Mumbo Jumbo
E355280
Mumbo Jumbo is a 1972 satirical novel by Ishmael Reed that blends African American folklore, postmodern narrative techniques, and political commentary to critique Western culture and history.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Mumbo Jumbo canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3407554 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mumbo Jumbo Context triple: [Ishmael Reed, notableWork, Mumbo Jumbo]
-
A.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is an influential 1981 experimental album by David Byrne and Brian Eno, renowned for its pioneering use of sampling and found vocals.
-
B.
Tar Baby
"Tar Baby" is a 1981 novel by Toni Morrison that explores race, class, identity, and desire through the complex relationships between a Black fashion model and a mysterious drifter on a Caribbean island.
-
C.
The Serpent and the Rainbow
The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 horror film directed by Wes Craven that blends voodoo folklore with psychological terror, loosely based on Wade Davis’s non-fiction book about Haitian zombification practices.
-
D.
The Soul of the White Ant
The Soul of the White Ant is a classic early 20th-century natural history book by Eugène Marais that explores the complex social structure and behavior of termites through a blend of scientific observation and philosophical reflection.
-
E.
Anansi Boys
Anansi Boys is a contemporary fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman that blends myth, humor, and family drama through the story of the sons of the West African trickster god Anansi.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mumbo Jumbo Target entity description: Mumbo Jumbo is a 1972 satirical novel by Ishmael Reed that blends African American folklore, postmodern narrative techniques, and political commentary to critique Western culture and history.
-
A.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is an influential 1981 experimental album by David Byrne and Brian Eno, renowned for its pioneering use of sampling and found vocals.
-
B.
Tar Baby
"Tar Baby" is a 1981 novel by Toni Morrison that explores race, class, identity, and desire through the complex relationships between a Black fashion model and a mysterious drifter on a Caribbean island.
-
C.
The Serpent and the Rainbow
The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 horror film directed by Wes Craven that blends voodoo folklore with psychological terror, loosely based on Wade Davis’s non-fiction book about Haitian zombification practices.
-
D.
The Soul of the White Ant
The Soul of the White Ant is a classic early 20th-century natural history book by Eugène Marais that explores the complex social structure and behavior of termites through a blend of scientific observation and philosophical reflection.
-
E.
Anansi Boys
Anansi Boys is a contemporary fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman that blends myth, humor, and family drama through the story of the sons of the West African trickster god Anansi.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
novel
ⓘ
satirical novel ⓘ |
| author | Ishmael Reed ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
African American folklore
ⓘ
African diasporic spirituality ⓘ critique of Western culture ⓘ cultural imperialism ⓘ resistance to Eurocentrism ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| critiques |
Western historiography
ⓘ
cultural appropriation ⓘ white supremacy ⓘ |
| featuresConcept | Jes Grew ⓘ |
| followedBy | The Last Days of Louisiana Red ⓘ |
| genre |
African-American literature
ⓘ
historical fiction ⓘ postmodern fiction ⓘ satire ⓘ |
| hasCharacter |
Black Herman
ⓘ
Earline ⓘ Hinckle Von Vampton ⓘ |
| hasCriticalReception | acclaimed by many literary critics ⓘ |
| hasIllustrations | yes ⓘ |
| hasISBN | 9780385074753 ⓘ |
| hasMainCharacter | PaPa LaBas ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
African American folklore
ⓘ
Hoodoo traditions ⓘ jazz culture ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | postmodernism ⓘ |
| narrativeStyle |
metafiction
ⓘ
nonlinear narrative ⓘ |
| narrativeTechnique |
intertextuality
ⓘ
multiple perspectives ⓘ pastiche ⓘ |
| notableFor |
blend of folklore and postmodern narrative
ⓘ
satirical treatment of Western civilization ⓘ |
| partOf | Ishmael Reed bibliography ⓘ |
| plotElement | mysterious epidemic of dance and joy called Jes Grew ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1972 ⓘ |
| publisher | Doubleday ⓘ |
| settingPlace |
New Orleans
ⓘ
New York City ⓘ United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| settingTime | 1920s ⓘ |
| studiedIn |
African American literature courses
ⓘ
postmodern literature courses ⓘ |
| usesForm |
footnotes
ⓘ
photographs ⓘ pseudo-historical documents ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Mumbo Jumbo Description of subject: Mumbo Jumbo is a 1972 satirical novel by Ishmael Reed that blends African American folklore, postmodern narrative techniques, and political commentary to critique Western culture and history.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Ishmael Reed