S.Africa's colourful minstrel carnival draws thousands

Thousands of colourfully costumed minstrels paraded through Cape Town Saturday in an exuberant century-old carnival rooted in the South African city's history of slavery that drew large crowds of spectators.

In glitzy uniforms matched with flashy hats, parasols and face paint, the marchers walked and danced through the city's historic centre in an annual event that an organiser said had grown to become the biggest such parade on the continent.

The highly anticipated New Year parade celebrates Cape Town's mixed-raced community descended from slaves brought from Africa, Southwest Asia and Indian Ocean territories after the city was settled by the Dutch in the 1650s.

Organisers said 18 troupes of around 20,000 performers took part in this year's event, with marchers from all ages and accompanied by trumpets, trombones and tambourines.

The first formal parade was held in 1907, after the abolition of slavery in Cape Town in 1934, Muneeb Gambeno, director of the Kaapse Klopse Karnival Association that organises the event, told broadcaster SABC.

Similar to London's Notting Hill Carnival, it is the biggest event of its kind on the African continent, he said.