Coon Carnival
Contents
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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