Additional Information on "Mojo
Bags"
So what is a mojo? It is, in short, the staple amulet of
African-American hoodoo practice, a flannel bag containing one or
more magical items. The word is thought by some to be a corruption
of the English word "magic" but it more likely is related to the
West African word "mojuba," meaning a prayer of praise and homage.
It is a "prayer in a bag" -- a spell you can carry.
Alternaive American names for the mojo bag include hand, mojo hand,
conjure hand, lucky hand, conjure bag, trick bag, root bag, toby,
jomo, and gris-gris bag. In the Memphis region, a special kind of
mojo, worn only by women, is called a nation sack. A mojo used for
divination, somehwat like a pendulum, is called a Jack, Jack bag,
or Jack ball.
The word "gris-gris" looks French ( and in French it would mean
"grey-grey" ), but it is simply a Frenchified spelling of the
Central African word gree-gree (also sometimes seplled gri-gri).
Gree-gree means "fetish" or "charm," thus a gris-gris or gree-gree
bag is a charm bag. In the Caribbean, an almost-identical
African-derived bag is called a wanga or oanga bag, from the
African word wanga, which also means "charm" or "spell" -- but that
word is uncommon in the USA.
The word "conjure" -- as in "conjure work" (casting spells) and
"conjure woman" (a female herbalist-magician) -- is an old
alternative to "hoodoo," thus a conjure hand is a hoodoo bag, one
made by a conjure doctor or two-headed doctor. Likewise, the word
trick derives from an African-American term for spell-casting --
"laying tricks" -- so a trick bag is a a bag that contains a spell.
Similarly, "wanga" is a West African word meaning a spell, hence a
wanga bag is a bag containing a spell.
The word "hand" in this context means a combination of ingredients.
The term may derive from the use of finger and hand bones 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 between the mixed ingredients in the
bag and the several cards that make up a "hand" in card
games.
Although most "Southern Style" conjure bags are made of red
flannel, some root doctors favour the colour-symbolism employed in
hoodoo style candle-burning magic and thus use green flannel for a
money mojo, white flannel for a baby-blessing mojo, red flannel for
a love mojo, pale blue flannel for a peaceful home mojo, and so
forth. Leather bags are also seen, but far less frequently than
flannel; they are associated with West Indian obeah, another form
of folk magic closely related to African-American hoodoo.
~A version of Modern Mojo bag
that can be wore on the neck~
