The word "Jomo" -- also spelled and pronounced Jomoo, Joomoo, Joe Mow,
Joe Moore -- occurs in
African American
conjure and hoodoo
practice fairly rarely, and folks sometimes ask what it means,
so this is an attempt at an answer. It is by
no means definitive, but will cover the territory of what we know about this
word by reference to historical documents.
The most common assumption about the word jomo is that it is simply an inversion of the better known hoodoo term mojo, meaning a charm bag. However, there is a regionality and an age to the word jomo that suggests that it is more than merely another way to say mojo.
First, let us look at what the African American word jomo is NOT:
When i first heard the world jomo used to describe a mojo bag or magical charm of some sort, i was reminded of Jomo Kenyatta, the African political hero, but research quickly proved this sound-alike conjecture to be spurious. Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau wa Ngengi in 1889 and was later christened John Peter Kamau. He took the Swahili pseudonym Jomo Kenyatta ("Light of Kenya") during his days as a guerilla fighter and independence leader.
Kenya is in Eastern Africa, with a coast line on the Indian Ocean, making Swahili a very unlikely language from which the African American word jomo might derive, since most of the slaves transported to the United States were from Central Africa. There are hundreds of languages in Africa, so playing the matching game on a word-by-word basis is futile: Jomo never means "light" in hoodoo usage, and in Swahili, the number "one" is "moja" -- but that is not the origin of the American conjure word "mojo," either, so combing Swahili lexicons for words related to conjure is generally a waste of time.
The next thing that comes to mind with the word "jomo" is that it is a syllabic inversion of the far commoner word "mojo." This is the explanation of it that is given in the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE).
Because most of the African words that are included in English derive from Bantu languages, it is logical to assume that if jomo is not an inversion of mojo (which current thinking ascribes to the Bantu word mooyo or moyoo, meaning "spirit"), then we should be able to locate a Bantu analogue for it -- but so far, this has not been the case. Thus DARE and other lexicographical sources state that jomo is an inversion of mojo.
The syllabic inversion theory has led several people to claim that jomo is a "cover" or secret way of saying "mojo" so as to not arouse suspicions of performing witchcraft. However, this makes no sense: White people in America generally have no idea what a mojo is, so trying to hide one unknown word by using another unknown word is pointless, while Black people are already familiar with the word "jomo," as i will demonstrate below, thus obviating its efficacy as a cover for the word "mojo."
However, even if jomo is simply an inversion of the word mojo, it has evolved meanings beyond those given to the mojo, which is a charm bag that is folded, wrapped, tied, and carried on the person or secreted in a location about the home. As will be seen below, the word jomo also has a meaning that mojo never has, namely the general range of works covered elsewhere by terms such as hoodoo, conjure, rootwork, root doctoring, or foot track magic.
The word jomo appears in several rural acoustic blues song lyrics, recorded during the early 20th century, as well as in a couple of books of 20th century folklore. The birthplaces and dwelling places of the folklorists' subjects and those who sang on the musical recordings (which, incidentally, are far less common than rural acoustic blues that mention mojos) may provide a clue as to the distribution of the word.
The earliest blues lyrics that mention a jomo (and also, incidentally reference a black cat bone) are in "Jim Tampa Blues," recorded in Chicago in 1927 by Lucille Bogan, with spoken parts by Papa Charlie Jackson.
The singer, Lucille Bogan, is narrating the first-person tale of a prostitute and her pimp, Jim Long, whose nicknames are "Jim Tampa" and "Mister Tampa Long." The story unfolds from the prostitute's point of view as the narrator complains that no matter how badly Jim Tampa treats her, she can't leave him, due to the magical hold he has over her. Here is verse 4, in which the jomo is mentioned:
It must be a black cat bone, jomo can't work that hard (spoken) Oh, what is a jomo anyhow? Tell me. It must be a black cat bone, jomo can't work that hard (spoken) What kind of a thing is it? Every time I wake up, Jim Tampa's in my yard.
The black cat bone is well known as a charm to force a lover to return, and this is what the woman thinks is being used on her, because, as she implies, although a jomo is a magical charm, it is not one that is specifically used to force a lover to return, after the manner of a black cat bone.
Lucille Bogan, whose maiden name was Lucille Anderson, was born in Amory, Monroe County, Mississippi, on April 1st, 1897. Sometime before 1916 she relocated to Birmingham, Alabama, and married. Like many Black performing artists of the time, once she was under contract as a singer, she travelled by train to her recording sessions, which, in her case, were in New York City (1923), Atlanta (1923), and Chicago (1927 - 1932). After an extended stay in Chicago, she returned to Birmingham in 1934 and then again recorded in New York City (1933 - 1935). She moved to Los Angeles in 1948 and died there of heart disease the same year.
Despite her birth in Mississippi, one could call Bogan an Alabama singer, and she does mention Birmingham in her lyrics -- but her various songs also reference the states of Oklahoma, Texas, and Georgia.
The name "Jim Tampa" would seem on the face of it to indicate the city of Tampa, Florida, but the allusion may be a sexual metaphor by way of the popular Hav-A-Tampa Jewels brand of cigars. "Jewels" is ancient slang for testicles, the long, dark brown cigars resemble the penis of an African American man, and the trademark of Hav-A-Tampa Jewels, dating back to 1902, is a bare-armed "loose" woman in seductive, exotic clothing. Thus "Jim Tampa" and "Mister Tampa Long" appear to be the prostitute-narrator's rather clever nicknames for her pimp, Mister Jim "Tampa" Long, who may or may not have hailed from Tampa, Florida.
Bogan's co-lyricist on "Jim Tampa Blues" is Papa Charlie Jackson, who was born in 1885 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and died in 1938 in Chicago -- but note that in the song he is asking her what the word jomo means, as if he does not know. This is may be nothing more than rhetorical device, but it also does point to the rarity of the word, even in the African American vocabulary of hoodoo, and it is certainly not common in lyrics of this sort for one Black singer to ask another Black singer the meaning of a piece of Black slang.
A song titled "Jomo Man Blues," was recorded by Waymon "Sloppy" Henry in 1929. We have no birthplace or other biographical information on Henry, but we do know that he recorded all his songs in Atlanta, Georgia in 1928 and 1929. He hung out with guitarist Peg Leg Howell and fiddler Eddie Anthony in Atlanta, but little else is known about him.
Due to the nature of Waymon Henry's repertoire -- he made as many recordings of rags as blues -- and the one known picture of him, in which he is wearing a silk top hat -- printed in a 1925 ad in the Chicago Defender newspaper (a national paper, so not indicative of his place of residence) -- it is thought that he must have been a minstrel, medicine show, or vaudeville performer. He is known for his amazing lyrics, some of which may be original compositions, and for his strong vocal delivery, rather than his musicianship, and, in fact, because the musicians on his pieces seem to vary from session to session, some believe that Henry was a stage performer who played with pick-up bands when recording. This may help explain why so few of his blues contemporaries could tell later researchers much about him.
Because this song references the word jomo in four out of its five verses, it is worth quoting here in full, from the "Jomo Man Blues" web page, with transcription by catherine and nagasiva yronwode:
JOMO MAN BLUES
by Waymon "Sloppy" HenryJomo wrecked my home one morning, made my woman move Jomo man wrecked my home one morning, made my woman move Got me so worried and bothered that i don't know what to do
Jomo man, jomo man, don't do me this a way Jomo man, jomo man, don't do me this a way Look here, jomo man, jomo man, please don't do me this a way
Engineer blowed his whistle, fireman toned the bell Gal i'm loving crying, "Don't leave me here" Jomo man wrecked my home one morning, baby, honey now i must go If times don't get no better, you won't see me here no more
Eh, told yez, mama, done all i could do All i could do and look here, my honey, Done all that i could do Look like you're a woman that i'm loving, can't get along with you
Eh, you toted your lodestone, John the Conquer too Sprinkl'd your goofer dust, made my woman move Jomo man, jomo man, you done broke up my home Aw, got me here, sure making me weep and moan.
In our attempt to determine the regional distribution of the word jomo in the early 20th century, let us sift through any clues to Henry's place of origin that can be found in his song lyrics, pronunciation, and dialect phrasing.
So, as far as i can determine, although Sloppy Henry recorded in Georgia and may have lived there all his life, he used the Irish / Black sailor's dialect that is also found from New Orleans through Mississippi to Tennessee, he sang a floating verse also recorded by a Memphis, Tennessee, band, and he used a locution found in the works of a Mississippi singer-composer. However, as will be seen below, the word jomo is quite closely associated with three states -- Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida -- and since Henry worked and recorded in Georgia, it is likely that he was raised there as well.
- We know that all of his 16 songs were recorded in Atlanta, Georgia.
- In 1928, he recorded a song called "Royal Palm Special Blues," the title of which refers to the Royal Palm passenger train service that ran on the Southern Railroad line from Cincinatti, Ohio, through Atlanta, Georgia, to Jacksonville and Miami, Florida.
- He is notable for having recorded a far-out rag-type song called "Say I Do It" which takes as its topic the travails of a Baltimore, Maryland-based cross-dressing closet homosexual Negro couple in 1928.
- The first two items above would seem to place Henry firmly in the Atlanta environs by the mid to late 1920s, but in addition to the reference to Baltimore, Maryland in the third item, Henry also refer to other places. In his "Royal Palm Special Blues" of 1928, Henry identified himself with Atlanta and also mentions Alabama and Tennessee in the following "floating verse" (that is, a verse that appears in many songs and is adapted to fit different singers' needs):
I don't want no Northern gal fry no meat for me I ain't scared but I'm skittish she might poison me I got a gal in Alabama, one in Tennessee I got a gal here in Atlanta and she's a fool about meLike "Jomo Man Blues," this verse from "Royal Palm Special Blues" also refers to hoodoo, the fried meat "poison" spell in question being the one that forms the final portion of the work found on page 152 of "Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic" under the heading "A Woman's Thirteen-year Rite of Capture." Will Shade and The Memphis Jug Band recorded a version of this same floating verse, in Memphis, Tennessee during the same decade:I don't want no black woman to cook no pies for me, 'Cause black is evil; scared she might poison me- Henry's accent is not wholly typical of a Black person born in Georgia. That is, he does not sound like such well known Atlanta singers of his era as Blind Willie McTell, Willie Baker, Laughing Charlie Lincoln, or Barbecue Bob Hicks.
A) In verse 1 of "Jomo Man Blues" Henry sings "worried" as "woi'd." This regional Black pronunciation of "or" as "oi" was once quite common among Black English speakers along the Mississippi River, from New Orleans up to Memphis, Tennessee, as well as on the Southern Atlantic coast. It is derived from the old Irish sailors' dialect that also fathered the "Brooklynese" dialect in New York state. For the sake of comparison, this same Mississippi River / Eastern Seaboard Black "oi" is clearly heard in the recorded songs of Mississippi John Hurt, born in Carroll County, Mississippi in 1892. (Hurt's cities of birth and residence are variously given as Teoc, Avalon, and Greenwood; actually he lived in rural Carroll County, not in town.)
B) Henry's "told yez" in verse 4 is another example of the Irish / Black sailors' dialect and is redolent to my ears of the Eastern Seaboard and of Mississippi River Delta towns as far North as Saint Louis; his singular "yez" is found in many other areas where the Irish / Black sailors' dialect is heard.
C) The bell that "toned" (for tolled), in Henry's verse 3 is also regional dialect. The best-known example is Elmore James's "The bell done toned, my baby caught that train and gone" from he song "Done Somebody Wrong." Elmore James was born Elmore Brooks in 1918 in Richland, near Pickens, Holmes county, Mississippi. (There used to be two Richlands in Mississippi; now only the Richland in Rankin County is "official." The unofficial Richland community in Holmes County, where James was born, is in the next county South from Carroll county, where Mississippi John Hurt was born -- and Hurt composed a song called "Richland Woman Blues.")
Since Henry is assumed to have been a professional entertainer rather than a rural songster, it is probable that he picked up lyrics from other entertainers and/or travelled the Southern vaudeville and medicine show circuits, thus explaining why his songs refer to places as wide-spread as Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, and Oklahoma. If Sloppy Henry travelled with the medicine shows or worked on the Toby circuit (now there's another linguistic conjure moment: note how the all-Negro Theater Owner's Booking Agency (the TOBA) got called the Toby, another word for a mojo), he would have easily taken in a range of territory from Baltimore to Atlanta and westward to Memphis, Tennessee.
The list of definitions of terms used in the writing of the 1935 book "Mules and Men" by the African-American author Zora Neale Hurston at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Grand-Jean/Hurston/Chapters/glossary.html contains this line: "Ah got my Joe Moore in my hair - A piece of gamblers lucky hoodoo."
Hurston was born in Alabama, although she publicly claimed Florida as her birthplace. "Joe Moore" is Hurston's phonetic spelling of "jomo" -- reflecting how the word is pronounced in the state of Florida. (The subtraction of -- and unneeded addition of -- the final "r" is so common in Southern rural speech that it needs no further comment, i presume.)
In this case, the jomo is not Bogan's conjure bag or Henry's maker of spells or generalized term for rootwork, but some small charm (such as crossed needles) worn in the hair.
The great folklorist Harry Middleton Hyatt recorded mention of the word jomo in Georgia in 1939, and you can find this at my Harry Hyatt informants page:
--------------------------------------------------------
Waycross, GA
c. March 2, 1939
#1095 - [-]
"[Go] to de fo'ks of de road 'bout twelve or one
a'clock in de night an' git some sand ... an' put it in a
bag ... an' put it ovah yore mantlepiece. Go tuh de
graveyard. ... an' git some dirt an' sew it up wit dat. An'
dat'ud make yo' lucky -- good a jomo as yo' want."
(entry 2039, cylinder 1764:6)
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A professional bootlegger and gambler in Georgia who was interviewed by Harry Middleton Hyatt in 1939 described a "jomoo" made for him by a Florida-based root worker. This can be found at my Harry Hyatt informants page:
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Waycross, GA
c. March 7, 1939
#1149 - {-} A 28 year old [presumably male] bootlegger and
professional gambler (born c. 1911) who had been using roots
for 18 years (since c. 1921).
This man did not make his own hands, but, with his uncle,
consulted the same "root man" twice. The first time he
wanted help with the Bolito, an illegal policy-like lottery
game with connections to Cuba. In the narrative it is implied
that he was not looking for luck in winning but was working
as a gambler, possibly as a policy writer or runner for the
numbers racket). The root worker and his wife were located
in Florida. The doctor read palms and the couple seemingly
performed an act of prestidigitation with a live snake, after
which the doctor made up a root bag for gambling for $8.00;
a rite of circumambulation and recital of the 23rd Psalm set
it working. Later, due to the police giving him trouble over
his bootlegging and gambling activities, the man sought out
the same worker again and, for another $8.00, was given a
"law keep away" type hand, a jomo or "jomoo." Said the
informant, "During de time dey [the police] supposed to
travel dat beat, jes' roll mah jomoo an' dey'd pass on by
... ah tried it an' it worked."
(entry 249, cylinder 1874:9)
--------------------------------------------------------
An old man, born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, who had been both a preacher and a root doctor, was interviewed by Harry Middleton Hyatt in Brunswick, Georgia in 1939 and described hot foot and break-up spells as "jomoo work" performed by an "evil jomooo man." The following description can be found at my Harry Hyatt informants page:
--------------------------------------------------------
Brunswick, GA
March 14 1939
#1213 - [-] An elderly ex-clergyman, born in Goldsboro, NC
but living in Brunswick, GA. Hyatt called his interview
"Tomb of de Babe of Bethlehem" after one of the religious
spells he related. Hyatt also called him "long-winded" and
"sincere" -- and somehow managed to mess up his recording
equipment and re-record over his cylinders, losing a portion
of the interview. The ex-clergyman did not do any sort of evil
work, but described it when Hyatt requested:
To make people move, that's jomoo work. That's the jomoo work[er]
that does that. He does that with snake charms. The snake charms
are made by workers who go to the woods, kill snakes, take three
drops of their blood and some of their bones, parch the mixture
to dust and sprinkle it under the doorstep or inside the rooms to
force people to move out. If a man has a wife and another fellow
wants her and he goes to a jomoo man, that will result in a court
case, due to the actions of "evil jomoo man" and his "poison dust."
In the old days this was called cunjure or cunjering.
There is a great deal more in this interview.
Interview Volume Two, pages 1325 - 1335,
cylinders C469:3 - C478:5 = 2050 - 2059.
--------------------------------------------------------
A professional root worker in North Carolina who was interviewed by Harry Middleton Hyatt in 1939 described a "joomoo" made with crossroads dirt, graveyard dirt, vinegar, sulphur, John the Conqueror root, lodestone, and Adam and Eve root. This too is logged at my Harry Hyatt informants page:
--------------------------------------------------------
Fayetteville or Wilson, NC
c. May - June 1939
#??? - [-] [Hyatt lost the informant's number and the location
of the interview, but the cylinder number places it here.]
At midnight take fresh (new) graveyard dirt from the breast
of the grave of a man who was not a Christian, but "a real
gambler or some wicked man." Bring it home, add 9 drops of
Apple cider vinegar and a pinch of Sulphur. Wrap and tie it
in a piece of paper until it dries, then rub it to powder.
This powder is used to fix up a "joomoo" for a client by
adding it to a piece of John the Conquer root, a piece of
Lodestone, and a piece of Adam and Eve Root, sewn into a red
flannel bag. This will work as a gambling hand as long as
for every $500.00 won, the user gives $5.00 to an indigent
old person.
(entry 2040, cylinder 2633:1)
--------------------------------------------------------
A person in North Carolina who was interviewed by Harry Middleton Hyatt in 1939 made mention of the word jomo as a type of conjure. This also is logged at my Harry Hyatt informants page:
--------------------------------------------------------
Wilson, NC
c. May - June 1939
#1506 - [-] "... take your old shoes and burn 'em so no one kin jomo
work yo'. Yo' always have good luck at chure home."
(entry 1505, cylinder 2673:9)
--------------------------------------------------------
On August 19, 1939, two Black men and one White man were interviewed in the office of the Aycock & Lindsey turpentine camp, Cross City, Florida. The interviews, conducted by Stetson Kennedy and recorded by Robert Cook, are included in the Florida Folklife section of the WPA Collections at the Library of Congress. The transcription summary, uncredited, was probably written by Kennedy. A complete copy of the transcription notes of the portion of the recording that relates to jomos is located at the Southern Spirits Archive of African American Spirituality under the title James Byrd, Albert Spaulding, Berry Johnson: The Jomo in Florida.
1) James Byrd, Negro turpentine worker, Cross City, Florida, age 30 (born 1909), said that "Joe Mow" is a good luck charm usually including a lodestone, carried in the pocket and rubbed for winning at gambling games.2) Albert Spaulding, White, age 21 (born 1918), assistant manager of the commissary of a large turpentine camp, Cross City, Florida told of a Black man buying three nails and a paper bag to make a protective "Joe Mow" to keep under his pillow as a preventive against attacks by witches, presumably hag-riding witches who would trouble him in his sleep.
3) Berry Johnson, Negro turpentine worker of Cross City, Florida, discussed ghosts and Joe Mows, but no further details are given in the transcription summary.
We know that Zora Neale Hurston worked for the WPA with Stetson Kennedy and here we see again a Floridian "Joe Moore" or "Joe Mow" used as a lucky gambling charm -- but we also have a "Joe Mow" protection charm and a "Joe Mow" associated with spirits and ghosts.
We have looked at eleven 1920s - 1930s sightings of the word jomo in the mouths of --
Surprisingly, every early 20th century reference to a jomo that i and my research partners have located -- both in folklore and linguistics studies and in blues lyrics -- can be traced to persons who were born in or were known to have spent time in three states: North Carolina, Georgia, or Florida -- Even Mississippi-born Lucille Bogan, who would seem to be an exception to this three-state phenomenon, travelled to Georgia to record in 1923, and the Tampa in her "Jim Tampa Blues" refers to Florida, either directly or by way of using Hav-A-Tampa cigars as a sexual metaphor. (Her singing partner Papa Charlie Jackson never lived in any of those three states -- but he made a point of indicating that he did not know the meaning of the word jomo.)
Further research may yet turn up some early jomo sightings from other states ... but as the list of examples grows longer and the same three states show up over and over again, one cannot help but get the distinct impression that this rare word was used in a relatively limited region.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to offer my deepest thanks to the blues researcher Chris Smith of the pre-war blues e-list for bringing the DARE entry and the LOC online version of the WPA recording to my attention, and for supplying references to Hyatt interviews that i had overlooked in my first pass through the material. Thanks also to Elijah Wald, David Evans, Eoghan Ballard, and Jeffrey Anderson for contributing to online discussions that helped me formulate my thoughts on this subject.
Since i know that at least three people who read this page will be clamouring for the lyrics to Waymon "Sloppy" Henry's "Say I Do It," here is the first verse and chorus:
Mose and Pete lived on Greenwillow Street
in northwest Baltimore
Pete run with Mose 'cause he powdered his nose
and even wore ladies hose
The two could be seen running hand in hand
in all kinds of weather
'Til the neighbors, they began to signify
'bout the birds that flock together
Mose, he began to sigh,
Pete yelled out his reply,
CHORUS:
"Say I do it, ain't nobody seed me,
They sure got to prove it 'bout me
Can't identify a man with a cover over his head,
when a crab is cooked, he's bound to turn red
It's true I use a powder puff
And has a shiny face,
I wears a red necktie
'cause I think it suits my taste
I know my voice is tenor,
I reduce myself with lace,
And when you see me with the gang
you'll find me singing bass,
They say I do it, ain't nobody seed me,
They sure got to prove it 'bout me"
Enjoy!
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interlinked web sites, each with its own distinctive theme and look. You are currently reading HOODOO IN THEORY AND PRACTICE by cat yronwode. Here are some other LUCKY MOJO web sites you can visit: |
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OTHER SITES OF INTEREST
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www.gardenofjoyblues.com, former hippie commune in the Missouri Ozarks
Satan Service:
www.satanservice.org, theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists