Parallels of Musical Appropriation in Mumbo Jumbo and Reality
Ishmal Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo parallels reality in multiple ways. One of the most prominent examples of this is the stealing and appropriation of music from Black culture. In the novel, Moses steals Jethro’s music and attempts to play it off as his own. After hearing of Jethro the Midianite, “who could still play the sounds of the spirit and had a legendary instrument that sounded like an orchestra and knew all the ‘old songs’,” Moses is intrigued and sets out to visit him (Reed 176). Over the next few months, Moses learns all of Jethro’s songs and writes everything down, even marrying his daughter, Zipporah, to obtain the words. Eventually, Moses travels to Egypt and announces that he will give a concert, which consists of the music he learned from Jethro. The only change he makes is that it will be a “dignified concert,” meaning that there will be no “savage dancing” (Reed 182). In this, Moses not only steals Jethro’s music and attempts to perform it as his own, but he also strips it of ...