What’s the difference between a minstrel troupe, a Malay choir, and a Christmas band?
Minstrel troupes are clubs [klopse] created by people who love Carnival and its traditions. Troupe members participate in various ways–in the bands and choirs, as part of the marching teams, as dancers, and as ordinary members, carrying umbrellas and jolling through the streets. Membership is open to men and women and boys and girls. Members of the various troupes wear colorful uniforms that are specific to each troupe. Malay choirs are also clubs of a sort. They take their name from a eighteenth-century colonial term, “Malay,” that was applied to one segment of the Cape Town population–slaves and political exiles brought to South Africa from what is now Malaysia and Indonesia by the Dutch East India Company. Male descendants of “Malays” make up a substantial proportion of the choirs’ membership. The choirs perform a variety of songs that range from old Dutch folk songs to comic songs [moppies] to American pop songs. The sound of the choirs reveals the influence of Asian and Islamic s
