Chapter Excerpt
Editor's Note
Religion and magic are two different things. Religion is an institutionalized system of spiritual beliefs and rituals through which one worships one's gods. Magic, on the other hand, is the practice of altering the fated progression of events to suit one's desires. In some ways, magic is an ultimate act of presumption. It is tricky, powerful, and often dangerous.
There are lots of theories about the etymology of the word "mojo," but one thing seems true: It originated with people press-ganged out of West Africa and brought to America to work as slaves. It refers to a small cloth bag with magical contents that is kept on the person as protection; but more generally, "mojo" can simply mean magic—a magic imbued with African flavor and with the need of indentured peoples to take some control over their lives. And yes, it's tricky, powerful, and dangerous if not used wisely.
The spirit of mojo—of personal magic—shows up right through the diaspora: in root-working, conjuring, and ouanga; in obeah and the ability of "four-eye" people to see into the otherworld; in the West African magics that the Portuguese dubbed "juju." I hope that these nineteen stories conjure up some of that spirit of mojo.
—Nalo Hopkinson
Introduction
Reader, Be Aware!
There's a conjuring going on.
You are being lured, with the turning of each page, into the myth and mystery of our DeepBlack magical heritage.
Put on your beads, pocket your jujubag, and cross yourself several times. Do what you do. Do what you must. But do turn the page and remember what Grandma told you! The old sayings are here. The beliefs are manifested. The formulas cook on the stove.
Eshu, the Trickster will meet you at the Threshold. He stands there in the crossroads between power and fear.
A door will open into the darkness of these pages. You will see in the dark that all are accounted for. The deities are here; the ancestors have arrived. This is the council chamber of those who hold sinister wisdom and serve up justice.
The demons and shape-shifters pace around the corners of this book. They pant and salivate, they snarl and sniff, awaiting your arrival, human. Gather up your courage, child. Do not be frightened by howling laughter and deep guttural moans.
Go ahead; turn the page. Come in and meet your past, your present, and your future.
These stories take us across the varied landscape of our DeepBlack magical heritage. They recall our experiences in the African bush and on the plantations of the Old South. They entice us to feel again the murky waters of the swamp and the hard hot concrete of the northern ghettos. These stories speak to the conditions of slavery and the secrets of the struggle for freedom. They wrestle with the demons: addiction, incest, and insanity. The healing sacrifice is made with our blood!
Turn another page and you are led to the inner room of your own mind, where madness and genius, wild imagination and common reality, perform a "danse macabre."
And if you make it, dear reader, through these pages, the Trickster will meet you once more at the Threshold where, having survived the darkness, you are in grave danger of being blinded by the light.
Come now. Turn the page. I dare you!
—Luisah Teish
Compilation copyright © 2003 by Nalo Hopkinson
