African Spirituality | Sacred Well Ministries

by Ya Sezi Bo Oungan, edited by Katherine Bonnabel

During the period between the 17^th and mid -19^th centuries it has been said that in the Southern parts of America it was better to be Native American than African, better to be a noble savage, than a non-human.

On Mardi Gras in 1885, 50 to 60 Plains Indians marched in native dress on the streets of New Orleans. Later that year, it is believed the first Mardi Gras Indian gang was formed; the tribe was named “The Creole Wild West” and was most likely composed of members of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

The Mardi Gras Indian “tribes” are a cultural and social function. However, the Plains Native American attire and art style that decorates their elaborate costumes was more of a mask, a representation of deeper African roots beneath.

The famous and well-known Mardi Gras song “Iko Iko” depicts a scene between two bands of Mardi Gras Indians. Iko Iko was an Amerindian war call that was said like “Iko IKO!” and meant something like “Pay Attention”

The original title of the song “Iko Iko’ was “Jock-a-mo”. Chakamo was a greeting used in confrontation during battle meaning something like “It is good”, though also often cited as meaning Brother John or jester.

Mardi Gras Indians have several different positions within the tribe that play various traditional roles. Many blocks ahead of the Indians are plain clothed informants keeping an eye out for any danger. The procession begins with “spyboys,” dressed in light “running suits” that allow them the freedom to move quickly in case of emergency.

Next comes the “first flag,” an ornately dressed Indian carrying a token tribe flag. Closest to the “Big Chief” is the “Wildman” who usually carries a symbolic weapon. The Forward people like the Guidon or flag bearer, and the Back people like the Chief and the Wildman follow a very well-known Congolese style of the Mavile and Mavumbo, the warriors and scouts upfront and the chief and supporting priests and medicine people behind.

Mardi Gras Indians sing in call and response style songs. Mardi Gras Indian chants are believed to be influenced by various languages spoken in Louisiana through its history. Many of these words have no official spellings and are offshoots of multiple different languages, given the city’s long history as a port city. It is estimated that up to 50 African languages, German, English, English-based Creole and a French-based Creole all influenced the of language in New Orleans.

In many ways the Mardi Gras Indians are one of the only surviving examples of the “masquerade” style dances having social and community justice implications, like Abakua, a kind of costumed dance surviving in Cuba. (Also sometimes known as Ñañiguismo, it is an Afro-Cuban men’s initiatory fraternity or secret society, which originated from fraternal associations in the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon)

Abakuá’s roots are found in the Ekpe Society, or Leopard society of Nigeria and Cameroon which confers high social status and political authority; these men participate in ceremonies concerned with ancestral spirits and are believed to protect the community through magic and religious ritual.

Around 1970-80 two stores would open up established by the same company, House of Marie Laveau and Rev. Zombie’s. These two stores would open, bringing Brazilian Candomble and Kimbanda statues to the tourist market, followed by the opening of F&F Botanica in ‘83. These stores would bring the Orisha to the people and thus how the Yoruba deities became a focal point in an otherwise Congolese influenced city.

Modern New Orleans Voodoo was also heavily influenced by the various Spiritualist churches including the Spiritual Baptists, that laid a foundation that modern and popular culture built upon.

Voodoo stands as one of the world’s most maligned and misunderstood religions. This is because of how voodoo is presented in media and pop culture. More accurate representations of Voodoo occur in connection with the popular culture of regions where Voodoo is actually practiced. Humanity’s relationship with spirits is the primary focus, and the care and healing of its community.

by Ya Sezi Bo Oungan

New Orleans Voodoo, was a public ecstatic style of worship and veneration of a collection of Deities, folk saints, local heroes and legends, figures like Le Grand Zombi, Papa Lebas, Dani Blanc, St. Anthony, St. Rita, Sante Agassou, Pirate Rouge, Anne Christmas, and many others.

Surrounding the external public practice was a system of initiation and supporting magic, like we find in many African Diaspora Traditions. Borrowing largely from the Congolese and the Fon people from Dahomey, a first group of enslaved people brought to the colony. This tradition had a strong 200-250 years of public mixed class and race interaction. The Native people and the free Africans that lived and worked in the city lived on what is now named Bayou Road. It would be remiss to mention this spot in this history as the people and descendants hold a part of the story.

Edward Kemble’s illustration “The Bamboula” is a rare visual depiction of the activities in Congo Square, though Kemble never visited New Orleans and made the drawing in the late 19th century. (*THNOC, 1974.25.23.54*)

Public Voodoo services would be held at Congo Square, which at one point was on the very edge of the city of New Orleans. The service would be led by a Voodoo Queen, and a Voodoo King. We can tell by the use of these titles that this was probably a Congolese insertion, as the Congolese brought this power structure, levels of interaction and importance with them to the New World.

The most famous of the Voodoo Queens was Marie Laveau I, who lived a long and storied life. But by the time Marie II took over, the Americans had purchased Louisiana from Napoleon, installed a Protestant governor from Pennsylvania in the city, and had begun cracking down on the Catholic and Bohemian levels of intermingling that the city had always know.

St. John’s Day Ceremony with Sallie Glassman, on the Bayou St. John bridge

One of the things greatly changed was the level of interaction that black enslaved people could have with free people of color, and their intermingling with white people of the city. Only a few years before, a railway had been built to accommodate the many who desired to participate the annual head washing ceremony on Saint John’s Eve. Now they found themselves the objects of spectacle and ridicule, as the shifting in sensibilities had been introduced. It would not be long before the Americanization act, which made the public practice of Voodoo illegal with capital punishment. This became the choice way to deal with this undesired holding on to black African power, identity and self-expression. This was in keeping with the legislation that was introduced in the aftermath of the Stono Rebellion outside of Charleston, South Carolina in 1739. The Stono Rebellion saw the end of the use of the drum by Africans.

It stands to mention that one of the few surviving drum rhythms from the past that is still played to this day is the baseline of New Orleans Bounce rhythm. It is accompanied by twerking, a dance that displays the hips, in the past and as it is now. As the public practice went underground, so did the knowledge of the practice. This was once a part of the supporting spiritual practice, like gris gris and other charms. Some of this is still found in the other surviving tradition of folk healing and magic preserved by traiteurs (or treaters), who combined Catholic prayer and folk remedies to cure everything from colic to cancer.

If one were to go to New Orleans back in the day, where would you find this Voodoo? Not in the French Quarter, not in the Garden District, but for sure in the housing projects where most of it lived up until the displacement of Hurricane Katrina.

The other part of the legacy of New Orleans Voodoo lives with the Black and Creole burial customs, and the other part with the Mardi Gras Indians. Everyone knows about the second line, but nobody talks about the first line and the rending of the veil. First line is the walking from the funeral service to the cemetery that culminates into the rending of the veil at the crypt side, where the entrance to the charnel house is open. This is a moment of incorporation by the deceased, or by the ancestors, or other forces experienced by the person who is opening the tomb.

Another funeral custom is the intentional leaving of shells on the grave. This is a direct relation and retention to the idea of the Calunga – the sea of souls.

(Calunga is a Congolese spirit of death and the sea. The word Calunga literally means “sea” but has implications in Congolese cosmology beyond salty watery depths. Calunga also refers to the realm of the ancestors. The realm of death in many African traditions is located beneath the sea. The ocean is associated with fertility, abundance, and death.)

For the most part, Mardi Gras Indians were and are still Native American masking African practices. To be Native American or black was enough of a disadvantage, but it was somewhat better to be Native American.

More to come in part 2.

Sacred Well Ministries

Tag Archives: African Spirituality

New Orleans Voodoo (part Two)

New Orleans Voodoo (part 1)