Mumbo Jumbo

Harry, the mayor of New Orleans, is at his office and drinking bootlegged gin with his mistress, Zuzu. He receives a phone call and is told there is an apparent outbreak of Jes Grew in his city. Alarmed, Harry rushes to a church that is being used as a makeshift infirmary. At the infirmary, there are 22 patients who have exhibited symptoms such as dancing and lusting. Harry worries that the outbreak could affect his upcoming election. The doctor rebukes him and voices his concern that Jes Grew could become pandemic and destroy white, Eurocentric civilization. He explains that Jes Grew is not caused by a normal germ but is a “psychic epidemic” (5) that causes patients to experience visual and auditory hallucinations of African images and sounds.

Upon hearing a commotion, Harry walks outside and sees Zuzu exhibiting the symptoms. Workers attempt to subdue her, but they too start to dance. Harry and the doctor then succumb to Jes Grew and soon everyone in this quarter of New Orleans is convulsing and “out-of-its-head” (6).

The text reveals that the Wallflower Order of the Atonist Path failed exterminate Jes Grew during an 1890s outbreak. Jes Grew is an “anti-plague” (6) that—rather than causing physical ailment—instead enlivens those affected.