Mumbo Jumbo is the third novel by Ishmael Reed, and many consider it to be his best. The complex plot and rich historical narrative portrayed full-bodied in Mumbo Jumbo grew out of just a minor digressive element of Reed’s previous novel, Yellow Black Radio Broke-Down. From that historical overview of what he termed Neo-HooDooism came a much more expansive and full-throated reinterpretation of Western civilization that is recorded in the sacred texts at the heart of the modern mystery novel as which Mumbo Jumbo is often categorized.
Reed wrote the novel in 1971 in Berkeley, California, and published it in 1972. He stated that his goal was to “humble Judeo-Christian culture,” that he "want[ed] to go into the mysteries of the American civilization.” He further explained that “the American civilization has finally got its rhythm; looking into the past you can see the rhythms of this civilization. So I stepped back to an age that reminds me of the one I'm writing in. I stepped back to the twenties. Instead of Nixon I invoked Harding.” Similarly, in another interview he said, “I wanted to write about a time like the present, or to use the past to prophesy about the future—a process our ancestors called 'Necromancy.' I chose the '20s because [that period was] very similar to what's happening now. This is a valid method and has been used by writers from time immemorial. Using a past event of one's country or culture to comment on the present."
The novel received positive reviews when it was published and has since become part of the literary canon. The New York Times reviewer wrote, “[Reed’s] latest work, written with black humor, is a satire on the unfinished race between the races in America and throughout history. It is a book of deliberate unruliness and sophisticated incongruity, a dazzling maze of black‐and‐white history and fantasy, in‐jokes and outrage, erudition and superstition. Not only to white readers like myself wilt the way into and out of this maze be puzzling. For though it's a novel, the author's method is not novelistic. Wholly original, his book is an unholy cross between the craft of fiction and witchcraft.”
