Coon Carnival

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The term "coon"

The term derives from raccoon, it was used in America to refer to performers in black-face entertainments, hence also any black man.

While it has other meanings, it is most prominent in South Africa when used as (a) a racial slur for a black person, borrowed from American usage and (b) its specific use for a performer in the Cape Coon Carnival, with its early association with the Christy's Minstrels and other "blackface" performers from America.

See for example definitions provided by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon and http://www.thefreedictionary.com/coon

Carnival

See also Festival

The idea of the carnivalesque

Origins and history

Carnivals in South Africa

The Coon Carnival in the Cape =

Also known as the Cape Coon Carnival or The Cape Coons (In Afrikaans: die Kaapse Klopse or simply Klopse).

Today the use of Coon has fallen away, though Klopse has remained.


Origins of the Coons or Klopse

Coons and Coon troupes

The performance styles

The Coon Festival as event

Student carnivals

Known as Karnaval or more commonly Jool in Afrikaans



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