[Leica] IMGs: Cape Town New Year's Carnival

[profmason at yahoo.com (John Edwin Mason)]

Greetings from Cape Town, where the New Year's Carnival is in full swing.

The carnival is a lot like Rio's and Mardi Gras in New Orleans--a time of 
licensed insubordination.? The minstrel troupes that I've been hanging with 
for the last four years are similar to the samba schools of Rio and New 
Orleans' social aid and pleasure clubs.? Music, dancing, feasting, parading, 
fine costumes, and a certain amount of intoxicants....

On the other hand, this carnival has nothing to do with the Christian 
calendar.? It's rooted in nineteenth-century commemorations of the end of 
slavery in colonial South Africa.

I spent New Year's Day with with the Pennsylvania Crooning Minstrels, one of 
the troupes that shows up a lot in the book I've been working on:

http://tinyurl.com/y8gsljt

Carnival's biggest day (although it's far from the only big day) is the 
January 2nd, when over 60 troupes march through the streets of Cape Town.? 
Even though all the shooting for the book is done, I couldn't find a reason 
to stay away.? The results are here:

http://tinyurl.com/yb4lm8n

Comments warmly welcomed.

--John

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John Edwin Mason, Photography:
http://www.JohnEdwinMason.com
Charlottesville and Cape Town