Mumbo Jumbo
by Ishmael Reed
Scribner Paperback Fiction
New York, NY
218 pages
First Published: 1972
The scene takes place near the Mount of Olives. Having been rehearsing his serious, soon-to-be famous sermon for some time, Jesus decides to give his disciples a break.
Jesus: "Blessed are the saltshakers, for they shall sow hypertension!"
Peter: "WTF, Jesus, be serious!"
Jesus: "How's this, Pete: Blessed are the stockbrokers, for they shall demerit the Earth!"
Some of the disciples begin to giggle, until Peter's granite expression wipes the smiles off their faces.
Peter: "You're the Son of God, not the son of Henny Youngman! I repeat: Be Serious!"
Jesus: "Lighten up, Rocky! Can't you take a yoke?"
I was not trying to be blasphemous, honest. I am, in fact, quite an admirer of Jesus of Nazareth; some of his quotes, such as "Judge not, lest ye be judged," are in my opinion, well, immortal. Perhaps I can de-meaculpa myself by blaming the above scene on a quote from Ishmael Reed's classic novel, Mumbo Jumbo, (along with a bit of indigestion after a heavy meal). Nowhere is there an account or portrait of Christ laughing, (page 97.) I read that part of the novel late at night; after putting out the lights shortly thereafter, the little shtick virtually wrote itself as I was falling asleep.
Reed's brilliant satirical novel is an indictment of the smug, superior attitude Westerners have regarding Western Civilization, considering it to be the only one that counts, other civilizations being mere doggies following a brass band. Reed sees things very differently. For him, Westerners, that is, whites, are descendants of the pharaoh, Anektaton, or, as Reed calls them, Atonists. Anektaton believed there was only one God, the Sun God; thus monotheism was born. This belief system made adherents rigid, intolerant, power-hungry and unable to enjoy themselves. In contrast, the mythical Osiris is the Urvater of the pagans, notably the blacks; his brother, Set, is the ancestor of Westerners, and, in Reed's words, Set can't dance. Just as Ismael, Reed's namesake, and Jacob were, according to Jewish mythology, cousins whose lineages devolved into two enemy camps, the Osirites and Setites became, as it were, Fun and Glum, respectively.
It reminds one a little of Leonard Jeffries Jr. who, as head of Black Studies at CCNY in the 1990s, asserted that Africans were Sun People, while whites were Ice People. (He also asserted that Jews financed the slave trade, a heinous assertion, which, among others, such as denouncements of Jews in the media, got him fired.)
The resemblance, however, is deceptive. Reed's novel is a brilliant tour de force, a well-written, entertaining, and important novel. And Reed has a point. I recall reading about a white volunteer who did his best to help the people of Lesotho, a poor region of South Africa. The Lesothoans were suspicious at first; they suspected that he was another of those self-righteous missionaries whose purpose was to prove that the Lesothoan way of life was pagan, that is, bad. But this volunteer wasn't like that. After he proved that he had the Africans' interests at heart, and did much to improve their lives, they decided that he should become an honorary member of the tribe. He was invited to sing and dance with them in a ritual. (In their language, there apparently is only one word for "sing and dance;" one couldn't be separated from the other. The volunteer was petrified. "I can't dance!" he confessed. The Africans were astounded. How can one be alive and not sing and dance? Case in point.
The novel, which takes place in the 1920s, begins with the "Jes' Grew," (that is, "Just Grew") "epidemic," the spread of Black culture and music. The whites in power treat it like a plague, and do their best to stomp it out. (The popularity of rap among whites and blacks today is a good indication of the utter failure of their efforts.)
After the infectious tunes of Scot Joplin caught on among whites as well, there was no turning back. Attempts to denigrate the great genres of jazz and blues and to limit their influence--well, we know how that turned out.
Examples of Reed's robust sense of humor occur throughout the book. For instance: "The Eternal European," Hinckle Von Vampton, publishes a newspaper, "The Benign Monster," the sole purpose of which is to denigrate Black culture and thus to stem the Jes' Grew epidemic. He hires a black man to help him with his dirty work. That man. Woodrow Wilson Jefferson, is willing to do anything so that he doesn't have to go back South: "I will use any vehicle at all so that I won't have to return to that farm and spend the rest of my life milking cows and distributing feed," (page 80).
Von Vampton thereupon assigns him to review (and to denigrate) a literary journal, Fire, in which leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance appear. An excerpt form Jefferson's review: "...their work didn't make you feel that you wanted to get out and pineapple a necktie store," (page 96). Funny.
Von Vampton wants to find a "Talking Android," a black man who will do even a better job than Jefferson in contravening the rising tide of "Jes' Grew." He can't find a suitable candidate, so he chooses his white co-conspirator, Hubert "Safecracker" Gould. During a literary gathering sponsored by Von Vampton, Gould, wearing white gloves, blackface, black tuxedo, walks to the back of the stand and begins to read his epic Harlem Tom Toms:
O Harlem, great Negro sea of unrest
Allow me to dip my feet into thy Black
Waters where chippies swim like sad-eyed fish
Engulf me, Harlem. Submerge me in thy watery
Cabaret until one hand surfaces only
Yass! Yass!...
(page 158).
Funnier.
Exposed by Black Herman, one of the defenders of UnWestern Civilization, Gould and Von Vampton demand that he must "explain the charges you have against us before we will go anywhere," (page 180). Black Herman thereupon gives a long and brilliant alternative account of the origin of Western Civilization, Set, Osiris's stiff brother, being the founder, while cool Osiris, the original "Jes' Grew" dude, is murdered--his irrepressible spirit, however, remains alive, albeit suppressed, until resurrected by the Harlem Renaissance. The section of the book establishes Reed as a master story teller.
This is a satire, and is, therefore, an exaggeration. It is the confrontation between, and combination of, Black and European culture, not enmity between them, that has given rise to the extraordinary flowering of American culture, which continues to this day. (There has been a good deal of racism on the part of whites, of course. One of the main factors in the development of jazz is the fact that talented black musicians, due to prejudice from the majority, could not have a career in classical music at the time).
No one in his right mind would assert today that the influence of black culture on American life has been negative--far, far from it. It is, I think, true, however, that people who proclaim the utter superiority of a lily-white Western Civilization are much more familiar with TV sitcoms than they are with Milton or Shakespeare...or, for that matter, with writers such as Ishmael Reed.
Harold Bloom considers this novel to be one of the five hundred best in the Western canon. After reading this wonderful book, I agree. Thank God the Western Canon has learned how to scat!-- Only a snob would still have a problem with that.
*
This is the ninth edition of the Baltimore Online Book Club. You are welcome to read past book reviews of the Baltimore Online Book Club by googling the title of the novel along with my full name, Thomas Dorsett.
1. The New Life by Orhan Pamuk
2..Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
3. Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
4. A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter
5. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
6. Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. Pierre or the Ambiguities by Herman Melville
8. Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
Our next meeting will take place on November 1, 2017. On that date, the seven members of our group will discuss "The Book of Disquiet," by Fernando Pessoa; I will post my review shorty thereafter. You are invited to read the book and to post your comments onto the comment section of the review. I wish you pleasurable reading!
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