"In Ryan Coogler's 2025 blockbuster, Sinners, Wunmi Mosaku plays a woman named Annie, who makes a living by supplying her neighbors in Clarksdale, Mississippi, with homemade medicinal cures. She has spent years studying the Bible, the human body, and the supernatural. And she is the only character who understands the trouble brewing outside the juke joint where the town's Black residents have gathered one evening for a night of music and dancing."
"Lindsey Stewart's new book, The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic, arrives amid a wave of visibility for conjure practices. Conjure is a central element not only of Sinners but also of HBO's 2020 series Lovecraft Country, where two characters summon a healer to purge a haunted house, as well as Beyoncé's 2016 visual album, Lemonade, in which the artist calls on her ancestors"
"conjuring has been enmeshed in American life for centuries. A hybrid practice rooted in religions from West and Central Africa, it has been shaped by influences from Christianity, Islam, and Indigenous groups in North America. Today, conjurers are not exclusively women. Still, most people familiar with its history associate the practice with them because it is largely a domestic art, carried forward through women's hands and from their homes. Many conjurers believe the spirit world can be petitioned for healing and protection:"
Conjure originated among enslaved people and blends West and Central African religious elements with influences from Christianity, Islam, and Indigenous North American traditions. The practice has been woven into American life for centuries and is often transmitted through domestic, predominantly female hands, though practitioners today include men. Conjurers create remedies, rituals, and petitions to the spirit world for healing and protection. Conjure has appeared across contemporary popular culture, in film, television, and music, and its increased visibility occurs alongside political attacks on Black civil rights and efforts to erase Black history.
Read at The Atlantic
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