The Anti-Detective Character Of Mumbo Jumbo

As a anti-detective fiction, Mumbo Jumbo, is no doubt has its own detective character. Let’s first observe Reed’s detective from his appearance. “He is a familiar sight in Harlem, wearing his frock coat, opera hat, smoked glasses and carrying a cane”(Reed, Mumbo Jumbo 24). If only Papa Labas holds a pipe, we will no doubt identify him as a caricature of Sherlock Holmes. By dressing Labas in an out-dated iconic Victorian clothing style, Reed intentionally mimics Sherlock Holmes’ appearance.

Although having a similar appearance, Papa Labas is quite unlike any of his predecessors in terms of knowledge and skills. His name indicates that he is not the incarnation of a Haitian Voodoo mystical trickster Esu-Elegbara. In Yoruba mythology, this Esu figure is a mediator between god and humans, and “the guardian of the crossroads, master of style and of stylus, the phallic god of generation and fecundity, master of that elusive, mystical barrier that separates the divine world from the profane”(Gates 6). In different religious region Esu has different names. In Haitian Voodoo, he is called as Papa Legba, while in African American religion his name is Papa Labas. This Esu figure is renowned for their supernal magic, but not for his deducing ability like Dupin and Holmes nor his strong body

He asks T Malice to repeat it several times so that he can ascertain the correct spelling, having become a student of auditory phonetics(Reed, Mumbo Jumbo 49). Different from the “Talking Android” Hubert “Safecracker” Gould created by the Atonists, who learnt the black slangs with a malice purpose, Labas is sincerely interested in the “new laos” created by his own people. Although the “Text” of Thoth is forever lost in the novel, the notes taken down by Labas can still be view as a new “text” carried with Afro-American feature and Neo-Hoodoo spirit from a new generation of young