Women in Mumbo Jumbo

Even prior to our discussion in class about whether Mumbo Jumbo was a womanist text, I was reflecting upon both the few women in Mumbo Jumbo as well as how Reed describes them and their purpose in the text. The conversation from class expanded and complicated my perspective. There's a complex layer to Mumbo Jumbo's depiction of its female characters and their sexuality, and while they contradict the Atonist ideals of chastity and virginity, they also play into harmful, racist, and sexist stereotypes still perpetuating today about black women.

There are three main female characters in Mumbo Jumbo: Charlotte, Earline, and Isis, the goddess from Egyptian mythology. Charlotte is the "sell-out" - she leaves her career with Papa LaBas and works in a theater for a white audience performing in a style reminiscent of minstrel shows. Her role in this show is an overly sexualized woman, played for the laughter of the white audience. Reed is obviously critical of this, his tone laced with cutting sarcasm as he describes the scene. This would imply that he seeks to critique the historic depiction by white people of black people (especially black women) as this type of character. However, his later depictions fail to reach beyond this. Isis' only real appearance in the long retelling of the mythology is when she's having sex, and is barely described or even mentioned besides this. Earline is the most prominent of the female characters in this book, and she gets possessed with the loa Erzulie, and then seduces the bus driver as well as attempts to seduce other male characters in the book. It's implied that the only way to remove the loa from her was then through sexual actions with Black Herman. This brings up the dicy issue of consent - could Earline in any possible way have consented to this when she was literally possessed at the time?

Perhaps if the characters had more depth these sexual depictions would be less of a problem - however, all the female characters play a very small role in the story. None of the woman are involved directly in the main plot of stopping Hinckle Von Vampton, or in spreading Jes Grew - in fact, they are the doubters. Their only moments of significance is always related to sex - Charlotte does get to attempt to try to trick and stop Biff Musclewhite, but does this by using her 'feminine' charms and seduces him - she's unsuccessful, as well, and gets violently murdered at his hands for her effort. Even Earline's genuine, emotional speech at the end of the book about believing in Jes Grew now was still a direct product of her possession by Erzulie.

The author of the article arguing that Mumbo Jumbo was womanist gave a good case - it is definitely very grounded within Atonism to be repressive of sexuality and therefore of women, and Reed's female characters are much more sexual than Atonist literature would allow female characters to be. However, it is not empowering in the context of the Atonist stereotype historically used to demean black women specifically, especially with the lack of any character building or moments unrelated to sex.