Marching in Blackface : Infiltrating Cape Town's controversial Carnival.(Column)

Not everyone likes Cape Town's "Coon Carnival" as much as I do. In the past, I followed the annual Jan. 2 parade of mixed-race, or Colored, performers to the final raucous singing contest, intrigued by the overlap between American and South African slave histories. But many middle-class South Africans find the whole spectacle distasteful. "Why do you Americans want to come over here and watch that crap?" an elegant Colored woman once asked me at a party. "It's just a bunch of skollies [gangsters] and drunks, thugs and..."--she paused--"low people."

So I decided to join. This was harder than it sounds. The Carnival clubs, or klopse, are wary of outsiders. But two things combined to help me: I look Colored, and I am an American. That is significant, considering that the clubs borrow heavily from America's old minstrel troupes; some even take their names (the Renegade Apaches, the Beach Boys) from American pop culture. So I was cautiously accepted by the Fabulous Woodstock Starlights, the 30- year-old club that won "best behavior" at last year's competition. In October, I began attending its weekly rehearsals, where male members prepared songs for the contest. (Women are allowed to sing only in the "combined" chorus; the rest of the time they serve mainly as cheerleaders.)

The festival began in the early 19th century when slave bands played in friendly competition during the annual Jan. 2 slave holiday. There was no formal organization until minstrel troupes--white performers in blackface-- arrived from America and Britain in the late 1800s, causing a sensation among the local Colored population. By the time they held the first competitions in 1907, the klopse were mixing minstrel style--bright costumes, soot-black faces, offensive lyrics--with their own culture. They labeled themselves "coons"--a pejorative for black Americans--and used the term with pride. During apartheid, the government tried to restrict the parade, with little success.

Today, the Carnival is a far more elaborate affair. Each of the major klopses contributes about $20,000 to the event's exorbitant cost. A lucky few get corporate ...