Events
Colloquium | The Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans: an Afro-Iberian tradition?
December 12th, 2019 | 18:00-20:00 | Lisbon | Campolide Campus | Colégio Almada Negreiros | Auditorium A14
Jeoren Dewulf | University of California Berkeley
This talk presents a new theory about the origins of one of the most enigmatic African-American traditions, that of the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans. In this American tradition, groups of blacks dressed as Indians perform a series of martial dances whose significance and origin were unknown. In this lecture, Professor Jeroen Dewulf (UC Berkeley) argues that it is a tradition of Afro-Iberian origin.
Jeroen Dewulf is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is director of the Institute for European Studies. In the past, he taught at the University of Porto and the University of São Paulo. His most recent publications are: Jeroen Dewulf (2017), From the Kingdom of Kongo to Kongo Square: Kongo Dances and the Origins of the Mardi Gras Indians (2017) and The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo: The Forgotten History of America's Dutch-Owned Slaves (2016).
