Meandering down a Stream of Consciousness on Mumbo Jumbo and Monotheism

 I think that generally Ishmael Reed takes a very iconoclastic approach to Christianity, aligning it with the Templars, the crusaders, and the Wallflower Order (the central antagonists of the book) and making its existence in the ultimate form a mere disguise for Atonism. I think this is meant to be a satirical caricature of Christianity and monotheism as a whole, similar to the arguments about the significance of Abdul Sufi Hamid’s lampoons as was discussed in class. This interpretation is furthered by Reed’s own words in an outside interview: “I’m not against Christianity. I only want to humble it, like it says it ought to be.”[1] 

Reed’s portrayal of Christianity, and to a greater extent monotheism, is wide-reaching in and beyond the novel: Moses, an important figure in all the Abrahamic religions, is depicted as a cultural appropriator, an ancient Elvis who commits the original sin—under Set’s goading—of reading the book in its Petro aspect. Outside of Mumbo Jumbo, Reed’s western satire, Yellow-Back Radio Broke-Down, depicts the protagonist—an houngan called the Loop Garoo Kid—as having Judas Iscariot as his personal Loa.[2]

Reed’s skepticism does not just touch on historical figures or modern whites, it also effects how he depicts his monotheistic Black characters. For example,Woodrow Wilson Jefferson’s father comes off as a stereotype of the ecstatic preacher, and of course there is Abdul Hamid, who warrants quite a bit of further discussion.

Having read to the end of the book, the decline of Jes Grew is at least in part due to it being unable to find its text—it is unable to do this because Abdul Sufi Hamid burned it because he enforced his own strict ideals of what he wanted Black culture to be so much that he censored a form of self expression. His specific issue with the book is from the fact that he thinks it is a “lewd, nasty, indecent thing,” (p.202) which conflicts with his worldview and appreciation of modesty that originates from the fact he is Muslim.[3] This depicts Muslims as being overly prudish, as Reed does likewise with Christians. Abdul is so shocked by the book’s contents that he refuses to believe that Black people wrote it, and decides that it must be false, and written by the Devil. On the one hand, this might be from the fact that he’s a prude, but it may also be because he was somehow only able to receive certain aspects of the Book but not others. 

Overall, this is somewhat ironic because even though Abdul destroys the Book, this opens up room for a new generation of artists in the present to create a new text, and it allows Jes Grew to become more decentralized, which one might associate with the ideology of Jes Grew in comparison to something like Christianity, which is associated heavily with the Bible, or Islam, where Allah specifically promised that the words of the Qur’an would not be changed as with previous holy books. The destruction of Jes Grew in the long term gives it more room to grow, despite it contrasting with Abdul’s ideas that “freedom of culture can come later.” (p.201).[3] Abdul is ultimately a “Patrolman of the mind,” (p.203) like the Atonists, as opposed to PaPa LaBas, who wants people to have their own heads.[3]

This doesn’t directly connect to anything, but I figured I would write it in here anyways. PaPa LaBas is invited to give a lecture by a professor at the University of Berkeley, and in the back of my copy of Mumbo Jumbo it says Ishmael Reed has been a professor at the University of Berkeley. Therefore I hypothesize, with no proof, that within the world of Mumbo Jumbo, Reed is the professor who invited LaBas to lecture. 

[1] Gover, Robert. “An Interview with Ishmael Reed.” Black American Literature Forum, vol. 12, no. 1, 1978, p. 12. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3041491. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.

[2] Reed, Ishmael, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, Narrated by Rodney Gardiner, Audible Studios, 2012, Audiobook

[3] Reed, Ishmael, Mumbo Jumbo, Macmillan, 1972