juju

1. An object used as a fetish, a charm, or an amulet in West Africa.
2. The supernatural power ascribed to such an object.
3. A style of Nigerian popular music featuring electric guitars and traditional drums.

[Hausa jūjū, fetish, evil spirit.]

noun

A small object worn or kept for its supposed magical power: amulet, charm, fetish, periapt, phylactery, talisman. See supernatural.

One of Nigeria's chief exports to the English-speaking world is oil. Another is juju. It's a little bit of voodoo and a lot of music.

Juju of the more sinister sort was mentioned in 1997 by Reuben Abati, member of the editorial board of the Guardian Newspapers of Lagos, Nigeria. He told of a Nigerian in the United States who "had built a strong network for credit card fraud. He repatriated funds regularly to Nigerian banks. After his arrest, his associates were afraid to testify against him. The fellow was said to have strong 'juju.' Even the presiding judge was advised to be careful lest the accused gave him an incurable ailment by 'remote control.'"

But the juju that is more prominent among Nigerian exports today is music. Modern juju music, as Andrew Frankel of Graviton African Music Productions explains, is "a lively mixture of traditional Yoruba social dance drumming, songs, and praise poetry, Latin American rhythms, and Christian church hymns, performed on guitar, percussion, and talking drums." Talking drums? Yes, because many African languages convey meaning not only with vowels and consonants but with different tones of voice, so you can have something of a conversation using drums of different tones. I. K. Dairo was the first of Nigeria's juju musicians to attract international attention. Another performer has been known as King Sunny Ade since he was crowned King of Juju Music in a grand ceremony in 1967.

Although the music is based in the Yoruba culture, the word juju apparently has its source in the Hausa language. Hausa is one of the principal languages of Nigeria, spoken by nearly twenty million people there, one-fifth of the population. It is also the language of an additional three million people in Niger. Hausa is a Chadic language in the Afro-Asiatic language family. Juju was noted in English as long ago as 1894 in a book about West Africa. One other word of Hausa which has recently immigrated to English is the name of a long, straight trombone, the kakaki.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: the power associated with a juju

Meaning #2: a charm superstitiously believed to embody magical powers
  Synonyms: voodoo, hoodoo, fetish, fetich

For other uses, see Juju (disambiguation).

An 1873 Victorian illustration of a "Ju-ju house" on the Gold Coast showing fetishised skulls and bones.

Juju charm protecting dugout canoe on riverbank, in Suriname.1954.

Juju or Ju-Ju is a word of West African origin, derived from the French joujou (toy) ^[1], that refers to the supernatural power ascribed to an object; or fetish. It can also refer to the use of such objects, making it a form of witchcraft.^[2]

"An object of any kind superstitiously venerated by West African native tribes, and used as a charm, amulet, or means of protection; a fetish. Also the supernatural or magical power attributed to such objects, or the system of observances connected therewith; also a ban or interdiction effected by means of such an object (corresponding to the Polynesian taboo)." ^[3]

The term juju, and the practices associated with it, travelled to the Americas from West Africa with the influx of slaves and still survives in some areas, particularly among the various groups of Maroons, who have tended to preserve their African traditions.

Footnotes

1. ^ Dictionary.com
2. ^ For a good referenced discussion of the main meanings and origin of the term
3. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. (1971). Oxford University Press.

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