STRANGE JAMAICA
The status of Obeah is the subject of heated debate in Jamaica, but belief in this magical practice is widespread
OBEAH: FOR AND AGAINST
A recent letter to the Jamaica Gleaner highlighted the fact that law prohibiting the practice of Obeah (a system of spiritual/ magical beliefs similar to Vodou/ Voodoo) had still not been repealed, despite several other Caribbean countries having done so. Anguilla decriminalised Obeah in 1989, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia in 1998, 2000 and 2004 respectively, and Guyana announced in 2018 that it would be removing the law from its books.
Jamaica’s 122-year-old Obeah Act makes it illegal if “any person who, to effect any fraudulent or unlawful purpose, or for gain, or for the purpose of frightening any person, uses, or pretends to use any occult means, or pretends to possess any supernatural power or knowledge”.
The letter writer, Mr Fitsroy Randall, recalls that in 2019, when the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government announced it was to open a discussion on whether to repeal the Obeah Act, many Jamaicans and church groups joined together to fight the motion, on the basis that Obeah is inherently evil.
Mr Randall disagrees, and regards the criminalisation of Obeah as a legacy of colonialism, when African ancestral practices and beliefs were repressed by the British in a bid to protect the system of slavery against uprisings. Obeah was first made illegal in 1760 in wake of Chief Tacky’s Rebellion, during which rebel leaders sought advice from Obeahmen who encouraged the fighters and offered spiritual protection (reminiscent of the Bois Caiman ceremony that took place in Haiti in August 1791, at which, it is said, the revolutionaries successfully enlisted the help of the Vodou lwa to ensure their success in overthrowing French rule; see FT362:44-48).
Mr Randall insists that Obeah is not black magic or evil, but is in fact a system of “spiritual healing, justice-making and communicating with our ancestors and spirits.” He insists that the Obeah Act is “a discriminatory colonial anachronism that favours European belief systems above all others” and suggests the continued ban on this African-derived practice is in contradiction to Jamaica’s constitution which guarantees every citizen “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief”.
However, another letter, published in the Gleaner
three weeks later, took a very different view of the matter. Mr Gordon Russell took issue with the previous correspondent’s defence of Obeah, and described its claim that Obeah is not witchcraft as misleading. Mr Russell states there are “only two kingdoms vying for the allegiance of mankind.” The first is the kingdom of light, headed by God, while the second is the kingdom of darkness led by Satan. Practices such as Obeah are, in Mr Russell’s eyes, simply a deception by the Devil and designed to enslave mankind. Thus, the earlier letter’s argument that the British colonial power’s prohibition of Obeah was a continuation of enslavement is viewed by Mr Russell as entirely wrong and topsy-turvy: “Randall suggests that making Obeah illegal was an attempt... to keep our people enslaved, not recognising that the law was there to do the exact opposite,” i.e. to prevent enslavement by Satan.
Evidently, Obeah and its prohibition are still subjects of great controversy in Jamaica today, engendering heated debates in the Gleaner and elsewhere. Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, 27 Nov; 17 Dec 2020.
OBEAH SEX DEMON
An unpleasant episode recently demonstrated the continued prevalence of belief in Obeah among the younger as well as the older generations. A Jamaican college student browsing her Facebook page one evening in January 2021 received an unsolicited message that read: “Death is upon yuh, that traditional curse. Yuh have a very bright future, don’t allow anyone to take it away. You are going to have to come and see mi personally, madam, or else yuh going to dead.” The unknown man urged the woman to “set herself free” and not to allow “the enemy to beat her down.”
The man told her she had been possessed by a sex demon and that she would die by the end of February. Initially unconcerned, the student gradually became more fearful as the man began telling her about events in her life that appeared true. He told her he was not only a ‘reader man’ but that he had the ability to free her from the evil force that menaced her.
“Him start say mi need a spiritual bath and him send mi him number.” A spiritual bath is a traditional method whereby herbs, leaves and oils are added to water so that the recipient may bathe in it and be cleansed of negative energies, or endowed with positive ones, and is a popular practice in the Caribbean, the US Hoodoo tradition, and in Caribbean diaspora communities worldwide.
As the end of February drew closer, the frightened student relented. “And mi, like a fool,” she explained, “give the man mi number and him tell me to buy something to prepare the bath.” She was told to purchase items including several green limes, a dried coconut, olive oil, and a bottle of rum. In all, she used $8,000 Jamaican dollars (£37) from her savings, but was told to bring a further $7,500 (£35) for candles, and $1,300 cash (£6) as an altar offering.
It was only when she arrived at the man’s residence that she began to sense something was wrong. “Mi tink him a guh [was going to] just do the bath, and take off whatever curse was upon me. Him carry mi outside and tell me to spin three times in front of a mirror and him pray and bruk [break] di coconut. Him carry mi back inside and say mi must take off mi clothes because mi have a sex demon on mi and in order fi him to remove the curse him have to get sexual with me.” He apparently told the by now very suspicious young woman that all he needed her to do was to “rub him down”. But while her memory of the precise order of events was unclear, she recalls him spraying something on her, then realised they were both naked. “I remember him telling mi to pray, and the next thing I know he was on top of mi.” It was unclear at the time of writing whether the unfortunate woman had gone to the police to seek redress against this predatory and unscrupulous conman masquerading as an Obeah worker. Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, 18 Feb 2021.