Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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M OJO, M OJO H A ND
A mojo is a hoodoo
twigs, nail clippings, and other junk, however, until a conjurer traps a spirit inside it.
mojuba
comes from the Yoruba emi (I) and ajuba (salute). 284 Each act of propitiation to the gods
must begin with a libation (such as spit, alcohol, or water) and a mojuba. Mojo is also
likely connected to the Fula word moca, which means to cast or activate a magic spell by
spitting. 285 In the Gullah dialect of the Georgia Sea Islands, moco means witchcraft or
magic, while in Jamaican English, majoe is a plant with medicinal powers. 286
Bakongo charms called nkisi (plural: minkisi) contain both herbal medicines (bilong) and
a soul (mooyo) that empowers them. 287 The mojo is the vital spark within the medicine-
the spirit of an ancestor, or a spirit-god captured by a root doctor.
Many blues songs tell of mojos that fix (tie or bind) a lover so he or she will be faithful.
A mojo may bind not only the emotions, but also the sexual organs of the lover. If a
woman who has been tied attempts to make love with another man, she may find herself
defecating or menstruating during intercourse. A tied man will lose his erection if he
attempts to be unfaithful. 288 As Blind Willie McTell explained to a willing woman in
But your good man got me barred
A mojo hand is a bag, typically of red flannel, that contains items designed either to
the bag. There are many names for mojo hands, including conjure bag, conjure hand,
lucky hand, gris-gris bag, juju, nation sack (worn only by women), toby, and trick bag.
According to American hoodoo
of the dead in mojo bags made for various purposes, from the use of a rare orchid root
called Lucky Hand root as an ingredient in mojo bags for gamblers, or by an analogy
she theorized in her online book Hoodoo in Theory and Practice: An
Introduction to African American Rootwork. 289
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