The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher
"The Conjure-Man Dies" by Rudolph Fisher is recognized as the first known detective novel penned by an African American, set against the backdrop of Harlem during the Great Depression. The story features a diverse cast of characters, including Jinx Jenkins and Bubber Brown, two unemployed furniture movers who inadvertently find themselves embroiled in a murder investigation. The murder victim, a conjure man named N'Gana Frimbo, is a complex figure who embodies the cultural traditions of his West African heritage, bridging connections among African Americans, Caribbean peoples, and Africans. The plot thickens as various suspects, including a numbers-runner and a railroad worker, emerge, leading to a series of twists that reveal deeper social issues within the Harlem community.
Fisher’s narrative cleverly intertwines elements of humor with a keen observation of the harsh realities faced by Harlem residents, showcasing their resilience and resourcefulness amid economic hardship. The presence of crime and the underground economy, such as the numbers racket, illustrates the challenges and survival strategies of the community. Furthermore, the novel grapples with themes of identity, ambition, and societal expectations, particularly as characters navigate the pressures of being pioneers in their respective fields. Through its innovative storytelling, "The Conjure-Man Dies" not only entertains but also offers a profound commentary on the complexities of life in Harlem, influencing future African American writers in the detective genre.
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The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher
First published: 1932
The Work
In The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem, Rudolph Fisher combines his talent and comedic wit with his knowledge of medicine to produce the first known detective novel by an African American. Fisher introduces a variety of Harlem characters, including Jinx Jenkins and Bubber Brown, unemployed furniture movers who also appear in The Walls of Jericho (1928). Other characters include John Archer, the doctor who helps Harlem police solve the murder.
The complex plot highlights characters and settings popularized in Fisher’s works. When Jinx and Bubber discover the murdered conjure man, they become suspects with several others: a numbers-runner, Spider Webb, who works in Harlem’s illegal lottery system; a drug addict named Doty Hicks; a railroad worker; and a church worker. Mr. Crouch, mortician and owner of the building in which the conjure man is a tenant, and Crouch’s wife Martha are quickly dismissed as suspects. When the corpse disappears and reappears as the live conjure man, Archer and Detective Dart know that there has been a murder but are unable to find the corpse. The conjure man is seen burning a body in the furnace. The body is of his servant, who was mistakenly killed instead of the conjure man. The conjure man adamantly insists he is innocent and helps to set a trap for the real murderer, but the conjure man is fatally shot by the railroad worker. Distraught that he has killed her lover, Martha assaults the railroad man, and all discover he is none other than the avenging Mr. Crouch, in disguise.
The detective story framework of The Conjure-Man Dies does not overshadow Fisher’s depiction of several issues of Harlem life. Residents of Harlem resort to creative means to survive as the Depression makes their difficult economic situations worse. Bubber becomes a self-appointed detective for spouses who suspect their partners are being unfaithful. The numbers racket provides a living for many, including the conjure man. African Americans who are “firsts” to achieve a specific rank are under pressure to prove themselves worthy. Such is the case for detective Dart, who privately thanks Dr. Archer for promising that the city administration will be informed that Dart solved the murder.
Although Fisher’s development of the hard-boiled character may have been influenced by the detective fiction of Dashiell Hammett, his most remarkable character is the conjure man, N’Gana Frimbo, a Harvard-educated West African king who imparts the traditions of his culture to Dr. Archer. Frimbo reflects Fisher’s interest in the connections among blacks in Harlem, the Caribbean, and Africa. In the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance, Fisher creates a new path with The Conjure-Man Dies, one that would influence later writers such as Chester Himes and Walter Mosley.
Bibliography
Berghahn, Marion. Images of Africa in Black American Literature. London: Macmillan, 1977. A consideration of the image of the African in history and in literature. The first part of the book discusses the image of Africans in the white imagination. The chapter titled “The ’Harlem Renaissance’” presents useful information that helps one to understand a character such as N’Gana Frimbo.
De Jongh, James. Vicious Modernism: Black Harlem and the Literary Imagination. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Discusses major historical and literary events that helped to make Harlem a culture capital for African Americans. Contains a fine, but relatively short, discussion of The Conjure-Man Dies that emphasizes the novel’s ability to mediate black experience in Harlem of the 1930’s.
Gayle, Addison, Jr. The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1975. Gives a good general overview of the development of the African American novel. Two chapters help to position Rudolph Fisher’s work: “The New Negro” and “The Outsider.” Gayle argues that Fisher’s novels advance many of Marcus Garvey’s ideas.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. One of the most readable general discussions of the Harlem Renaissance. Provides ample coverage of the many people and contexts that helped to define this period. Suggests that The Conjure-Man Dies is a breakthrough novel for Fisher.
Perry, Margaret. “A Fisher of Black Life: Short Stories by Rudolph Fisher.” In The Harlem Renaissance Re-examined, edited by Victor A. Kramer and Robert A. Russ. Rev. and expanded ed. Troy, N.Y.: Whitson, 1997. Discusses Fisher’s short fiction, both published and unpublished. Argues that Harlem and its spirit had an important place in Fisher’s fiction. Fisher explores both urban realism and rural or African rituals and customs, so that his works give full coverage of many parts of the African American experience, including its darker side.
Scruggs, Charles. “Sexual Desire, Modernity, and Modernism in the Fiction of Nella Larsen and Rudolph Fisher.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance, edited by George Hutchinson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Examines the intersection of modern mass culture and the modernist literary response by interpreting the representation of sex and desire in Fisher’s work.
Soitos, Stephen F. The Blues Detective: A Study of African American Detective Fiction. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996. Comprehensive overview of the history of mystery and detective fiction by African American writers. Bibliographic references and index.