Darkie Day Trivia

Darkie Day is a relic of American blackface minstrelsy--surviving in the UK, of all places.

• Darkie Day takes place in Padstow, the Cornish port made famous by seafood celeb Rick Stein.
• Princes William and Harry have also been known to visit Rock, the posh enclave across the water.
• On Boxing Day and New Year's Day, Old Padstonians dress up like blackface minstrels and parade through town, belting out songs about "niggers".
• According to one fishy story, the custom is a tribute to slaves who entertained the locals while their ships were harboured in Padstow. However, there's no record of slave ships stopping at Padstow; and even if they had, it's unlikely the captive men, women and children on board would have been in any condition to sing and dance.
• Darkie Day is most likely a combination of an old West Country tradition called 'guising' and the 19th century "nigger minstrel" craze, the first transatlantic pop movement and the earliest form of show business as we know it.
• Professional minstrel shows had all but died out in America by the time Al Jolson bawled for his "Mammy" in 1930. In Britain, though, minstrels remained incredibly popular. The Black and White Minstrel Show wasn't cakewalked off TV until 1978.
• The old custom of guising - also known as mumming - was an approved form of begging that had nothing to do with race. Locals would blacken their faces and sing songs in exchange for money or food.
• After a recent controversy, Padstow's performers agreed to call themselves 'Mummers' instead of 'Darkies' and substitute the word 'mummers' for 'niggers' in the lyrics. However, old ways die hard.
• One out of every four (25%) people in Greater London is black or Asian, but for the UK as a whole, that ratio plunges to 8%. Just 2% of Britain's population is Afro-Caribbean, while in north Cornwall, barely one person in 1,000 (0.1%) is of African descent.
• Ironically, Padstow's Darkie Days coincide with Kwanzaa, the US holiday invented during the Black Power movement of the 1960s that runs from December 26th until January 1st.

©J.R. Daeschner

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