s on "Super Sunday". Experts generally agree that Mardi Gras Indian culture is a combination of African, Caribbean, Indigenous, and European influences, which underwent a process of
creolization and
syncretism in New Orleans. For instance, the beadwork, drumbeats, and aprons worn by Mardi Gras Indians resembles the cultures of West and Central Africa. For enslaved and free Africans in the Americas, this included singing, dancing, drumming, and wearing
masks and costumes at carnival. In New Orleans early history, African culture resembled the all-male West African secret masquerade societies practiced among the
Igbo and
Yoruba. As Black people continued to practice their traditional cultures, they also incorporated Native American and Caribbean elements, in turn creating the diverse Black masking carnival traditions in the diaspora and in New Orleans. Scholars Fehintola Mosadomi and Joyce M. Jackson noted similar ceremonial practices of the Yoruba
Egungun and Mardi Gras Indians—both are performed in the streets with music and folk rituals, have elaborate colorful costumes, and are male-dominated. Masking Indian culture is a rite of passage for Black men and provides manhood and comrade training. Women's role in the tradition was, historically, as embellishment, but over the years, women began to participate too. Black people in the
African diaspora have traditionally used
masquerade carnivals to protest oppression. Black carnivals provide a space for Africans Americans to unite, free from exploitation by white Americans. Mardi Gras Indian culture is a form of Black creative resistance to the white supremacy of colonialism and represents a rejection of white carnival norms.
Language Mardi Gras Indians today have their own secret coded symbols, songs and language only initiates within the community know. In the 19th century, Creole dialects developed differently within each neighborhood because of the diversity of Native languages spoken, each having its own syntax and phonetics. This contributed to a diversity of coded dialects sung by Black masking Indians.
Music Mardi Gras Indian music and dance is informed by the Black New Orleanian experience. On Sundays, enslaved African people gathered to sing folk songs, play traditional music, and dance. The lively parties were recounted by a Northern observer as being "indescribable... Never will you see gayer countenances, demonstrations of more forgetfulness of the past and the future, and more entire abandonment to the joyous existence of the present moment." n culture and the way of dressing. According to historian
Jeroen Dewulf,
Kongolese Central African dress and music influenced by the Mardi Gras Indians. The music of Mardi Gras Indians played at Congo square contributed to the creation of
jazz. Some Mardi Gras Indian music is derived from African
polyrhythms and syncopated beats combined with Native and Creole languages, and French and European musical influences. These Africans rhythms, such as the
Bamboula, have been continued to this day. The traditional New Orleans Black masking Indian song
Iko Iko, which emerged around this time, is believed to derive from a combination of the Native American
Choctaw and
Chickasaw languages,
Louisiana Creole,
French, and
West African languages. Black Masking Indian parades typically have a "
second line" of street performers and revelers with brass instruments and drums. These second line brass bands often attend local
jazz funerals to play for the funeral procession. Historian Richard Brent Turner says that Central African cultures from
Bakongo peoples,
Haitian carnivals, and
African-American culture which blended at Congo Square are expressed in the Mardi Gras Indians' regalia and music. Mardi Gras Indian musicians include the funk band
Cha Wa, singer and "Big Chief"
Monk Boudreau, and
The Wild Tchoupitoulas.
Spirituality beliefs and rituals are intertwined with Black Mardi Gras
masking traditions. Mardi Gras Indians often form
second lines for jazz funerals in Black neighborhoods, marching behind the coffin and mourners. The music is typically somber when they head to church, but becomes celebratory when leaving the church. These funerals feature African customs such as intense drumming, dancing, and
call-and-response. Similar funeral processions are seen in West African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Brazilian communities. Mardi Gras Indians also perform healing rituals during their street performances to unite and heal communities. Calinda (or Kalinda) developed in the Caribbean, and was brought to New Orleans by enslaved people from
San Domingo and the
Antilles. In New Orleans, Calinda became "the dance of Congo Square",
Spiritual church movement Mardi Gras Indians attend Spiritual churches because of a shared interest in the history of Native American resistance and
spirit possession. In New Orleans, the Spiritual church movement was influenced by
Louisiana Voodoo,
folk Catholicism,
Protestantism,
Spiritualism,
Bakongo and
Nkisi culture, and other
African diaspora religions such as
Espiritismo and
Palo Mayombe. Native American images were incorporated into the practices of New Orleans Spiritual churches as early as 1852. After
Leafy Anderson moved to New Orleans in 1920, many Spiritual churches introduced traditions associated with Mardi Gras Indians, including
summoning the spirits of Native American resistance leaders such as
Black Hawk, White Eagle,
Red Cloud, and White Hawk. Anderson wore a Native American chief's mantle during her services to call the spirit of Black Hawk, her favorite
spirit guide, who today symbolizes protest and empowerment for the marginalized women in the churches. This summoning tradition continued into the late 20th century. In the 1980s, James Anderson wore the suit of deceased tribal member Big Chief Jolley to a Black Hawk ceremony at Infant Jesus of Prague Spiritual Church. Many Spiritual churches have altars to Indigenous figures, Catholic saints, ancestors,
Archangel Michael, and other spirits. In one Spiritual church, a three-foot-high Indian statue is decorated with a Mardi Gras Indian headdress and bead patches.
African diasporan influences . Caribbean carnival and spirituality influenced by Mardi Gras Indian culture. Scholars have noted the similar musical, dance, and regalia practices of Black people across the
African diaspora. The arrival of Haitian slaves during the
Haitian Revolution and
Dominican slaves in 1809 assimilated more Africans into the culture of Black Americans of New Orleans. Many of those Africans had Yoruba ancestry. The masquerade culture of
Egungun has syncretized elements of the culture of New Orleans created by enslaved and Black communities. Historian
Jeroen Dewulf describes similar masking traditions—where Black people dress as Indigenous people—in Cuba, Peru,
Trinidad, and Brazil. Feathered headdresses are worn in the
Americas and by
Kongo people in Central Africa. In African and Native American cultures, feathers have a spiritual meaning; they elevate the wearer's spirit and connect them to the spirit realm. Kongo people wear feathered headdresses in ceremonies and festivals; they are worn by African chiefs and dancers; and feathers are placed on
Traditional African masks to bring in good medicine. These practices continued in the Americas. The designs of African headdresses blended with headdresses worn by Indigenous people, creating unique styles across the diaspora. Mardi Gras Indian performances tell a story about their ancestors escaping slavery on the
Underground Railroad. Author Natalie Medea describes the Young Seminole Hunters, a tribe which sculpts elaborate suits to honor the roles the
Seminole people had in liberating enslaved Black people. •
Second Line Parades - New Orleans and Cuba •
Ruberos groups – Cuba • Escolas de Samba, Capoeira – Brazil •
Maracatu parades- Brazil •
Rara festival – Haiti • 19th Century Jametta Carnival – Trinidad •
Trinidad and Tobago Carnival •
Jokonnu – West Indies • Sociedad de las Congas –
Panama •
French Guiana • L'agya –
Martinique Author Raphael Njoku says: "While masquerading is reminiscent of the communal sociopolitical structures in precolonial Africa, the African Diaspora masked carnivals challenged the political powers and interests of the dominant White elite." Mardi Gras Indian Albert Lambreaux describes transforming into "Big Chief" when he wears his suit. As Big Chief he becomes an authority in the community. This change of identity only occurs during Mardi Gras when Black maskers wear their regalia. While the African tradition is a male right of passage, as were the masquerade traditions in West and Central Africa, in New Orleans, many Black women partake in this tradition of masking as well.
War dances ceremony in
Benin. Scholars suggest the regalia (suits) of Mardi Gras Indians have influenced West African ceremonial cultures. In
Haiti and
Trinidad, Calinda was a form of stick fighting and was performed during carnivals by the enslaved. In New Orleans, it became a voodoo dance and "the dance of Congo Square". and
bamboula, an African derived dance, that were performed at
Congo Square by free and enslaved people. The performances of Mardi Gras Indians also display influences from mock-war in Native American culture. Also there are mock-war performances in Africa by warriors called
sangamento from the
Kingdom of Kongo. The word is derived from a verb in the
Kikongo language,
ku-sanga, denoting ecstatic dancers. In Portuguese ku-sanga became sangamento.
Kongo people in
Central Africa performed dances decorated in African feather headdresses and wore belts with jingle bells. Sangamento performers dance using leaps, contortions, and gyrations. similar to the bell styles of Mardi Gras Indians who use tambourines. During the
transatlantic slave trade, Bantu people were enslaved in the
Americas. Sangamentos were a brotherhood of men with a semi-underground culture that resembles the Mardi Gras Indian tradition at Congo Square.
Indigenous cultural influences Masking Indians honor the assistance given their ancestors by incorporating American Indian symbols into their carnivals. Native American resistance is also a key theme in Mardi Gras Indian performances. Black Mardi Gras Indians tell these stories of Black–Indigenous solidarity through their regalia. Scholars have found reports of Native American motifs on costumes and in parades in New Orleans since the 18th century, though Mardi Gras Indians began to incorporate more imagery from African cultures and African diaspora religions into their regalia from the 1960s. In 1729, 280 enslaved Africans joined the Natchez to resist the French in the
Natchez revolt. During these contacts, Black people adopted elements of local Native culture and blended it with their own West African and Afro-Caribbean traditions. The Chitimacha were the first to make a public musical procession in New Orleans called Marche du Calumet de Paix; this practice was likely inspired similar processions by Black New Orleanians, who gathered at Congo Square. Accounts describe Black gangs dressed as "Native American militia" as early as 1836. From 1884 to 1885, ''
Buffalo Bill's Wild West'' show wintered in New Orleans, and had a multicultural cast and crew of Black, Chinese, Mexican, European and Indigenous people. Some scholars suggest the show may have been an indirect influence on the Mardi Gras Indians. The use of some Native American motifs, such as in the names for tribes or gangs, has begun to decline among some Mardi Gras Indians; Andrew Pearse suggests the origins of "Indian Red" comes from a carnival song in
Trinidad, "Indurubi", which may have come from the Spanish
Indio Rubi ("Indian Red"). ==Suits==