Banjos in Congo Square

Banjos in Congo Square

Going back to the reading, A Window on Slave Culture: Dances at Congo Square, New Orleans, 1800-1862, I was fascinated by the description of the ceremony witnessed first hand by Benjamin Latrobe. At one point he mentions one of the stringed instruments played by an elderly man, the body of which, as he describes, was made out of a calabash. The details Latrobe gives about this instrument and even more provided by a later spectator sounds like an ancestor to the modern american banjo. After searching the web for terms such as calabash banjo, I found images of an instrument that fit Latrobe's description quite perfectly. To the left is one of the images I found on this website. Interestingly enough, the website indicates that the African calabash banjo, or banjar, survived in the new world because it escaped the ban on drums as it was a stringed instrument. Today the modern banjo is a common site in New Orleans and is found in the genres originated by the early gathering at Congo Square, including jazz.