The Coons festival 2016: Colours of Joy

The Tweede Nuwe Jaar or second New Year celebration in Cape Town – South Africa is both a celebration of life and a commemoration of the pains of the chains of endured slavery. It is one of my favourite cultural events to attend to in the city. 

As usual, thousands of family arrived the day before, on New Year day and set up tents and shops beside the procession route, all along Darling street, Adderley Street,  Wale Street, then Rose Street in the historic Bo-Kaap. They came from all over the Western Cape Province, united by the history of the “cape coloured” people and the Afrikaans language. The people here are made up of everything that South Africa has to offer as races and cultures. In every family here, you will always find a man or a woman of Khoisan, dark African, Caucasian, Indian, Malaysian, Chinese and/or many other origins. As a result they tend to be a very welcoming folk; especially during the occasion of the Coons festival, when the cheer is at its utmost and some typical occupations are put on hold.
Kaapse Klopse are always such a fun to watch in their colourful and shiny attires, the grim faces they show, the funny dance moves they display and the loud and crazy music they play.

This year seemed “younger” than all the others. I have seen little ones making dance moves in parades before, but not this many. I somehow noticed a generational shift with a few old performers usually at the back of troops, then much younger performers (mostly teenagers) and finally lots of baby performers. I must say that they are my favourites: they are so cute.

Happy New Year 2016!!

Coon festival 2014

Happy new year 2014!

 

Cape Town celebrates 2 New Year each year, on the 1st and on the “slave new year day off” or “Tweede Nuwe Jaar” on the 2nd of January with the COON festival or “Kaapse Klopse”. My favourite is the Coon Festival, because of it local value and the beautiful and dramatic stories behind it. The Coon festival is a total celebration of life, diversity, generosity and freedom. It is always blossoming with cheering, laughter, smiles, grimaces, dances, loud music and colourful crowds.

Today on this 4th of January 2014, the tradition was not broken. The troupes marched from District six to Cape Town stadium in the most delirious parade. Authorities suggested that around 60 bands, more than 40 000 people strong in total would be showing their talents on Darling Street, at the Grand parade and going to Cape Town stadium (Green Point stadium) where a final round would be staged.

Families came from around Cape Town, from Bo-Kaap, Athlone, Manenberg, Hanover Park, Lentegeur, Bontheuvel, Woodlands, Rockland, Mitchel's plain, Atlantis and many other places to see the coons. They set tents by the road not to miss a glimpse of the spectacle.


This year, it seemed that the very youth was on stage, offering the cuteness, the joy of life and the astonishing creativity which only toddlers are capable of.
















An important but rather friendly security cordon was deployed, with policemen and other security personnel containing the joyful crowd and redirecting the traffic, with fences everywhere to prevent the crowd from overstepping on the parade way, and with health emergency units on alert on site.











At Parade, the square mile facing the iconic city Hall, a stage was raised, a food market was created and toilet section was arranged.






Giant screens were out, television cameras were out and the voice of the master of ceremony was demanding applause and more cheers out of gigantic speakers.

It was an amazing spectacle like only Cape Town can offer.  

Can't wait for next year....

Coon Carnival 2013

The "Coon Carnival" or "Kaapse Klopse" frenzy invaded the city of Cape Town on Wednesday, 02 January 2013. People came from far away and took stands along the parade way.

  It was a great event.

Yes, I believe...

In Prato

Hello folks,

I have been a bit far away from myself and things were not going as planned, at the end I didn't take the time to talk about things that matters.

In very short, I went to Johannesburg for the ZAWWW2011 and to Prato in Italy for the CIRN2011 Conference; then I went home in Douala (Great time) Then I am back in Cape Town and fully committed to get done with my thesis (I am still not done).

At the NAVY festival in Cape Town

I have a chapter in a new book published on the 31 of March 2012and entitled E-government in emerging economies: Adoption, E-Participation and legal frameworks. The book is edited by Kelvin Joseph Bwalya and Saul Zulu in two volumes. My chapter is the Chapter 24: Listening to the Ground: Key Indicators of e-Participation in Government for Africa. Get the book and read it: It is very insightful.

I have great plans. I am going back to myself and to what I believe to be just and worth putting efforts in. I am back to writing (poems, short stories and novels), doing photography, making movies and clips (audio and video), riding, doing sport (now it doesn't matter anymore which one), making money, making friends, getting down to social entrepreneurship and much more stuff.

Our great Basket ball team at the KOTTO Camp 2011: Les Fatigues

I still have a long way to go and so much to achieve... stick around and you will know it all...

Looking for words in Goedgedacht

For one week between 5th and 9th of September 2011, I was in the wild for a writing workshop, supposed to help me improve the writing of my thesis.

The stay was great. The place is a farm called Goedgedacht. It is surrounded by hills and lost in a valley. The air is fresh and the only noise heard come from birds and other animals.

Hopefully the initiative will inspire others. The retreat helped me to finish with some structural issues of my thesis chapters. I came back from there revived and confident to hand in the document very soon.

Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival

Hello everyone,

I would like to invite you to visit the 13th Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival.

The program is at this address: http://www.encounters.co.za/

Here are some pictures from the event venue at Cape Town V&A Waterfront Nu Metro theaters.

I will tell more afterwards...

A funny experience of using trains in Cape Town...

I am writing in order to raise awareness on some Metrorail (PRASA) agents doings making me fear them more than any robber or killer on my way home. And I would like to point out some people behaviors when they witness someone getting mistreated.

Hopefully, this will help, as well, someone else who would be complaining about the same thing and would have got a response meaning that he/she was the only one to complain: now we would be two.

Some times ago, around 6pm, while going back home (I stay in Cape Town - SA), I was stopped at the Ndabeni station by train ticket controllers or people looking like them (which is unusual at that time of the day). I was traveling in a first class wagon with a third class ticket. I was driven out of the coach. The fine is R40 for that kind of issues. I followed the agents hoping that we could negotiate a settlement (something like paying a normal fair). They asked me to pay the full fine amount and I answered that I hadn't enough money to do so. They were four: three men and one woman. They were acting like having all rights. They were not having identification badges with them. There would be no way to recognize them (I thought). One of them was visibly under the power of alcohol.

We were four: A colored mature man and three black men. The colored man paid quickly and was released. We were then conducted to the offices up the stairs. When we arrived upstairs, I was ordered to get into a sort of cage (I am still amazed that they do have cages in train station to retain people). I refused to do so.

They pushed me, pulled me, beat, choked and handcuffed me. I started fearing that it could get funny and I could get uselessly injured or killed, or I could loose my valuables in my backpack with all my work inside. I decided to pay the money. I gave them the money and I was relaxed.

I was amazed: it was just unbelievable. What did I do to deserve so much violence? I didn't insult them. I was assaulted for an affordable train ticket. Was it the money the problem? Was it that I resisted? Do they have the right to put people in cages? Are they law enforcement agents ?

People were just watching. None of them said or did or expressed any concern about what was happening to me. Every one was minding his/her own business. Anything could have happened to me and nobody would have intervened. I suppose that it might be the police job or I could have just paid earlier or I could have avoided to be in the wrong wagon with my ticket. Just after I was relaxed, a young colored man approached me and expressed his discontent of what he witnessed. He said: "they should treat people properly!"

I just wonder if there was a team allocated to search customers on that line at that moment of the day or I was just robbed by people dressed like Metrorail agents or Metrorail agents turned into robbers.

At the end of the day, I felt violated. I was wrong to be on that coach with the wrong ticket. But their behavior was just unacceptable. And because I was wrong in the first place, nobody listened to my story, estimating that I somehow excited them (Sounds like what happens to girls who got raped).

Further more, I am embarrassed that in Africa, you would die in front of people an nobody would have raised a finger to help, because they are minding their own business. What is that culture of loneliness? That's sound very new to me; and that presage dark times for all of us.