Marjiet Omar & The Golden City Dixies - Grietjie (±1957)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, South African Style!!

This recording dates back to 1957 when The Golden City Dixies were the rave. You can read more about them here:
http://electricjive.blogspot.com/2010/06/carnival-time-in-south-africa.html

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From the time the Dutch East India Company established their first outpost at the Southern tip of Africa to 1808 (when the British abolished the slave trade) around 63,000 slaves were brought into the Cape Colony. To avoid trouble with the local Khoikhoi people, South Africa's slaves were obtained mainly from Indonesia, Madagascar, and India. After the slaves were freed a great number of people of mixed heritage intermingled with the Europeans, remnants of the Khoikhoi, and some Xhosa, to create what became known as the "Coloured" (as opposed to Black) people of South Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Coloureds

Disadvantaged from the beginning, Apartheid created additional hardship for these folks. However, on the "Tweede Nuwejaar" (Second New Year = January 2nd, which was originally a day off for the farm workers in the Cape) they cast their troubles away and formed groups of "Kaapse Klopse" (Cape Minstrel Bands) which would swarm the city of Cape Town in their brightly colored outfits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaapse_Klopse

Their "Goema" (Dixieland) style of music and merry performances won the hearts of many, and this was the one day in which they would board "whites only" busses and trains and could get away with it -- as long as the ride included a performance. As a white Afrikaner kid growing up in Cape Town I remember those days fondly; however it was not only me who was taken by their music -- soon many of their minstrel songs (e.g. "Daar kom die Alibama", "So lank as die Rietjie in die Water Lê", "Kossies van die Kaap", "Sousboontjies", etc.) found its way into Afrikaner culture and is still regularly sung to this very day.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• music
• Africa
• South Africa
• Afrikaans
• minstrel
• Dixieland
• Goema
• Ghoema
• Marjiet Omar
• Golden City Dixies
• Kaapse Klopse
• Cape Minstrel
• Coon Carnival
• Carnival
• New Year
• Tweede Nuwejaar
• Second New Year
• Cape Town
• Johannesburg
• Grietjie
• Electric Jive
• historic
• oldie
• vinyl
• traditional

[Jantak]

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