SOUTH AFRICA: PREPARATIONS FOR 'COON' CARNIVAL

Описание: (30 Dec 1995) English/Nat

Cape Town's Malay and mixed race community are getting ready to celebrate their annual "Coon" carnival on January 2.

This unique festival is a celebration of the emancipation of slaves in 1838.

In the new post-apartheid South Africa the carnival has even more special significance for the community and this new year's event will be opened and attended by President Nelson Mandela himself.

Cape Town's Malay quarters is known for its extraordinary mixed architecture of old Dutch and Malay homes.

It is also known for one of South Africa's most festive annual events - the Coon Carnival.

At the beginning of this century and at the height of institutionalised racial segregation theses quarters were exclusively for people of Malay origin - who were called Coons.

Coons was a derogatory reference to people of mixed race but the name stuck for the annual carnival.

Melvyn Matthews, a member of the organising committee of the Coon carnival, played a sample of the festival music which gets everyone dancing in the streets.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
" And the pace is being kept by what they call a gumba. A gumba is a biggish type of drum that is being played by hand that is slung over the shoulder and is played by hand with two hands and this gives the pace and it goes very fast it goes something like this. It goes very fast and that is the pace of the march on the days of the road march. It's like a light jog to the rhythm of the music."
SUPER CAPTION: Melvyn Matthews, Member of organising committee of Coon carnival

The quarters' residents have already begun practising in the streets for the big day which celebrates the emancipation of slaves in 1838.

This scene depicts the moment when they would go around Cape Town singing at the homes of freed black slaves.

The carnival participants are members of various "Coon" teams.

Practise sessions for the teams are almost as much fun as on the day itself.

Traditional songs are played and carnival goers are put through their paces.

It's a festival of liberation - even more so in the spirit of a new democratic South Africa.

This year organisers are determined to make the carnival even better than previous celebrations as President Mandela is expected to attend and open it for the first time.

The carnival will be a spectacular and lavish display of not only art and performance but also of colorful costumes.

Time as well as money are not spared in the preparations.

Coon teams, which sometimes have as many as seven hundred to eight hundred members, can spend thousands of dollars on their costumes.

South Africans hope that their carnival will become an international festive event of note.

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