There are too many Mudcat threads of this subject to keep track of.

A month or two ago I responded to a similar thread ~ one NOT among the "Related Threads" listed above ~ after reading an interesting article on this topic which was published in Offbeat magazine. The writer had some intriguing things to say after visiting West Africa and hearing some very familiar singing.

I wanted to post a link to the piece, but the magazine's website hides many articles (including this one) from the public and makes them accessible only to registered paid-up subscribers. The magazine is distributed free of charge in New Orleans, so local folks like me have no reason (except for philanthropy) to subscribe. So ~ no way to link to the published text.

Best I could do was to scan the page (it was a one-full-page article) and email it to Azizi. Maybe there's some way to get it out to all the rest of y'all in general, like perhaps via the Mudcat group-page at Facebook.

I found the author's theories regarding African origins to be quite plausible ~ in large part because he also showed an basic understanding of Mardi Gras Indian culture. The song/chant IS, after all, part of that culture. I can't take seriously those theorists who advance their guesses without such knowledge. For example, anyone who would transcribe a given lyric as "my fat boy told your fat boy" is betraying their ignorance of the most basic Mardi Gras Indian lore ~ it's flag boy!