He’s a tall man who dresses in African garments, as does his wife, Na’imah, who glows when she smiles. They have a lot to smile about. They are opening the Golden Feather Mardi Gras Indian Restaurant Gallery, a much-needed resource for the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian community. It’s also a place where visitors can steep themselves in the history and traditions of the Indians, and actually take h
ome a piece, or even a whole suit, of Mardi Gras Indian costume art, and also enjoy some African home-cooking. It’s located at 704 Rampart, directly across the street from Congo Square, which is significant because without Congo Square there would be no jazz, no rock n‘ roll, and quite possibly no Mardi Gras Indian music. Historically speaking, New Orleans was the only place where slaves were allowed to own drums. Congo Square is where the slaves gathered on Sundays to make their drums talk and to dance their powerful rituals. No where else in the New World did they have this freedom. Eventually, European horns ran into the African drums, and American music was born. As Shaka says, “New Orleans is where it all came together. I can hear, at the heart of all music, the Mardi Gras Indian drumbeat.”
Not only will Shaka tell his guests about all this, but he’ll break out an authentic Junjun drum, which is the kind of drum it all started with, and play it. Or maybe he’ll come out of the kitchen during supper, playing a tambourine, which is the instrument that ancient Africans used to bring on a trance. And if that doesn’t put you in a trance, then Na’imah’s food will. Some of her specialties include the Big Chief, which features stewed fish, okra, onions, tomatoes and African seasonings over brown rice. Also there’s the Hu-Tah-Nay in which she butterflies jumbo Gulf shrimp and stuffs them with crabmeat, onions, garlic and Afican seasonings. Shaka and Na’imah are passionate about fostering among people the appreciation and understanding of the culture and art of Africa, the Caribbean and Haiti. Besides informal story-telling in the African Griot style, Shaka will give lectures at 704 Rampart on the origins of the Mardi Gras Indians. He’ll tell how, when New Orleans slaves escaped from bo***ge, they were taken in and given refuge by the local native nations, such as the Houma, the Plains and the Caddo Indians. These self-sustaining native tribes were called “maroons” by the slaves, and so was the surrounding area where the escaped slaves could set up their own self-sustaining community. It’s to pay homage and respect to these native tribes for extending such a great kindness that the Mardi Gras Indians were created.
“It’s in the beading,” Shaka says. It’s in the painstaking, year-long process of putting one bead on at a time that you take on the spirit of the Indian suit you are creating, as in the gorgeous, red-feathered, nine and a half foot high suit that Shaka created, and that now dominates the Gallery. “That’s the spirit of Shango, the Guardian of Thunder and Lightening,” he says. To see the suit, you would believe it. For The Tribes
“You have to go to six or seven stores in New Orleans to find everything you need for your suit,” says Shaka. “And then, you still may have to order from New York,” says Na’imah, “and the shipment may be late.”
Besides the Mardi Gras Indian art gallery and the restaurant, 704 Rampart will give the Indian tribes what they’ve always needed-one central location where they can get everything they need to create their suits. “We want to be accessible to the Indians. We know how they work. If they run out of something in the middle of the night, they can call us up, and we’ll be there for them,” says Na’imah. “If somebody needs some feathers, but they don’t have the money, that’s alright. They can have the feathers and pay me later,” says Shaka.
