of the judges, on bringing this innovation into their carnivals [...]

Mr. Gearing [mayor of Cape Town], thanking the Cape Town Publicity Association for presenting a special cup for Afrikaans “moppies”, said: “When the Cape Town Publicity Association takes notice of you they evidently think that you are a very important feature of Cape Town’s life at this time of the year” [...]

“Thousands See Coon Carnivals. ‘Moppies’ a new Feature”, *Argus*, January 4, 1949. [DN]

26.

Mr. Enrique Jorda, Musical Director of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra found
himself in the unexpected role of a judge at the last day of the Coon Carnival at Rosebank Show Grounds on Saturday.

[...] Dr. I.D. du Plessis, who helped adjudicate the Afrikaans *liedjies*, appealed to the troupes not to neglect the songs of South Africa and of the Cape. He hoped that the Cape “moppies” or comic songs and the *liedjies* would become a regular feature of future carnivals [...]

"Jorda Judges Coon Bands, Was Seeing His First Carnival", *Argus*, January 10, 1949.
[DN]

27.

[...] the traditional costumes worn by the Cape Coons [...] are invariably made of satin, either with billowing jackets or tail-coats. But great variety is achieved by (a) different combinations of colours in one costume, (b) the choice of waistcoat material, (c) startling lapel facings, (d) the ties or cravats worn and (e) the stripes introduced into the trousers. No costume is ever carried over from one year to another. Every New Year the Coons appear in brand-new apparel [...]

The captains take their duties seriously, even to providing a feast for their troupes after the carnivals, when the winning cups are filled and the troupe's triumphs celebrated. The parties are usually slap-up affairs, but would they not come up to standards, the captain may lose members to other groups giving better parties. These parties go on until the end of March [...] These parties usually start about 3 p.m. and go on with singing and dancing until the tables are cleared of their dishes of curry and rice, of cakes and jellies, custards and fruits.

Coon-time is a recognised institution at the Cape and every year attracts greater public interest among all sections of the community. Each troupe is granted a permit by the City Traffic Department to parade through the streets during the months of November, December and January, but none of these troupes appear in costume until New Year's Eve. For weeks beforehand, however, the city streets are enlivened by young Coloured men and boys marching from one part of the town to another beating their *ghommas* and singing popular *Kaapse liedjies* or *"moppies"*, such as "Kyk in die Pot Daar's Vleis", "Rooi Tamatie", "Grietjie, Ek Wil Huistoe Gaan", "Beste Pote" and others [...]

A "Christmas Band" of four, six, eight or more Coloured musicians, accompanies every troupe on its journeys which frequently, on New Year's Day alone total up to 30 miles — all done on foot and in tennis shoes! These bands are paid as much as £ 60 for their services to the different troupes and Malay choirs at New Year time, and they earn every bit of their money.

Lining the streets leading through the centre of the town to Green Point and Rosebank are tens of thousands of people. Many a Coloured family camps out for the
whole day on rugs spread on the pavements in order to watch the Coons go by, the
little girls wearing their *Nuwejaar* frocks and new shoes with satin ribbons in their hair.
It is essentially a children's festival [...]

First is the marshalling of the troupes from all parts of the Cape Peninsula, then their march in a body to the carnival grounds, then their dizzy and delirious return with their honours held high aloft for all to see. Finally there are the comings and goings of the troupes at night when they move from one part of the town to another paying calls at friends' houses.

At night many of the Coons' banners are illuminated. These banners may take the form of a model battleship, or a giant silver star or a Dutch windmill [...]

A particularly picturesque troupe leader at this year's Rosebank carnival was Doeltjie, a Malay, who appeared dressed as Carmen Miranda with a headdress of fruit and flowers [...]

Many of these drum-majors carry brooms with which they say *ons vee alles veg*, referring to their intention to knock out all competition from other troupes. Every now and then they sweep the streets vigorously to show that they mean business [...]

There is one particular troupe of Coons which holds a special fascination for the children of Cape Town. They are known as the Wild Americans or Red Indians, or, in the language of the Cape *skinners* (from Red Skins) and *atchas* (derivation unknown, though believed to be from *Utcha Amerikaner*, or real American). Every year they appear in the same type of outfit — ostrich-feathered head-dress, fearsome-looking masks, brightly coloured satin tunics falling over pantalettes, with each carrying either a tomahawk or a sunshade in his gloved hand [...]

The organisers are gradually trying to get the troupes to sing more Cape *liedjies* and "moppies" [...] But the Coons dearly love the American sentimental songs, which they sing in a painfully mournful manner so unlike their gay delivery of a "moppie" [...]

At Rosebank, this year a young Coon from the United Broadway Serenaders wrung our hearts with a melancholy ditty which opened up something like this:

"There's a home without a mother,
She was laid away in a raid (?)
And her spirit has gone to heaven;
I am lonely since my mother she died.
My father was married once again,
And my stepmother she treats me so unkind;
She hits me, she locks me out of doors.
I am lonely since my mother she died." [...]

"New Year Is Coon Time At The Cape", by George Aschman, *The Outspan*, November 25, 1949: 27-29 &123. [WM]
1950

**28.**

[At a Teachers' League of South Africa Conference, Miss J. Gool declared:] As a race, the Coloured People are not contributing to the culture of the world. [She added that] the main occupation of Coloured Youths was "crooning and playing the banjo on street corners" and the "Herrenvolk" encouraged this attitude of the Coloureds to make fool of themselves because it meant safety to them."

[Jainub Jane Gool was no relative of Zainunnisa “Cissie” Gool]

Argus, June 29, 1950. [DN]

**29.**

[J.W.G. Allen, secretary and director of the Western Province Coloured Jubilee Carnival Board declares that a feature of the 1951 carnival will be the large number of afrikaans songs:] [...] While sentimental ditties have always been the favourite of the coons, this season, we hope to make a change and include more of the Afrikaans songs.

It is generally agreed that there is gayness and swing in the many Afrikaans songs that harmonize admirably with the New Year Carnival spirit of the Cape.

Cape Times, October 30, 1950. [DN]

1951

**30.**

A Scotman's word is law with at least one coon troupe in Cape Town. He is Mr. David Stevens, a building contractor of Albert Road, Woodstock, who is believed to be the only White coon captain.

Mr. Stevens who is 60, has been associated with the coons for more than 40 years and for more than 35 years he has been a captain of various troupes and has always worn the same costume as the men.

He, with Mr. Davie Petersen, controls the 250 members of the Spes Bona Troupe, which will be celebrating their silver jubilee next year. [...]

He recalled that, in the early days, the New Year was welcomed chiefly by members of private clubs who were unlike the coons of to-day.

These clubs were not necessarily confined to the Coloured people. The Afrikaans name for the coons was still "klops", the Coons' phonetic way of spelling clubs [...]

The captain of a coon troupe, said Mr. Stevens, had a responsible position. To ensure a success of the club, he had to be prepared to advance the money for the coon costumes months before the carnivals, for the men often paid their instalments at "zero hour". There were risks, because often the captain lost money. He himself had been out of pocket as much as £ 50.