Re: Got my mojo working Posted by SMT
on December
09, 1999
In Reply to: Re: Got my mojo working posted
by E. on December 06, 1999
: : I would like to know what this phrase means. Mojo in the dictionary
means magic or voodoo. Is this the meaning of this phrase as it
is used today. Need a quick reply for an article I am writing. Thanks
for you help.
: "MOJO - Originally a magical charm. By extension, a source of
personal magic that one can tap into, enabling you to work magic
on something or to put somebody under your spell. 'You got yo mojo
workin, but it ain gon work on me!' Derived from moco'o, literally,
'medicine man,' in the Fula language of West Africa." From "Black
Talk: Words and Phrases from the Amen Corner" by Geneva Smitherman.
(Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994)
: A more extensive discussion of root doctors and mojos is in "Blue
Roots: African Folk Magic of the Gullah People" a book about a group
of people South Carolina by Roger Pinckney. (Llewllyn Publications,
1998). "The root doctor probably got his name from the herbal origins
of his practice.But 'the root' may not contain any herbs at all.
The root is a charm, a mojo, a gris-gris, a hand, meant to be carried,
worn, chewed, or buried, depending on its use and intent."
The phrase "got my mojo working" may come from a blues song (John
Lee Hooker?) by the same name. The chorus, as I recall goes:
I got my mojo working
I got my mojo working
I got my mojo working
But ain't working on you
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