Conjurer and the Rabbit: Protector of chil’ren, 2022

Magic and myth are commonplace within every culture around the world and Black Americans are no exception. A uniquely Black American traditional spiritual practice called ‘Hoo Doo’ emerged during slavery in the United States. Broadly speaking, Hoo Doo is a healing art, sense of ancestral memory, instrument for protection and much more. Within Black American culture and tradition (mainly Southern), the Conjure Woman / Man is sometimes endowed with the ability to communicate with the spiritual world by utilizing botanical knowledge passed down from their African ancestors (blended with Christianity), Amerindian planet knowledge, and European folklore.

Depicted in this piece, the role of the conjure woman is to act as protector of children against agents of harm. Accompanying the conjure woman is br’er rabbit, a trickster character who uses wit over brawn upsetting both social norms and powerful adversaries. The tale of br’er rabbit within Black American culture has its roots throughout West, South, and Central Africa. The br’er rabbit has been heralded as a folklore hero and the function of telling the br’er rabbit tale to children has been to impart lessons in morality.

The conjure woman and br’er rabbit make a formidable team in the quest to protect and teach children, however they are aided above by the Gullah Geechee blue hand with X’s on the finger tips. There is a unique color of blue used by Gullah Geechee to keep evil spirits and ghosts at bay, referred to as haint, which gave rise to the hue ‘haint blue’ which is commonly applied to the ceiling in front porches and window frames. The X’s on the finger tips in some Hoo Doo traditions include grounding eggshell to power and marking X’s on hands to ensure protection against those who may want to do you harm. Raining from above are black eye peas, a staple of Black American soul food. It is tradition to prepare black eye peas on New Years Day to ensure prosperity for the year and the origins of this practice are intertwined between West Africa and Western Europe.

And so between conjure woman‘s spiritual and botanical knowledge, br’er rabbit’s bravery and clever disposition, Gullah Geechee‘s ghost catching blue haint and the black eyed peas capping it nutrition and luck, the chil’ren are in good hands.