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.Baron Samdi s performance signals a linkage between sexuality andlife energy 105 in the spiritual philosophy of the religion.According toKaren McCarthy Brown, the rituals of Vodou a empt to heat thingsup to raise luck, to raise life energy, to intensify sexuality. 106 Theperformances of Gede and the skeleton gangs at jazz funerals bring tothe community an extra, intense dose of the power needed to conquerlife, to use it and enjoy it, rather than be conquered by it. 107The Skeleton Gangs: Intro e ion into theMy eries of Life, Death, and the Ance orsThese fragmentary remains stood for the dismembered bodiesdiscarded on the ocean s floor the residue, the collateral damage from the trade between three continents: Africa, the Americas,and Europe.The depth of the ocean is still the domain of Olokun, aYoruba deity transmogrified by some in the Americas as the patron 120 · Ja z z R e l i g i o n, t h e S e c o n d L i n e , a n d B l a c k N e w O r l e a n ssaint of the black race.The bones were laid thick; they made a bri lecarpet upon which slave ships glided and memories derailed.Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Fragments of BoneThe skeleton gangs, also called the bone men, are an important mani-festation of the Gede in New Orleanian funeral processions and Carni-val.Their performances in jazz funerals bring to the surface a connec-tion between 108 life, death, and the ancestors that is a central theme inCongo Square religion and music.I talked to a member of the skeletongang outside St.Augustine s Church on the day of Chief Montana s fu-neral.He wore a large white skull-shaped mask with scary black eyes, ablack nose, and large black and white teeth.He said:We are the oldest Indian gang.The skeleton gang goes back to the nine-teenth century.We want to scare you and teach you that you never knowwhen you re gonna go.Death can come at any time, so you be er make thebest of the life you have.109Some members of the skeleton groups involved in Carnival and fu-nerals also wear a body- length black costume on which the skeleton swhite bones are painted, as well as a black apron depicting a white casketand a white cross on top of a cemetery headstone.According to BruceBarnes:You see almost the exact same costume in terms of skeleton gang here inNew Orleans and.in Haiti.Gede is a part of the spiritual pantheonof Haiti which was brought to New Orleans and incorporated into localVodou beliefs.Gede is associated with death, the skeleton itself, and fer-tility.110One member of the skeleton gang emphasized the aspect of Gede s healing arts that focus on children: We go after kids.to stress tothem a point about going to school. Are you going to school; are you be-ing good? If not I m gonna see you tonight. We put fright into them toremind them of what they are supposed to be about. 111However, according to the above second-line participant, the mostsignificant aspect of the skeleton s relationship to Gede is to remindus to enjoy life while we can.You next! That s the main word.You arenext! 112 In the final section of this chapter, introspection into the mys- In Rhythm with the Spirit · 121teries of life, death, and the ancestors culminates in St.Louis Cemetery#2 and in the second line from the graveyard that expresses the commu-nal love, healing, resistance, and life energy of Congo Square music andreligion.St.Louis Cemetery #2, City of the Dead:Crossroads for Congo Square Music and ReligionGo into the tombed cities along basin, canal boulevard,valence and esplanade.to honor the dead.live amongyour dead, whom you have every right to love.Brenda Marie Osbey, Peculiar Fascination withthe Dead, in All Saints: New and Selected PoemsNew Orleans arguably has the most extensive above-ground tombs,crypts, and cemeteries in the United States because of its African-Latinheritage and the geology of the city, which is built below sea level andprone to floods.New Orleanians call their cemeteries cities of the dead, an expression suggesting their significance as places where the ances-tors live and as crossroads for the African diasporic funeral rituals of theliving.113 Here all the healing fragments of Congo Square music and re-ligion come together in a final second line for a beloved member of thecommunity.In Haiti the cemetery is the home of the Gede and also acrossroads for important Vodou rituals, as the Kwa Baron (the cross ofBaron Samdi) is located there.The most important urban cemetery inPort-au-Prince is a city of the dead owned by the government.Accord-ing to Karen McCarthy Brown, it is not a point of acess to the mostpowerful of one s own family dead; instead it is the main shrine for Gede,representative of all the dead
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