View source for Jumbee

{{short description|Caribbean mythological spirit}}
{{distinguish|zombie}}
{{multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=October 2006}}
{{More footnotes|section|date=April 2010}}
}}
A '''jumbee''', '''jumbie''', '''mendo''' or '''chongo''' in [[Colombia]] and [[Venezuela]] is a type of mythological spirit or [[demon]] in the [[folklore]] of some [[Caribbean]] countries. Jumbee is the generic name given to all malevolent entities. There are numerous kinds of jumbees, reflecting the [[History of the Caribbean|Caribbean's complex history]] and ethnic makeup, drawing on African, Amerindian, East Indian, Dutch, English, and even Chinese [[mythology]].
Different cultures have different concepts of jumbees, but the general idea is that people who have been evil are destined to become instruments of evil (jumbee) in death. Unlike the ghost folklore which represents a wispy fog-like creature, the jumbee casts a dark shadowy figure.
== Regional ==
People in [[Commonwealth Caribbean|English-speaking Caribbean states]] that were colonized by the British commonly believe in this creature. The belief is also held by practitioners of [[Obeah]], a form of mystical wizardry that encompasses traditional African beliefs and Western European, primarily Anglican, images and beliefs concerning the dead. [[Guyana]], and various islands—including [[Antigua]] and [[Barbuda]] in the east, [[The Bahamas]] in the north and as far south as [[Trinidad]]—have long held a tradition of folklore that includes the jumbee.
In the French islands [[Guadeloupe]] and [[Martinique]], people speak of [[zombie|Zombi]] rather than Jumbie to describe ghosts, revenants and other supernatural creatures. The Étang Zombi in Guadeloupe owes its name to the legend of the wife of a slaver who was killed by her husband for trying to free his slaves and now haunts the pond.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://maisonscreoles.net/patrimoine/patrimoine-guadeloupe/le-mysterieux-etang-zombis|title=LE MYSTÉRIEUX ÉTANG ZOMBIS|date=21 November 2014 }}</ref>
The [[Kongo people|people of the Congo]] speak of what they believe to be a Nfumbi—ancestral ghost—which could be related to the word Jumbie.
=== British Virgin Islands and United States Virgin Islands ===
A Mocko jumbie is a cultural stilt-dancer from the BVI and USVI.
=== The Bahamas ===
As [[Elsie Clews Parsons|Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons]] captured in a 1918 transcription of an old Bahamian story, the jumbee in Jamaica is often called a "sprit": "Dese sprits which you call witch people, dey lives in de air."<ref name="American Folklore Society 1918 p. 5">{{cite book | author=American Folklore Society | title=Memoirs of the American Folk-lore Society | publisher=American Folk-lore Society | issue=v. 13 | year=1918 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1dLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5 | access-date=August 5, 2019 | page=5}}</ref>
=== Jamaica and Barbados===
In Jamaica and Barbados, a jumbee is called a [[duppy]].
=== Montserrat ===
In the folk religion of [[Montserrat]], a jumbie is a ghost, or spirit of the dead. Jumbies are said to possess people during ceremonies called jumbie dances, which are accompanied by jumbie drums. Four couples perform a set of five progressively quicker [[quadrille]]s during the jumbie dance, switching out with other couples until someone is eventually possessed by a jumbie.
Jumbies receive numerous small offerings from Montserratians, such as a few drops of [[rum]] or food. They are also the subject of numerous superstitions. It is believed that the spirit separates from the body three days after death, at which point the havoc begins. Jumbies are believed to have the ability to shape-shift, usually taking the form of a dog, pig, or more likely, a cat.
== Characteristics ==
There are many recommended ways to avoid or escape jumbie encounters:{{citation needed|date=May 2011}}
* If a pair of shoes is left outside the front door of a house, jumbies (who have either no feet at all, or backwards feet) will spend the entire night trying and failing to put on the shoes, rather than entering the house.
* Jumbies are similarly distracted by a heap of sand or salt or rice outside a door, since their [[Obsessive–compulsive disorder|obsessive curiosity]] (particularly in the case of the Firerass, or ole Higue) compels them to count every grain before the sun rises. Likewise, a rope with many knots in it will keep a jumbie busy trying to undo them until sunrise.
* Upon coming home late at night, walking backwards may prevent a jumbee from following one inside.
* If a jumbee chases a person, crossing a river may stop them; since it is believed that jumbees, like their relatives in numerous cultures, cannot follow over water.
== See also ==
* "[[Jumbie Jamberee]]", a popular calypso song
* [[Wekufe]]
* [[Henry S. Whitehead]] and the collection ''[[Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales]]''
* [[Zombie]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== Sources ==
* {{cite web
|url=http://www.statecraft.net/montserrat/doc/MUSICOFMONTSERRAT2003.doc
|access-date=December 8, 2005
|title=Music of Montserrat
|publisher=Montserrat First, Montserrat Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) Inc.
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060107213936/http://www.statecraft.net/montserrat/doc/MUSICOFMONTSERRAT2003.doc
|archive-date=January 7, 2006
|url-status=dead
}}
* {{cite book
|title=Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume Two: South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
|author=Messenger, John
|chapter=Montserrat
|pages=[https://archive.org/details/garlandencyclope0001unse/page/922 922–926]
|isbn=0-8153-1865-0
|year=1999
|publisher=Routledge
|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/garlandencyclope0001unse/page/922
}}
* [link broken Guyanese folklore] at Guyana Outpost
* Hochschild, Adam. ''King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa''. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin (1998, p.&nbsp;15).
[[Category:Caribbean legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Native American demons]]
[[Category:Culture of Guyana]]
[[Category:Culture of Montserrat]]
[[Category:Culture of Trinidad and Tobago]]