2. Lagniappe - A little bit more in New Orleans
Travel
BY WAYNE BOWEN Observer writer
Sunday, April 09, 2006
'Lagniappe' (pronounced 'lan-yap') is a word you hear a lot when
you visit the French Quarter of New Orleans in Louisiana, in the
United States.
It means 'a little bit more' or 'something extra'. It's equivalent to the
Jamaican word 'Brawta' and is used the same way. So when you buy
something from a souvenir vendor in New Orleans, if you're lucky he
may throw in a little something extra, just like the vendors in resort
areas sometimes do in Jamaica. It's that little piece of unexpected
'freeness' - like a key-ring or candy - that's the brawta or Lagniappe.
And when you get it, it usually makes your day.
A family takes a buggy tour of the French Quarter
in New Orleans. The ornately balconied buildings
are similar to those found in the French West
Indies.
Just as brawta is a Jamaican patois word, Lagniappe is a French
patois/Creole word. At first it seems slightly odd that they should use
French patois words anywhere in America, but Louisiana and New
Orleans were once part of a vast French colony in the 'New World'.
New Orleans itself was established by the French Canadian naval
officer Jean Baptiste Bienville in 1718 before it was taken over by
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3. A family takes a buggy tour of the French Quarter in New Orleans. The ornately
balconied buildings are similar to those found in the French West Indies

4. Spain and then sold to the US at a price tag of $15 million - a trade
that was dubbed 'the Louisiana Purchase'.
Though today's Louisiana retains elements of French and Spanish
influence, it has also fused elements of African American, native
American and Euro-American cultures. This is reflected in the
language, architecture, food and music which all make the area, and
especially New Orleans's French Quarter, very interesting to visit. It's
a city with a distinctive quirkiness that makes it unique in the US and
is pedestrian-friendly.
Walking the French Quarter is a good way to see the buildings. Some
have internal courtyards that suggest a Spanish influence and others
have wrap-around balconies similar to those found in the French West
Indies.
There's still evidence of Hurricane Katrina's passing and workmen
can be seen here and there repairing buildings, restoring telephones,
electricity and water. Sometimes you'll pass a building that has huge
giant hoses coming out of it to extract moulds which can pose serious
health hazards to people. There still don't seem to be enough workers
in the area to do all the restoration and cleaning work required.
Watermark lines on the house's pillar show how
high flood waters from Hurricane Katrina rose.
Since most residents were evacuated to other parts of the US after the
hurricane passed, there are many vacancies in almost every job sector
waiting to be filled.
Books and maps have several easy-to-do self-guided walking tours of
various kinds which provide historical and architectural insights. One
of the most photographed and intriguing stops is by the 'Cornstalk
Fence Hotel'. It's a Victorian-style building with an intriguing iron
fence decorated with iron corn cobs and leaves that seem to be
growing from the fence.
Located in the heart of the French Quarter, the story behind the fence,
which is more than 100 years old, is somewhat romantic. The house's
original owner is said to have married a girl from the Iowa farming
belt where corn was a major crop. He commissioned the fence and its
painted corn cobs so that his love could sit on the balcony, see the
corn fence every day and be reminded of home. He didn't want her to
suffer from homesickness and run away.

5. 'HURRICA
NE
WATERMA
RKS' -
Watermark
lines on the
house's
pillar show
how high
flood
waters
reached. In
this part of
New
Orleans the
water was
at least 5
feet
deep.
‘HURRICANE WATERMARKS’ -
Watermarks on this house’s pillar, indicate
flood waters at least 5 feet deep.

6. The Cornstalk Fence Hotel’s moulded
fence makes it one of the French
Quarter’s most photographed.

7. The Cornstalk Fence Hotel also has some literary history associated
with it. It was home to the Judge Francois Xavier-Martin, first Chief
Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. He lived here in the 1800s
and later wrote the first history of Louisiana.
It was also where Harriet Beecher Stowe is said to have stopped and
may even have written parts of her ground-breaking anti-slavery
novel, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. It is believed that some of her inspiration
for the novel came from being in New Orleans and witnessing
slavery's brutality first-hand.
Prior to the passage of Katrina, New Orleans was one of the top 10
locations for filming in the US. Currently, producer Jerry
Bruckheimer is filming Déjà vu - a movie starring Denzel Washington
at locations around the city. It's the first Hollywood film to be shot in
the city since the hurricane. Given its charming appeal and nearby
bays, the city has been used as the setting for several films and
continues to inspire creative artists of all types.
Lying on the banks of the great Mississippi river, New Orleans is also
the birthplace of modern-day best-selling novelist Ann Rice, whose
scary vampire tales have also been turned into dramatic films. Some
of the haunted house and voodoo tours of the city mention Rice and
her work.
They also give chillingly interesting accounts of the famous voodoo
priestesses said to have lived in the area. Perhaps some of the voodoo
practices were brought to New Orleans by Haitian refugees of long
ago and handed down to their descendants who maintain the religious
rites to this day. All around are signs and invitations to buy voodoo
trinkets or visit voodoo ministers.
The James Bond movie Live and Let Die starring Roger Moore
played on the voodoo theme, pitting the secret agent against voodoo
workers from New Orleans. Somehow managing to avoid being
turned into a zombie by them, Bond trails them to New Orleans
where he witnesses one of the colourful jazz funerals that the city is
famous for.
These are lively affairs that involve processions of dancing 'mourners'
celebrating to the accompaniment of an uptempo marching jazz band.
Music is everywhere in this town, with street musicians being a
regular sight. They play individually and in groups and usually have a
bucket to collect money from passers-by and those who stop to listen.
This is the birthplace of jazz, and greats like Jelly Roll Morton and
Louis Armstrong were born here and are celebrated in museums and
place names. New Orleans is also a stomping ground for the Neville
Brothers whose Louisiana Cajun sound was one of the first to break
nationally for Cajun performers.
It's been said that many of Jamaica's music pioneers were brought up
on the music of jazz wafting across the radio waves. This music
inspired some Jamaican musicians to produce the world-famous ska,
rock-steady and reggae beats that the island is now renowned for.
The cross-fertilisation of music continues with Jamaican dancehall

8. artistes still being inspired by US R&B music. Some musicologists
credit early deejay music as leading to the development of today's
Hip-Hop culture and Gangsta-Rap in the USA.
And while many are decrying Jamaican dancehall's negativity and
supposed lack of creativity, the music is popular worldwide and has
even spawned a new world music - 'Reggaton', which is essentially
Spanish language dancehall. This new phenomenon is starting to be a
force on music charts internationally and may even be more of a sales
giant than the Jamaican music that spawned it.
Even if you're tone-deaf, there is one delight that you'll probably love
in New Orleans and that's the food. It's musical in its subtleties and
ranges from Creole gumbos, New Orleans nouveau styles to Cajun
cuisine. It's a bit confusing to explain, but if you like food there is a
wide variety to delight you no matter what it's called.
New Orleans is a sweet, eye-opening cultural mix that will fascinate
and remind one of the West Indies time after time. Many of the
people look like Caribbean people and they even have a carnival-like
festival every year called Mardi Gras where the colourful costumes
sometimes rival Trinidad's most spectacular bands.
This year's Mardi Gras celebrations, though much smaller than many
of the recent ones, actually marked the 150th anniversary of the
activity in Louisiana. It's been going on for a while. Plenty of things
in New Orleans have been. It's home to the oldest apartment complex
and the oldest continuously running street-car service in the USA.
This is America, but with a difference.
Lots of discoveries to be made at every turn. The city of New Orleans
has even been twinned with Jamaica's Montego Bay and there are
plans for annual cultural exchanges and business co-operations. There
is no reason why both Kingston and Montego Bay couldn't be cultural
and architectural marvels as well. Great interactive websites advertise
the city's offerings. Enthusiastic vendors and guides help you without
harassing you.
The French Quarter is largely back to 'normal', but many outlying
areas of the Louisiana state are yet to be cleaned and may never be
rebuilt. In those areas one can still see the watermarks on buildings
indicating just how high the flood waters of Katrina rose. This was
water often deep enough to cover a car.
There's even a statue erected in New Orleans honouring Jean Baptiste
Bienville as the 'father of Louisiana'. Built 200 years after his death,
it's possible that he might find today's cultural mix in the area as
interesting as most visitors do.
New Orleans may not be the same as it used to be before Katrina, but
it's still an exciting place to visit - at least in the main tourist district
of the French Quarter. And you'll always keep coming back for the
Lagniappe - that little bit more that makes New Orleans unique.
wayneerrolbowen@hotmail.com

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