Who We Are | Background

Over the past 400 years tumultuous events have enabled Cape Town’s cosmopolitan nature.  The indigenous Khoi and San communities, played host to the arrival of very many people at The Cape of Good Hope.

As a port city Cape Town soon became host to many European Settlers. Slaves were brought to Cape Town from the Indonesian Archipelago and they richly impacted on our cultural and creative diversity.

So too, did Nguni speaking people contribute to our cultural aesthetic, as a result of continued migration down the East Coast of Africa. Cape Town Carnival will find expression for this diversity while harnessing a consolidating aesthetic in The New South Africa.

Seeing the richness of Rio’s Carnival and looking at the rich diversity of what makes up the communities of Cape Town – a Carnival for Cape Town made perfect sense.