Reply #18: The African Drumbeat terrifies the Wallflower Order.

[Bridget Burke]

Ishmael Reed's wonderful novel Mumbo Jumbo recounts happenings early in the last century, when "Jes' Grew"--the dance spirit--threatened the very whiteness of US culture. Here's the complaint of The Wallflower Order:

Look at them! Just look at them!
throwing their hips this way, that
way while I, my muscles, stone,
the marrow of my spine, plaster, my
back supported by decorated paper,
stand here as goofy as a Dumb Dora
Lord, if I can't dance, No one shall.

The beat is at the heart of all blues, jazz & rock. Plus most pop & country--they finally allowed drums on stage at the Grand Ole Opry.

The Da Vinci Code became a best seller recycling various stories about ancient secrets. But Reed's novel presents a really refreshing look at the what lies beneath civilization as we know it--including Ancient Egypt, Western Occultism & Voodoo--in a Harlem Renaissance setting.

(Those who dwell where African & American sprits were allowed to survive by getting lost in the crowd of saints know about the the Lord of the Crossroads. In Haiti, he's Baron Samedi--a tricksy fellow, indeed. In the black & white Calvinist world, the only "other" is Satan.)