Editing Mojo (African-American culture) (section)

== History and ideology ==
[[File:Grisgristuareg.JPG|thumb|left|A West African [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]] gris-gris]]

[[Central Africa|Central]] and [[West Africa]]ns all practiced the spiritual art of creating conjure bags for protection, healing and to communicate with spirits.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clark Ann |first1=Mary |title=Then We'll Sing a New Song African Influences on America's Religious Landscape |date=2012 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=9781442208803 |page=166 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Then_We_ll_Sing_a_New_Song/J-l8MlSKTQEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=goofer+dust+mixed+with+local+dirt&pg=PA166&printsec=frontcover}}</ref> The gris-gris originated in [[Kingdom of Dagbon|Dagomba]] in [[Ghana]] and was associated with [[Islam]]ic traditions.<ref name="Africa">{{Cite journal | last = Handloff | first = Robert E. | title = Prayers, Amulets, and Charms: Health and Social Control | journal = African Studies Review | volume = 25 | issue = 2/3 | pages = 185–194 | publisher = African Studies Association | date = Jun–Sep 1982 | doi = 10.2307/524216 | jstor = 524216 | pmid = 11614145 | s2cid = 45641515 }}</ref> Originally the gris-gris was adorned with Islamic scripture and was used to ward off evil spirits (evil [[djinn]]) or bad luck.<ref name="Africa"/> Historians of the time noted that they were frequently worn by non-believers and believers alike, and were also found attached to buildings.<ref name="Africa"/> The practice of using gris-gris, though originating in West Africa, came to the United States with enslaved Africans and was quickly adopted by practitioners of [[Louisiana Voodoo]] and [[Hoodoo (spirituality)|Hoodoo]] in the United States, and [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]] in Haiti.<ref name="New York University Press">{{cite book |last1=Diouf |title=Servants of Allah African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas |date=November 1998 |page=130 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=9780814719053 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=56wi0rgLrPQC&q=charms}}</ref><ref name="slaves">{{Cite journal | title = Folk Figures | journal = Western Folklore | volume = 7 | issue = 4 | pages = 392 | publisher = Western States Folklore Society | date = Oct 1948 | doi = 10.2307/1497852 | jstor = 1497852 }}</ref> 
[[File:BambaraSenegal.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bambara people]], West African Muslims from [[Senegal]] brought their knowledge of conjure bags to Louisiana.]]
During the [[Atlantic slave trade|Trans-Atlantic slave trade]], a few enslaved Africans were able to conceal their conjure bags when they boarded slave ships heading to the [[Americas]]. For example, [[Gullah Jack]] was an African from [[Angola]] who carried a conjure bag (mojo bag) onto a [[slave ship]] leaving [[Zanzibar]] for the United States. Gullah Jack was known to carry a conjure bag with him at all times for his spiritual protection.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pressly |last2=Sutter |title=Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture Environmental Histories of the Georgia Coast |date=2018 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820351889 |page=131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3laDwAAQBAJ&dq=gullah+jack+conjure+bag&pg=PA131}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gullah Jack |url=https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/gullah-jack.htm |website=The National Park Service |access-date=31 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=Joseph |last2=Bodek |first2=Richard |title=Maroons and the Marooned Runaways and Castaways in the Americas |date=2020 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=9781496827234 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3NjaDwAAQBAJ&q=conjure%20bag}}</ref> The [[Mandingo people of Sierra Leone|Mandingo (Mandinka)]] were the first Muslim ethnic group imported from Sierra Leone in West Africa to the Americas. Mandingo people were known for their conjure bags called gris-gris (later called mojo bags in the United States). Some of the Mandingo people were able to carry their gris-gris bags with them when they boarded slave ships heading to the Americas, bringing the practice to the United States. Enslaved Muslims were sought out for conjure services requesting them to make gris-gris bags (mojo bags) for protection against their enslavers and other dangers.<ref name="glc_yale_edu">{{cite web |last1=Opala |title=Gullah Customs and Traditions |url=https://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Gullah%20Customs%20and%20traditions.pdf |website=Yale University |access-date=24 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="New York University Press"/> 

During slavery, the way to identify a conjurer was by the way they dressed, their demeanor, and charms or conjure bags worn by the individual. Some practitioners concealed their charms while others who were in the business of conjure sometimes wear their charms and conjure bags on the outside of their clothes.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Akinyela |first1=Makungu |title=Battling the Serpent: Nat Turner, Africanized Christianity, and a Black Ethos |journal=Journal of Black Studies |date=2003 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=272 |doi=10.1177/0021934702238631 |jstor=3180833 |s2cid=143459728 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3180833 |access-date=14 October 2023}}</ref> Some mojo bags are placed in hidden locations to affect the intended target.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Prahlad |first1=Anand |title=African American Folklore An Encyclopedia for Students |date=2016 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781610699303 |page=207 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yhbHEAAAQBAJ&q=mojo}}</ref> 

In West-Central Africa, [[Kongo people|Bakongo]] and [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] people created medicine bags using leather or cloth and placed feathers, animal parts, roots, herbs and other ingredients for protection. When Yoruba and Bakongo people were enslaved in the United States, the practice of using feathers, animal parts, animal and human bones, and other ingredients to create mojo bags continued in African-American communities in the tradition of Hoodoo.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hazzard-Donald |first1=Katrina |title=Mojo Workin' The Old African American Hoodoo System |date=2013 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252094460 |pages=41, 65–66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FL05AUXiW18C&q=mojo%20bag}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rivera |first1=Ray |title=Annapolis House Yields Clues to Hoodoo Mysteries |journal=African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter |date=2005 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=1–3 |url=https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1155&context=adan |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref> In West-Central Africa, people wear nkisi, wanga, and other charm bags to ward from and reverse evil and to cure illness. In [[West Africa]] these conjure bags are called [[Juju]]. The word ''Juju'' is used in the [[African diaspora]] to describe all forms of charms made in Hoodoo, [[African diaspora religions|African Diaspora Religions]] and [[Traditional African religions|African Traditional Religions]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hazzard-Donald |title=Mojo Workin' The Old African American Hoodoo System |date=30 December 2012 |page=207 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252094460 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FL05AUXiW18C&q=Juju}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cbanga |first1=Ibo |title=Juju |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/juju-magic |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=31 January 2022}}</ref> These African ideals about charm bags influenced the creation of mojo bags and the spiritual philosophical practice in African-American communities. Mojo bags can be hung from trees, tied to a string, worn underneath the clothes to cause an effect on the target.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pollitzer |title=The Gullah People and Their African Heritage |date=2005 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820327839 |pages=112, 145–146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2efDSQdNq-cC&q=charm}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Puckett |first1=Newbell Niles |title=Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro |date=1926 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |pages=222–223 |url=https://archive.org/details/folkbeliefsofsou00puck/page/222/mode/2up?q=wanga}}</ref> There is also a [[Central Africa]]n influence of the mojo bag in African-American Hoodoo.  
[[File:Minkisi (Kongo, Landana, Cabinda), World Museum Liverpool.JPG|thumb|left|[[Nkisi|Minkisi]] (Kongo - Central Africa), [[World Museum]] Liverpool - Minkisi cloth bundles were found on slave plantations in the United States in the [[Deep South]]. Minksi bundles influenced the creation of mojo bags in Hoodoo.<ref name="Oxford University Press">{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Owen |title=America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft After Salem |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=82 |isbn=978-0-19-162514-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7TRoAgAAQBAJ&q=conjure%20balls%20minkisi}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Wilson |first1=Khonsura |title=Nkisi west-central African lore |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/nkisi |website=Encyclopedia Britannica }}</ref>]]

For example, the [[Nkisi|minkisi and nkisi]] are spirit containers made by hand from a root doctor. These spirits are contained in a bag, gourd, shells and other containers. The [[Kongo people|Bakongo people's]] ''Nkisi Nkubulu'' looks similar to the mojo bags in Hoodoo.<ref>{{cite web |last1=University Staff |title=Kongo, Louisiana, & the Black South |url=https://sites.duke.edu/aahvspdf/files/2019/08/Blk_Atlantic_Lect_02.pdf |website=Duke University |access-date=31 October 2021}}</ref><ref name="Oxford University Press"/> The spiritual philosophy of the mojo bag also has Bakongo influence. For example, in Bakongo belief [[simbi]] spirits can inhabit conjure bags (mojo bags) for healing or protecting an individual or a community. The ''[[Nganga]]'' creates the bag for the individual using ingredients specific to a certain simbi to invoke it into the conjure bag. Bakongo spiritual philosophy influenced the creation of mojo bags as African-Americans include certain natural and animal ingredients such as animal bones, animal teeth, claws, human bones or graveyard dirt to house a simbi spirit or an ancestral spirit inside a bag for either protection or healing. However, the practice became African-American when Black people in America used American materials and reinterpreted them applying a [[Judeo-Christian|Christian]] or [[Islam]]ic interpretation with [[Kongo cosmogram|Bakongo cosmogram]] concepts. The [[Christian cross]] looks similar to the Bakongo cosmogram and was interpreted by Black people in the southern United States and in Central Africa as an nkisi that harnessed the spirit of [[Jesus]] on the cross that can be invoked in rituals for healing or protection and for the removal of sorcery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Jason |title=Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery |date=2011 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=9780807135389 |pages=112–117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1wgPsjz7PMwC&q=nkisi+}}</ref><ref name="glc_yale_edu" /><ref name="jstor.org"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pollitzer |first1=William |title=The Gullah People and Their African Heritage |date=2005 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820327839 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2efDSQdNq-cC&q=charm}}</ref>

Mojos are used to ground spirits in certain locations to prevent the spirits of the dead from coming back and haunting the living by placing the last items they touched on top of their graves. The last items touched by the dead are also placed inside mojo bags to carry the spirit of the deceased with the living for protection. A mojo can be a bottle-tree charm, spirit jugs or memorial jugs to capture spirits inside containers to house their spirit to later work with the spirit in rituals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |title=Reinterpretations of African Cultural Traditions in African American Fabric Arts |journal=The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2014 |volume=6 |issue=10 |page=169 |url=http://jpanafrican.org/docs/vol6no10/6.10-14-P-Johnson.pdf |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref>

[[Archaeology|Archeologists]] in New York discovered continued West-Central African burial practices in a section of [[Lower Manhattan|Lower Manhattan, New York City]] which is now the location of the [[African Burial Ground National Monument]]. Historians and archeologists found Kongo related artifacts at the African Burial Ground such as minkisi and nkisi conjure bundles buried with African remains. These nkisi and minkisi bundles became the conjure bags in Hoodoo.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frohne |first1=Andrea |title=The African Burial Ground in New York City Memory, Spirituality, and Space |date=2015 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |pages=17–19, 24, 43, 130, 140–142, 167–171 |isbn=9780815634300 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfkeDAAAQBAJ&q=minkisi}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jackson |first1=Cole |title=The New York African Burial Ground Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York |journal=The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York |date=2009 |volume=5 |pages=7, 47, 57, 85–91, 95, 99–100, 102 |url=https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/upload/Vol-5-Gen-Aud-NYABG-DOWN.pdf}}</ref>

At [[The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee)|Hermitage plantation]] in Nashville, Tennessee, archeologists discovered continued West African traditions of using hexagonal [[waist beads|glass beads]] for fertility and other spiritual purposes. Other charms found were mojo hands, lucky roots, raccoon penis bones, ceramics, and blue beads. These items found in a slave cabin showed enslaved African-Americans used local roots and created mojo hands for protection and healing. Enslaved African-Americans at Hermitage plantation used prehistoric artifacts for charms to draw spiritual power from ancient artifacts. In addition, archeologists found Kongo cosmograms engraved onto [[limestone]] marbles for spiritual power. The charms were used to protect from conjure and remove sorcery and reverse curses back onto the conjurer. The knowledge of charm bags was shared and passed down orally amongst people in the [[The Slave Community#African cultural retention and slave culture|slave community]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Galle |first1=Jillian |last2=Young |first2=Amy |title=Engendering African American Archaeology: A Southern Perspective |date=2004 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn=9781572332775 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WpNlIKMlQLoC&dq=charm+slave+narratives&pg=PA112}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Russell |title=Material Culture and African-American Spirituality at the Hermitage |journal=Historical Archaeology |date=1997 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=65–76 |doi=10.1007/BF03373603 |jstor=25616527 |s2cid=55642034 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25616527 |access-date=26 May 2022}}</ref>

The word ''hand'' in this context is defined as a combination of ingredients. The term may derive from the use of finger and hand bones from the dead in mojo bags, or from ingredients such as the lucky hand root (favored by gamblers). The latter suggests an analogy between the varied bag ingredients and the several cards that make up a hand in card games.<ref name=Bradley/> Mojo reaches as far back as West African culture, where it is said to drive away evil spirits, keep good luck in the household, manipulate a fortune, and lure and persuade lovers. The ideology of the ancestors and the descendants of the mojo hand used this "prayer in a bag" based on their belief of spiritual inheritance, by which the omniscient forefathers of their families would provide protection and favor, especially when they used the mojo. Through this, a strong belief was placed in the idealism of whoever used mojo, creating a spiritual trust in the magic itself.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Voodoo Encyclopedia Magic, Ritual, and Religion |date=2015 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=114 |isbn=9781610692090 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7_tPCgAAQBAJ&dq=Hoodoo+is+slave+magic&pg=PA127}}</ref>