Title: (02) Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo: A Postcolonial Reading 

Author : Soro Dolourou (Université Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire)

Abstract

This work proposes to interpret Mumbo Jumbo as Ishmael Reed's postcolonial discourse against powerful entities which seek to oppress, control and maintain the status quo in the world and particularly in America. Grounded in key postcolonial concepts such as colonial discourse, colonialist ideology, otherness, cultural resistance and decolonization, this article reveals how Reed equates the Black American world with a sphere that is still crumbling under the yoke of oppression and Western imperialism and how the latter articulates its liberation struggle. So, on the one hand, the study argues that the black American world is still viewed as a colony inside the United States, and that it has to face the Atonists’ colonialist psychology or ideology coupled with an unabated colonial discourse, all of which is intended to establish whites’ cultural hegemony while demeaning black people. On the other hand, it focuses on the cultural resistance and decolonization efforts orchestrated by black Americans through the emergence of powerful cultural structures such as Jes Grew, the VooDoo and the Mu’tafikah. But above all the work shows that Mumbo Jumbo is the locus where multiple voices and stories are authorized. 

Keywords: Colonial discourse, Colonialist psychology, Cultural Resistance, Jes Grew, Decolonization, Atonism

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