Preface

I remember my parents taking me as a child to A. Schwab’s dry goods store on Beale Street. As I walked through the rows of wooden shelves lined with candles in a dazzling array of colors, the scent of Dragon’s Blood incense tickling my adolescent nose, I felt as if I was stepping into another world. Little did I know that a few years later I would come into contact with a practicing rootworker who lived down the street from my home. Several years later, I would travel to East Africa, where I would meet traditional healers who practiced many of the same techniques that evolved into Hoodoo in the Mid-South. Today, as a cultural anthropologist, I remain in touch with a number of Afro-Caribbean religious practitioners throughout Memphis who carry on the traditions of African traditional religions (ATRs) in a new-world form.

The discovery of Memphis as the “Mojo City” has been an amazing journey. To know that the lineage of culture, healers and traditions that I have seen firsthand in Africa survived the horrors of slavery and are alive and well on the streets of Memphis is awe-inspiring. The plight of the rootworker who honed his or her craft through whispers on African soil and in secret on slave plantations in the South is a story filled with hope, despair, resilience and survival. Growing up as a child in Memphis, I never conceived that the same city streets were walked by conjurers, spirit doctors and rootworkers. If you have picked up this book, you may be just as surprised to discover this secret world that has existed in the Bluff City for hundreds of years.