Obeah, they wukking obeah!

It’s believed to be a desired option for people bent on getting a lover, spouse, property, vehicle or job promotion.

And while obeah, also referred to as black magic, has historically been defined as a series of rituals and practices synonymous with African slaves and their descendants in the Caribbean, it remains a source of fear, mystery and disdain, even though it still exists in some islands, including Bahamas, Belize and Suriname, as a part of everyday life.

This is the view of religious leaders and academics who spoke to Sunday Newsday about the phenomenon, after the severed head of a chicken tied to a small black coffin was found on Monday at the entrance gate to the Port of Spain Magistrates Court.

The incident had sparked talk of obeah outside of the courthouse.

Spiritual Baptist leader The Rev Dr Hazel-Ann Gibbs-De Peza said although she had not heard about the incident, she was not surprised.

In fact, she claimed such occurrences are common.

“You don’t see it as often in the city because generally people will tend not to display those things in city areas. But, in the country areas that would have been almost a norm in years gone by,” she claimed.

Gibbs-De Peza said if someone had a big case coming up in court there was the likelihood of seeing a frog, with its mouth tied up, in the courtroom.

“It is about people’s attempt to win whatever they are doing.”

Attorney Martin George told Sunday Newsday he had heard of bizarre incidents occurring at courthouses but claimed they were not prevalent.

“I have heard of a couple and it is more in cases in the criminal arena you tend to hear of these things occurring. I certainly think it is not something that is very prevalent at all in our courts and I think your best defence for anyone is to get a good lawyer.”

Another attorney recalled seeing, in his youth, a dead crapaud with a padlock on its mouth on the grounds of the Red House, Port of Spain, when the Criminal Assizes was located there.

“I remember being very astounded by this. But I later recognised that people have beliefs that they can alter the outcome of events by means that are unusual,” he said. (The attorney did not want to be named.)

“People have different forms of seeking divine intervention. It is just another thing that goes on in the society that is not properly understood. But people genuinely believe in these things.”

He said such incidents also occur because of desperation.

Stemming from the rituals of West Africa and immortalised in song in offerings such as Shadow’s (Winston Bailey) Obeah Man, obeah was, in part, practised by the slaves both as a coping mechanism and form of resistance to the horrors of slavery.

Gibbs-De Peza noted, though, it continues to be ridiculed by whites and other ethnic groups, largely because of ignorance.

“The white people have their magic as well. But whatever happened among the blacks, they referred to it as obeah and it is usually associated with evil.”

The word, obeah, she said, emerged from the obi seed, which was used by the Orishas and other groups in the African tradition for medicinal purposes.

Gibbs-Peza, principal of the Herman Parris Spiritual Baptist School of Theology, said: “You can use the obi for a number of ailments. So, there is a lot of mystery surrounding it and because of that, people associate the term obeah coming from use of the obi.”

The negative stigma attached to the practices, she observed, has persisted over the generations.

“We know the history of black people in this part of the world. Once it is black, it is evil.”

Gibbs-De Peza, added: “They not concerned about the spirituality. Therefore, whenever there is anything to do with evil, particularly in the spiritual realm, it is referred to as obeah.”

Cultural activist Attillah Springer, commenting on the condemnatory response to the incident outside of the Port of Spain Magistrates Court, wrote in a Facebook post that obeah is often subjected to blanket interpretations.

“There are multiple considerations of the origin of the word ‘obeah,’....Similar or root words exist in Twi, Efik, Akan...but what we know of obeah is a sloppy colonialist lumping together of complex spiritual systems that they did not understand but that they feared would be used by enslaved people to emancipate themselves.”

And while obeah has its historical antecedents in West Africa, Springer wrote in her post the belief does not exist solely in African spiritual systems.

She said: “Many spiritual systems across the world believe that plants, animals, stones, wood, trees, geographical locations, have an energy frequency and that you can use these to move yourself or others closer to or further away from balance.”

Springer said obeah was criminalised in the Caribbean because it was “a tool of resistance,” with the first laws appearing in 1760 after Tacky’s Rebellion in Jamaica.

More than two centuries later, in 2015, Springer noted people outside of the African race–three Hindu men–were also arrested and deported from Antigua under the Obeah Act of 1904.

Historian Dr Jerome Teelucksingh supports the view that theories about obeah have, to some extent, been misinformed, mainly because of the region’s Euro-centric past.

“It is negative because of our colonial mentality. That, I think, draws the fear,” he said.

“Colonialism has ended but we still have this mentality and mindset. It is a fixation, one that is in our psyche.”

Teelucksingh argued, though, the same negativity ascribed to obeah is also seen among Hindus with respect to Kali Puja, a festival dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali.

“I think it is a Eurocentric mentality and belief that has been engrained in our psyche to judge religions on the basis of Christianity.

“We used Christianity as a colonial yardstick to judge and measure the merit of other practices, religions and other aspects of our society too.”

He added: “We live in a country and region which is multi-cultural and multi-religious and we need to also understand that even though the majority of the population will condemn obeah as evil, obeah was used by the slaves.”

Although it is viewed as satanic, Teelucksingh said obeah was used by Nanny, a slave leader to the Maroons of Jamaica.

He said: “The British referred to her as the rebels’ old obeah woman. So that part of the oral tradition of those who revisited slavery, was that they had obeah on their side and that is how they were able to resist the planters and the cruelty and trauma of slavery.”

Teelucksingh said there was even a talk that Toussaint L’Overture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution, had used obeah to help him win his victories.

“So, I think when we examine obeah, it is very easy to say that these people are backward and primitive. But we also have to appreciate the fact that it is part of our culture and that the slaves used it.

“We cannot just dismiss obeah in 2018 as something that does not exist. It has always been part of the Caribbean religious and social fabric.”

Teelucksingh said as a historian, he could not condemn obeah because it comes from an ethnic group.

“Once you start condemning the obeah you could say some of the practices of the Spiritual Baptists or the Orisha are also considered obeah.”

In contemporary society, De Peza noted obeah is often used by people to acquire things they genuinely desire.

“In every tradition, if you want something there is some method of attracting it to yourself.

“So, if you are a Catholic, you say the Rosary or do a novena in order to get what you want. If you are Hindu you do a puja to get what you want. But with black people, because it’s black, it’s called obeah.”

Gibbs-De Peza added: “So, even if you decide to do some praying and fasting for a period of time, in order to get something to work your way, instead of seeing that as you lining up with the natural forces, they see it as evil.”

Springer, in her Facebook post, alluded to the potential for self-enhancement through natural elements.

She wrote: “Obeah is not Ifa/Orisa. However Ifa/Orisa devotees believe that all natural elements have a vibrational force that can be harnessed to achieve certain outcomes for the person requesting the ritual, or the intended receiver of the effects of the ritual.”

Springer also highlighted the potential for negativity through lack of knowledge.

“All systems can be used for both positive and negative, if you believe in these polarities. Political, educational, spiritual systems around the world have since the dawn of humanity been created and interpreted by those who have more information to manipulate those who have less information.”

Still, De Peza, who is also chairman of the National Congress of Incorporated Baptist Organisations of TT, argued obeah can equally be used to do harm to others or commit evil.

She said while a person may go to an obeah man to get a job or husband/wife, someone else may go with the intention to get somebody out of the way to get what they want.

“The same thing that can be used for good can be used for evil. That is just how life is. The same fire that you can use to cook is the same fire you can burn down the house with.”

She argued that the rituals of itself are not evil. “It is the intent to which you put it.”

The Baptist leader said the average person would be amazed by the calibre of people who seek