PORTFOLIO | CAJUN COUNTRY

PORTFOLIO

BY MICKE LUNDSTRÖM

WEB: MICKELUNDSTROM.COM | INSTAGRAM: FOTO_LUNDSTROM

The Cajun Soul

It was the music that captivated me and which for 30 years ago, had me travelling to Louisiana. That painfully beautiful Cajun sound had, in some way, creeped deep into my soul.

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY MICKE LUNDSTRÖM

It’s the French area west of New Orleans which is where Cajun calls home. Here in the Mississippi River’s bayou, French culture has survived in parallel alongside English, where both languages are still spoken.

The French here is a variation on the language which was spoken in the 1700’s, and not even someone from France would understand it today. You can, in the more isolated backwaters of the bayou, still find folks who speak only Cajun. The Cajuns came originally from Acadiana in northeast Canada. In the end of the 1700’s, the English drove them out, because they defied to submit their loyalty to the crown. After 20 years in exile, wandering through the wilds, the Cajuns made it to Louisiana, making their homes on the prairie and in the bayou. Here they lived essentially in isolation, up until the Second World War, when the army came in to find soldiers.

A UNIQUE CULTURE The combinations of historical isolation, proximity to native peoples, and French heritage has created a distinct lifestyle. Today, the Cajun kitchen is world renowned, known for its crawfish, jambalaya, and gumbo.

The black sheep of Cajun music, zydeco, has influenced heaps of artists, and can be heard in its original form on stages in most of Europe’s big cities. For all its cultural riches, this area is historically economically impoverished. Many of the buildings in the villages are mobile homes, trailers, and trashed asbestos insulated homes. The roads are derelict, with floodings and bad weather a constant drain on the inhabitants. Despite all of this, there is a carefree air here. When a storm comes rolling in, the doors and windows open, and the neighbors are invited over for the drink of the same name, The Hurricane.

Eating, drinking, dancing, and hanging out are central to Cajun culture. A strong memory I have was when I was invited to a crawfish broil, complete with beer and dancing, at the home of those who owned the motel I was staying at. We were six adults, and they cooked up 130 pounds of crawfish.

DANCE, DRINK, AND THEN DANCE AGAIN After a hard week fishing, ploughing fields, or drilling for oil, people unwind by partying at the dance halls around here. The dancing kicks off on Friday night, going late into Saturday morning. Those who can’t afford to buy a beer are offered a glass to pour the drinks they brought with them in. When the dancing ceases at one dance hall, the party moves on to the next, all with live cajun or zydeco music.

WARMTH AND EMPATHY These pictures were taken nearly 30 years ago, and back then literacy rates were 20%. Many I met had married very young, at 15 years old. Education was basic, and the only safety nets were friends and family. Despite hardships, there was a generosity unlike anywhere else, a warmth and empathy that prevailed all the time.

I remember calling over to a family that I was meant to interview, explaining to them I had to cancel because I came down with a stomach flu. Within 30 minutes they had driven all the way over from Basil to my motel in Opelousas to pick me up, take me to their home, and nurse me back to health. A spartan home, I heard two hens getting butchered in the backyard. They cooked me a meal to help with my bad stomach bug.

The vision I had when taking these photos* was to capture the feeling that was found in the music, that something that harmonized and resonated so deeply within me, to see it in these people and where they lived. I haven’t been back since, but my oldest son was there a few years ago. He said not much had changed. Poverty remains, but there are fewer and fewer dance halls. The southern tracts along the Gulf are being evacuated due to rising sea levels. Fred’s Lounge in Mamou is still there. If you are ever in the area, be sure to swing by on a Saturday morning around 8:00AM. It's then the live radio show starts; live bands playing, live radio advertisements right from the newspapers, people dancing, people drinking. The celebration of surviving the long march from Canada down to the bayous lives on in Cajun country.

*All pictures were taken with a Leica M2 35 mm with Tri-x film.