Cultural Resources

Mardi Gras in Contemporary African American Culture
African Americans are heirs to a rich Mardi Gras and Lundi Gras heritage. Mobile’s African America Mardi Gras societies include The Order of the Doves, which was founded in 1894; The Infant Mystics, the second oldest society that continues to parade and which introduced electric floats in 1929; and The Colored Carnival Association, which was founded and held its first parade in 1939 and later changed its name to the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association. New Orleans’s first African American Mardi Gras secret society, The Original Illinois Club, was founded in 1896. One of the Crescent City’s latest African American Mardi Gras societies is the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, which boasts over five hundred members and has hosted the Lundi Gras Festival for the past sixteen years. This year’s celebration will be held Monday, February 4, 2008. Local and world-renowned entertainers will perform on three stages and a host of food vendors will serve such traditional dishes as “crawfish pie, shrimp Creole, file gumbo, alligator sausage, Jamaican chicken, crawfish bread, barbecue ribs, seafood pasta, catfish po-boys, peach cobbler, pecan pie, and many more New Orleans delicacies.”⁸

Mobile and New Orleans Mardi Gras’ have parades honoring African American royalty. Since 1939, King Elexis I has been chosen by the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association to rule over the festivities of the city’s African American community. According to New Orleans author Jim Davis, “In 1809 [King] Zulu appeared as a parody to Rex [the White King].” The Zulu King held a banana stalk scepter. He arrived on an oyster lugger instead of a steamboat.” This year King Zulu will arrive aboard a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter. Known as “Zulu, the most Wise,” he bequests fun, frivolity and merriment upon his subjects. In 1949, Louis Armstrong was the King Zulu.⁹

II. Prose And Poetic Excerpts

Heaven Bound and In the Rapture, two African American religious dramas, provide a unique cultural look at Jesus’ temptation by the devil as told in Lenten scriptures, Matthew 4:1-11, which begins (v. 1), “Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” And ends (v. 11), “Then the devil leaveth him, and behold angels came and ministered unto him.” (New Revised Standard Version).

In both folk dramas, Satan is a central character. Indeed, much of the action and resulting humor that takes place in these respective works affirms the witty African American proverb: “Old Satan lubs to dodge ‘roun’ ‘mung de crowd at de night meetin’.”¹⁰

Heaven Bound was first performed on February 17, 1930, at the Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Lula B. Jones and Nellie L. Davis, members of the church choir, wrote the play with the hope of raising funds for the church.¹¹

In the Rapture was initially performed during the 1960s in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mrs. Margarine Hatcher, a loving matriarch who was inspired by Shirley Caesar’s recording of In the Rapture, wrote the play.¹² Both dramas portray Satan as a humorous trickster figure, who is always busy trying to tempt or trick a struggling pilgrim to leave the path of righteousness and follow him. Heaven Bound’s devil is dressed in a red suit, complete with horns and a tail. In the Rapture’s devil is dressed in tuxedo pants and a shirt. Both characters carry scepters. Among Heaven Bound’s characters are The Striver, The Hypocrite, The Wayward Girl, and The Christian Soldier. Two central characters in In the Rapture are The Mountain Climber, and The Pilgrim who begins the play dressed in an expensive suit, but is reduced to wearing a raggedy overall suit - with the sign The Devil Made Me Do It.” – pinned to his back. This humorous quality is absent from the Gospel of Matthew’s portrayal of Satan.

Life as a journey is the other major theme dramatized in these plays. The actors and their audiences affirm the truth of this African American proverb, “Dar’s right smart ‘ligion in a plow-handle”¹³ with their words of encouragement to the play’s weary pilgrims who struggle down the church isle to Heaven. In sum, it takes patience, vision and determination to plow successfully. A straight furrow requires going over ruts and rocks that have moved the farmer off line. But, if he remains faithful, he, like The Pilgrim, will receive his heavenly reward because he repented and persevered.

An excellent example of this belief is this slavery prayer, a version of which was quoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he sought to point out the progress that had been made in the Civil Rights Movement:

“Father,
But thank you, Father
I ain’t what I used to be.”¹⁴

III. Traditional Songs

These two African American spirituals embody the traditional religious view of life as an arduous journey filled with pitfalls and temptations.

I Am Bound for the Promised Land
I am bound for the Promised Land,
I am bound for the Promised Land,
O, won’t you rise and go with me,
I am bound for the Promised Land.

When I get to Heaven I’ll set and tell,
I am bound for the Promised Land,
Just how I shun the gates of Hell,
I’m bound for the Promised Land.
O, Christians, Christians be enraged,
I am bound for the Promised Land,
Old Satan in an awful rage,
I’m bound for the Promised Land.¹⁵

Inching Along
Keep a-inching along,
Keep a-inching along;
Jesus will come by and by;
Keep a-inching along
Like a poor inchworm,
Jesus will come by and by.

Twas inch by inch
I sought the Lord;
And inch by inch
He blessed my soul;
The Lord is coming to take us home,

And then our work will soon be done;
Trials and troubles are on the way,
But we must watch and always pray;
We’ll inch and inch along,
And inch and inch till we get home.

Keep a-inching along,
Keep a-inching along;
Jesus will come by and by;
Keep a-inching along,
Like a poor inchworm,
Jesus will come by and by.¹⁶

IV. Possible Program Illustrations

heavenly gates; a plow; a rugged mountain; an inchworm