What's a 'Mojo'?

[beccabear67]

I've always been kind of amused by this term and what people think it refers to. It sort of seemed at one time to become a fuzzy mystical type of term for nobody was completely sure what but something to do with rockin' hard. Personally I've subscribed to the old blues song metaphor for the female unit, so when some dumb-ass commercial or sitcom character spouts off about his mojo it comes off pretty bizarrely, not to mentione Jim Morrison's Mr. Mojo Risin' (unless maybe he was a hermaphrodite). What am I talking about here? Well, what about the song by Lil Johnson (I think, or maybe Bessie Smith) 'Keep Your Hands Off'n My Mojo (If You Know What's Good For You)'? Or even the ubiquitous 'Got My Mojo Workin' (about turning his woman out on the street to earn, non?)... Mojo = Molly Johnson, the equivalent to Rod Johnson and all that business. I dunno though, that blues vernacular was current a long time in the past, can anybody these days know for sure? Is there a Stack O' Lee type 'in search of' book in the offing? Let's nail this thing down once and for all I say. Mostly just because I'm sick n' tired of people throwing the term out there like they're knowledgeable and hip when maybe they really aren't...

 

[axel]

I thought it means some kind of spell or voodoo. "Got My Mojo Workin" a synonym for "I Put A Spell On You".
"... but it just won't work on you."
Kinda cute if you think of it. The poor guy is trying everything he can to get the girl, even got his mojo workin, but it won't help him none.

 

[mansson66]

My mojo = my powers
...is my understanding of it. Sexual powers and/or the powers to possess. I've never given it much thought beyond that - but i've never attributed the term to a certain physical part of the body...

 

[Such A Fool]

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
mojo /ˈməʊdʒəʊ/

▶noun (pl. mojos) chiefly US a magic charm or spell.
■ power or influence.
– origin 1920s: prob. of Afr. origin; cf. Gullah moco ‘witchcraft’.

 

[beccabear67]

I have a minority take on this then, no doubt led astray by some Stash LP liner notes! I thought for sure a magic charm or spell was a 'Juju' though. Never heard Mojo on any African recordings but have heard Juju sometimes. I wonder if what I think 'Mofo' means is wrong too... :)

 

[Westex]

Yeah... mojo is that unspoken, uknown magic.

It has great significance locally...
http://lonestarstomp.blogspot.com/2010/08/mo-jo-mo-jo-mo-jo.html



The American Embassy, the Roadrunners, the Shades, the Great Grannies and the Knights Bridge... they all had the Mojo.

 

[Manos E. Brazos]

Can the proper MOJO then protect you against BAD JUJU ??

 

[Darren J Wallace]

It works for Austin Powers!