What is Obeah?

[rufian]

Re: What is Obeah?

JesusDread, at this point in time, do you consider yourself to be a christian? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
You seem very ordinary to me. Nothing changed, nothing different.

[Fledgist]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Richard Mann:
[qb] I remain perplexed by JesusDred's ability to type these incredibly long posts and cuss and trace all in the nameof the lord. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [/qb]

I guess you'd rather see me silent and take my cussing like a man.
[/qb]

I doubt I shall live to see the day when you take something like a man. [/qb]

Yu gwaan like yu tekin sumting like a woman! Mek yu love trace me so stalker, miss lashy. It just makes your day when you see me posting something so you can expose yuself. Go back in your closet.

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [/qb]

Interesting obsession you have there. It seems to me that people who bluster and protest as much as you do on that subject are trying to cover something up.

[Fledgist]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb] Originally posted by sukuna:
Deut 18:10-13 never say nothing bout obeah. no wonder yu a classify obeah and witchcraft as same.
is it wrong to consult a person for my physical health and well-being? it is wrong to go to the doctor?
a only obeah can ha yu so

-----------------------------------------

Unless is anada obeah difrant fram de one yu use to, me kno, obeah is witchcraft. Dem cast spells, dem consult spirits an a dem tings Duet 18 a lik out gainst.

Anyway sukuna, mi know yu only use yur obeah fi do good an heal people so mi wi come chek yu when mi head start raise and mi foot dem a swell cause a tink sumady pan dis board mad wid mi an dem mighta jinx mi, LOL

TGIF, have a wonderful week end and a happy, fulfilling life.

Abracadabraaaaaaaa

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [/qb]

Of course Obeah must be what you say, after all it was created by the Negroes in Africa, not by the white people who brought the light of the Gospels to us benighted savages. [/qb]

Obeah was created by your father, Satan, just like wicca, wirchcraft, and the rest of your trade.

Fiya! [/qb]

My father was a decent, hardworking man, who's been dead now for three years. He didn't create obeah. That a piece of trash like you would seek to sully his name comes as no surprise. Your racist self-hatred is rather interesting.

[Green_Biscuit]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by sukuna:
[qb] while we are at it, Green_Biscuit mermaid and mami wata a de same? [/qb]

I have no idea Sukana. Are they? Peace and blessings to you all. I am gone for a week.

[JesusDread]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb] Originally posted by sukuna:
Deut 18:10-13 never say nothing bout obeah. no wonder yu a classify obeah and witchcraft as same.
is it wrong to consult a person for my physical health and well-being? it is wrong to go to the doctor?
a only obeah can ha yu so

-----------------------------------------

Unless is anada obeah difrant fram de one yu use to, me kno, obeah is witchcraft. Dem cast spells, dem consult spirits an a dem tings Duet 18 a lik out gainst.

Anyway sukuna, mi know yu only use yur obeah fi do good an heal people so mi wi come chek yu when mi head start raise and mi foot dem a swell cause a tink sumady pan dis board mad wid mi an dem mighta jinx mi, LOL

TGIF, have a wonderful week end and a happy, fulfilling life.

Abracadabraaaaaaaa

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [/qb]

Of course Obeah must be what you say, after all it was created by the Negroes in Africa, not by the white people who brought the light of the Gospels to us benighted savages. [/qb]

Obeah was created by your father, Satan, just like wicca, wirchcraft, and the rest of your trade.

Fiya! [/qb]

My father was a decent, hardworking man, who's been dead now for three years. He didn't create obeah. That a piece of trash like you would seek to sully his name comes as no surprise. Your racist self-hatred is rather interesting. [/qb]

A piece of trash! Nice one Fledg, so I am ascending your scale of classifications, moving up from murderer to piece of trash. I wonder if I should be feeling elated?

I don’t know anything about your earthly father and don’t care. I was referring to your spiritual father but I know you already know that, you just couldn’t let the opportunity to pass yourself off as a victim go by without your usual crap. Always hitting below the belt, huh? So pitiful!

And I see you are back with your racist card too! You are such a poor ambassador for higher education and a sorry excuse for a professor or teacher or whatever you do. I have more respect for the guy that tries to was my windshield at the stoplight than I have for you right now.

[rufian]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by Green_Biscuit:
[qb]

Originally posted by sukuna:
[qb] while we are at it, Green_Biscuit mermaid and mami wata a de same? [/qb]

I have no idea Sukana. Are they? Peace and blessings to you all. I am gone for a week. [/qb]

apply the same logic for obeah and paganism [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Fledgist]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb] Originally posted by sukuna:
Deut 18:10-13 never say nothing bout obeah. no wonder yu a classify obeah and witchcraft as same.
is it wrong to consult a person for my physical health and well-being? it is wrong to go to the doctor?
a only obeah can ha yu so

-----------------------------------------

Unless is anada obeah difrant fram de one yu use to, me kno, obeah is witchcraft. Dem cast spells, dem consult spirits an a dem tings Duet 18 a lik out gainst.

Anyway sukuna, mi know yu only use yur obeah fi do good an heal people so mi wi come chek yu when mi head start raise and mi foot dem a swell cause a tink sumady pan dis board mad wid mi an dem mighta jinx mi, LOL

TGIF, have a wonderful week end and a happy, fulfilling life.

Abracadabraaaaaaaa

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [/qb]

Of course Obeah must be what you say, after all it was created by the Negroes in Africa, not by the white people who brought the light of the Gospels to us benighted savages. [/qb]

Obeah was created by your father, Satan, just like wicca, wirchcraft, and the rest of your trade.

Fiya! [/qb]

My father was a decent, hardworking man, who's been dead now for three years. He didn't create obeah. That a piece of trash like you would seek to sully his name comes as no surprise. Your racist self-hatred is rather interesting. [/qb]

A piece of trash! Nice one Fledg, so I am ascending your scale of classifications, moving up from murderer to piece of trash. I wonder if I should be feeling elated?

I don’t know anything about your earthly father and don’t care. I was referring to your spiritual father but I know you already know that, you just couldn’t let the opportunity to pass yourself off as a victim go by without your usual crap. Always hitting below the belt, huh? So pitiful!

And I see you are back with your racist card too! You are such a poor ambassador for higher education and a sorry excuse for a professor or teacher or whatever you do. I have more respect for the guy that tries to was my windshield at the stoplight than I have for you right now.

[/qb]

You can give it, but can't take it. How interesting. It must be nice living under that rock.

[JesusDread]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb]

Originally posted by Fledgist:
[qb]

Originally posted by JesusDread:
[qb] Originally posted by sukuna:
Deut 18:10-13 never say nothing bout obeah. no wonder yu a classify obeah and witchcraft as same.
is it wrong to consult a person for my physical health and well-being? it is wrong to go to the doctor?
a only obeah can ha yu so

-----------------------------------------

Unless is anada obeah difrant fram de one yu use to, me kno, obeah is witchcraft. Dem cast spells, dem consult spirits an a dem tings Duet 18 a lik out gainst.

Anyway sukuna, mi know yu only use yur obeah fi do good an heal people so mi wi come chek yu when mi head start raise and mi foot dem a swell cause a tink sumady pan dis board mad wid mi an dem mighta jinx mi, LOL

TGIF, have a wonderful week end and a happy, fulfilling life.

Abracadabraaaaaaaa

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] [/qb]

Of course Obeah must be what you say, after all it was created by the Negroes in Africa, not by the white people who brought the light of the Gospels to us benighted savages. [/qb]

Obeah was created by your father, Satan, just like wicca, wirchcraft, and the rest of your trade.

Fiya! [/qb]

My father was a decent, hardworking man, who's been dead now for three years. He didn't create obeah. That a piece of trash like you would seek to sully his name comes as no surprise. Your racist self-hatred is rather interesting. [/qb]

A piece of trash! Nice one Fledg, so I am ascending your scale of classifications, moving up from murderer to piece of trash. I wonder if I should be feeling elated?

I don’t know anything about your earthly father and don’t care. I was referring to your spiritual father but I know you already know that, you just couldn’t let the opportunity to pass yourself off as a victim go by without your usual crap. Always hitting below the belt, huh? So pitiful!

And I see you are back with your racist card too! You are such a poor ambassador for higher education and a sorry excuse for a professor or teacher or whatever you do. I have more respect for the guy that tries to was my windshield at the stoplight than I have for you right now.

[/qb]

You can give it, but can't take it. How interesting. It must be nice living under that rock. [/qb]

Oh I can give and take as much as the next man, it’s just that your juvenile attempts at pestering me is getting tiresome and boring. Too much of one thing! But seeing how relentless you are, I’m up to it if it makes you feel big!

Just hope you paying yu other half as much attention as you pay me cause I wouldn’t like to be the reason for your home problems. LOL

And another thing, tell yu admirers to stop tracing me over you, I barely made it out of the Jamaican News and Politrix board with mi life, sake a yu fren dem waa gang me!

And the only rock I've ever lived is at 77 degrees West and 18 degrees North. You come from the primordial ooze remember!

[Guest]

Re: What is Obeah?

Although this minister is a Christian, he does believe in Obeah in his own fashion.

Pastoral concerns - From obeah worker to deliverance minister
Mark Dawes, Senior Staff Reporter

JOSEPH AWOJOBI enters a bookstore in the Mandeville area. A woman who works there asks him: "Are you a pastor?" He replies: "Yes." Woman: "Are you Awojobi?"

He replies: "Yes".

Woman: "You are our greatest enemy. Your name is at the top of the list in the Satanic Church."

He replies: "Really, what is the Satanic Church."

Woman (in an angry mood and tone): "We are out to get you."

Bishop Joseph Adegold (formerly Joseph Awojobi) takes threats like those seriously. He is vigilant, prayerful and heavily engaged in the ministry of casting out demons which, in church circles, is often referred to as deliverance ministry.

Born and raised in Nigeria, Dr. Adegold, 46, holds citizenship in both that African nation and Jamaica. He came to the island in 1990 to pursue a Master's degree at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology (CGST). Thereafter, he joined the Missionary Church Association in Jamaica (MCA) and was the pastor of the Devon, Spring Ground and Mollison Missionary churches.

He later left the MCA to become the founding pastor of the Overcomers Christian International which meets at two locations - in Kingston at 237 Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston (at the site formerly occupied by CMP Metals Ltd); and in Mandeville at the Caledonia Plaza.

When I first met him in 1990, he answered to the name Joseph Awojobi. He changed his surname in 1998. He was born into a family that practised what we in Jamaica describe as obeah. However, at 19 he became a Christian and abandoned the family 'heritage.' Doing ministry in Jamaica was a source of embarrassment to him, as he was often asked: "What does 'Awojobi' mean?" He explained - 'Awo' means Obeah, and 'jobi' means family. When you put the words together one gets 'Obeah Family.' His new surname 'Adegold' means 'crown of gold.'

SATANIC BONDAGE

Before coming to Jamaica, he was involved, albeit on a smaller scale, in deliverance ministry. "Deliverance ministry may be simply defined," he said, "as that aspect of God's plan for man's complete freedom from Satanic bondage. Deliverance ministry is not a working class Christian activity but it is for all classes of people. Instead of going to Obeahmen and Obeahwomen or readers, people should avail themselves of God's provision in deliverance ministry."

As a Nigerian he was familiar with those African occultic practices which today form part of Jamaica's cultural landscape and which are doorways for demon-possession.

He notes that Nine-Night celebrations are African in origin and is a ritual practised after a person dies. The belief is, he explains, that the deceased person's spirit/ duppy remains in and around the house and needs to be appeased. Hence, festivity of drinking and dancing is convened on the ninth night after the person's death to appeal to the spirit to leave the house. Food is usually left out specifically for the duppy. This ritual, he explains, is paying homage to devils, and those who are present are liable to leave connected in some way to demons.

Christians, in particular, must not show up at nine-nights. However, he is encouraging Christians to transform nine-night celebrations to a 'Praise Night,' where a Christian festival is convened and where prayer is said, the gospel preached and the atmosphere is distinctly Christian.

Children are the most vulnerable group to demon-possession, he said, and African practices such as passing infants over caskets containing a corpse is a doorway to Satan. And guess what, when you leave a door open for Satan, don't expect him to pretend he doesn't see it.

"I remember a girl came to me, she was about 25. She had been passed over caskets many times as a child and she was full of demons and she saw demons everywhere. It took three hours for the demons to leave her. When we pass children over caskets we are passing on the spirit of death unto these kids. And anyone who has done that to their child or children need to ensure that those curses are broken," Bishop Adegold said.

Another doorway with African origin, is the custom of taking children to the graveyard to fellowship with the dead. He explains that there is a practice in Jamaica where a child is taken to the grave of a loved one and made to sit on the tombstone. The child is urged to say hello and to greet the person lying within the grave. Meals are had there at the grave and some cooked food is left out for the dead to consume at their good pleasure.

ASTRAL PROJECTION

The holder of a doctorate in Christian Education from the Minnesota Graduate School of Theology, Dr. Adegold is the author of the book Basic Secrets of Satanic forces, and booklets on spiritual warfare. He is working now on Human Development and Demonic Influences a book scheduled to be published by Whittaker House in December.

The casting out of demons, the bishop maintains, is not a ministry for every Christian but for those who are specifically called to that function. In this respect he differs from fellow deliverance minister, the Rev. Dr. Donald Stewart, pastor of the Portmore Covenant Community Church, who believes any Christian in right relationship with God can cast out demons.

Bishop Adegold has raised up an active cadre of deliverance ministers in his church and has assisted many congregations to establish their own deliverance ministry.

At his own church, he has four deliverance teams, each on average deals with about three deliverance cases per day. Some curses, he says, can't be broken but must be uprooted. This, he said necessitates not the 'everyday prayers' but discernment and an advanced mode of prayer. To illustrate, he said: "A lady was brought to my deliverance team. The team spent three hours praying for her deliverance but with no result. I came in and I said to her 'when we are praying for you what happens?'

"She said her mother appears before her. The mother, it turned out, had already dedicated her to the devil as a child. The mother appeared before her by means of astral projection. I said to the team lay your hands on her tummy and command a temporary separation between her and her mother to allow the deliverance to take place. And they prayed a simple prayer and in 10 minutes the girl was freed. Post-deliverance counselling for the girl followed. We sent for her mother and she came. Her mother had been involved in witchcraft. We prayed and laid hands on the mother and she was freed of her demons. Then we prayed for a reconnecting of the bond between mother and daughter.

"All of these things might sound foolish, but when you are dealing with the things of the spirit it has to be in the spirit. Jesus did strange things like giving a blind man his sight after spitting on the ground and using the mud to anoint his eye and then telling him to wash in the pool of Siloam ( John 9)," he said.

When a person accepts Jesus as Saviour, that fact does not automatically exorcise demons that might be resident in that person's life, he said. Such Christians still need deliverance as the soul is saved but there is need for physical and emotional salvation. "Salvation means wholeness. Salvation is a complete package. We Christians tend to focus on the soul, while other areas of the new Christian's life might be in bondage," he said.

DEMONIC STRONGHOLDS

Many pastors are resistant to deliverance ministry and fail to recognise areas in their ministry where demonic strongholds need to be torn down. But it is in the seminaries and bible schools that the change needs to begin.

"I spent seven years in seminary training and there was not even an aspect of a course taught which related to how to handle demonic issues," he said. Seminaries and bible schools, he said, "need to get out of their conservative mindsets as they are preparing people intellectually but are not properly equipping them for spiritual warfare." This fact becomes evident with the frequency with which pastors and Christian counsellors make emergency calls to him and fellow deliverance ministers to rescue a situation where demons manifest themselves - especially during a counselling session, he said.

Meantime, he warns that Christians must be vigilant as most Satanists attend church. He recounted episodes where Satan's emissaries showed up in his church and disclosed that they were sent there to kill him. Fortunately, all of these persons have been stopped in their tracks and they have been delivered from demonic-possession. Pastor Adegold knows he is a marked man, that he is on Satan's radar. But he is confident being in God's hand and so he is not intimidated, not in the least.

Source

[rufian]

Re: What is Obeah?

[qb]He notes that Nine-Night celebrations are African in origin and is a ritual practised after a person dies. The belief is, he explains, that the deceased person's spirit/ duppy remains in and around the house and needs to be appeased. Hence, festivity of drinking and dancing is convened on the ninth night after the person's death to appeal to the spirit to leave the house. Food is usually left out specifically for the duppy. This ritual, he explains, is paying homage to devils, and those who are present are liable to leave connected in some way to demons.

Christians, in particular, must not show up at nine-nights. However, he is encouraging Christians to transform nine-night celebrations to a 'Praise Night,' where a Christian festival is convened and where prayer is said, the gospel preached and the atmosphere is distinctly Christian.

Children are the most vulnerable group to demon-possession, he said, and African practices such as passing infants over caskets containing a corpse is a doorway to Satan. And guess what, when you leave a door open for Satan, don't expect him to pretend he doesn't see it.

"I remember a girl came to me, she was about 25. She had been passed over caskets many times as a child and she was full of demons and she saw demons everywhere. It took three hours for the demons to leave her. When we pass children over caskets we are passing on the spirit of death unto these kids. And anyone who has done that to their child or children need to ensure that those curses are broken," Bishop Adegold said.

Another doorway with African origin, is the custom of taking children to the graveyard to fellowship with the dead. He explains that there is a practice in Jamaica where a child is taken to the grave of a loved one and made to sit on the tombstone. The child is urged to say hello and to greet the person lying within the grave. Meals are had there at the grave and some cooked food is left out for the dead to consume at their good pleasure.[/qb]

Ana de church fe get him, a de obeahman dem [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

You see wa me tell ayu? Look how that all one an one with African traditions? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

At least he touch on one nail. There are many aspects of our culture that can be classified as obeah activity but it isn't and that is one of the reasons why obeah cannot be completely stumped out or even localized.
He is lated with the praying at nine-nights though, not even that prevent people from getting possessed.
I think he made a translation mistake with "devils" though.
One thing bout obeah people dem can never get away from it. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Wa he use fe see the gyal got so much a demons? The bible? Ana Obeah e till a deal wid? A dat a he own curse and why he dont go change him name. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Bishop Obeahman [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

But with all due respect, him should mind his business. He will not be the first to be talking about this.

[Guest]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by sukuna:
[qb]Wa he use fe see the gyal got so much a demons? The bible? Ana Obeah e till a deal wid? A dat a he own curse and go change him name. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [/qb]

That's exactly what I was thinking! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I found this on another bulletin board, sukuna. Tell me what you think of it:

Evil being real means that obeah can also be real and evil (my opinion).
The spiritual exists but must not be played with our used for our own personal, corrupt desires.
Obeah, devil worshiping, black/white-magic are real but cannot exceed the power of God/good. It is our belief in evil that empowers it. The devil is not the master of creation so it requires others to do its works. God can create and destroy without our help(my opinion).
Religions out of Africa have been known to have powerfull contact with the spiritual world. Not necessarity intended for evil intentions. Maroons in Jamaica will tell you that you have to be strong in your beliefs so as to avoid being overtaken by spirits. Remember, when you die(spirit), if you are called by the material world (us/flesh) you may have the desire to live as a human(us). So spirits must be handeled with care and not be tempted. I say this because African religions are often labelled as "evil" by the "God fearing world". Being a spirit does not mean you are evil, it is when you try to use the spirits for you own good that they are influenced to do evil.
Source

[rufian]

Re: What is Obeah?

It is very confusing and mix-up in concept.

I will agree to the following:
[qb]Being a spirit does not mean you are evil, it is when you try to use the spirits for you own good that they are influenced to do evil.
[/qb]
A spirit in fact has neutral qualities. Whether it turns out to be a demon or a guard will depend on your relationship with it.

[qb]
Evil being real means that obeah can also be real and evil (my opinion).[/qb]
This is to say that obeah is all evil. But obeah is also good at the same time.

[qb]
The spiritual exists but must not be played with our used for our own personal, corrupt desires.[/qb]
This is one of the general rules. It is here that the obeahman should add your punishment to your desires. I wouldnt jump to conclusion and say the large some of money is a punishment, but it is not a bad one [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]
Punishment usually take the form of "don't let... things drop", "don't open before you ...", "make sure you..." Failure to do these result in the punishment being bestowed on you before you even manage to succeed the deed.
Whether the spiritual or the material, it should be used for the good of nature/existance and well-being. You are rewarded when you assist life and punished when you assist death.

[qb]
Obeah, devil worshiping, black/white-magic are real but cannot exceed the power of God/good. It is our belief in evil that empowers it. [/qb]
The author tends only to acknowledge the spiritual side of obeah.
Well if the author believe that God is all good then that is his sauce. The fact is that the spiritual side of obeah can be combatted by believing in any other belief system, including obeah itself and vice versa, for example believing that that another belief is greater as the author is saying.

[qb]
The devil is not the master of creation so it requires others to do its works. God can create and destroy without our help(my opinion).
[/qb]
Very mixed up. God being able to destroy is a negative quality. Who is the devil? God's servant?

[qb]
Religions out of Africa have been known to have powerfull contact with the spiritual world. Not necessarity intended for evil intentions. [/qb]
true. not only the spiritual but also the physical.
The physical is also a means to get to the spiritual. God seems in the authors opinion to be the master of physical -being able to create physical things and that makes him also the master of the spiritual. This concept has yet to be proven. Which is stronger, the body or the mind?
Good can be used for bad and bad for good. So why did God create things for the devil to use for his bad deeds?

[qb]
Maroons in Jamaica will tell you that you have to be strong in your beliefs so as to avoid being overtaken by spirits.[/qb]
True. You have to be strong in mind and have an even stronger spirit behind you. For some it is God. For others it is J(X)ango [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[qb]
Remember, when you die(spirit), if you are called by the material world (us/flesh) you may have the desire to live as a human(us).
[/qb]
aha. Who say so? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] You are called as a spirit and not as a human being, you will have no physical senses of your own.

[qb]
So spirits must be handeled with care and not be tempted. I say this because African religions are often labelled as "evil" by the "God fearing world". [/qb]
[img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] And what would he say form the "obeah believing world"?

[Guest]

Re: What is Obeah?

Sorry to keep posting such long articles, but do take the time to read this one. It corroborates what I was saying about the power of Obeah to unite slaves against the masters.

'Black Magic' and Diasporic Imagination
Kirsten Raupach

Desert now my country lies;
Moss-grown now my altars rise;
O, my troubled spirit sighs
When I hear my people’s cries!
Hurry, Orrah, o’er the flood,
Bathe thy sword in Christian blood!
Whidah will thy side protect
Whidah will thy arm direct!
(Anon., 1791, 238)

...this is how an anonymous British writer in 1791 imagined the West Indian slaves’ preparation for insurrection and self-liberation. Their ritualistic incantations are portrayed as African-based and savage. They are opposed to white Christianity and pose a threat to the white man’s safety. The slaves’ worship of their African God Whidah evokes a bloody atmosphere of uncontrollable hatred, and merciless retribution and thus reveals the unease and suspicion with which slave masters watched the religious and cultural ceremonies of their African slaves. The perception of black religious belief systems as powerful, exotic and ultimately “other” and its presentation as unintelligible and threatening to the established order, call into question white constructions of European domination and African powerlessness in colonial discourse.

Within the colonial framework the slaves’ survival depended on their ability to resist their complete absorption into the masters’ cultural ideologies. Their resistance to coerced acculturation is most evident in the slaves’ Creolization of African-based religions, which in a dynamic process merged with - but never surrendered to – European Christian religious, social and cultural practices. African-derived elements were preserved and either coexisted or converged with Christian symbols. These heterogeneous diasporan religions – a term coined by Joseph Murphy – share a common African heritage. They were reshaped in response to the demands of the new environment and used as a form of protest against the ideologies underlying European colonialism. (vgl. Olmos; Paravisini-Gebert, 1997, 3)

In providing a repository of collective memory, African-based religious belief systems offered strategies of survival and identity formation, but most of all they could be opposed to the dominant European culture. Especially Obeah, a syncretized religion, played a predominant role in the British Caribbean isles. Less based on communal worship than other hybrid forms such as Voodoo or Santeria, Obeah was considered more subversive, inspirational and dangerous. It threatened to undermine European authority because it involved secret nightly rituals and individual consultations with an Obeah-Man or Woman, which could not always be controlled by the slave master.

In order to understand the powerful and unsettling effect of the slaves’ display of their „Africaness“ in diasporic rituals on the white colonial masters it is useful to take a closer look at the representation of Obeah practices in British literary productions. How did colonial masters respond, make sense of or even exorcise a force that seemed to be so alien to their own culture, and which could not be fully contained or controlled?

Obeah or Obi was a form of African-based religious practice which was mostly found in the British West Indies. It involved magic spells, secret nightly rituals, the belief in the power of talisman amulets, the so called Obeah bags, ingredients such as clay, teeth, hair, bones etc., as well as medical and spiritual healing. It was vaguely comparable to other forms of magical belief systems such as Voodoo in Haiti or the Santeria-rituals practiced in Cuba and other former Spanish colonies. The Obeah man was believed to possess the power to communicate with spirits which are at his disposal, and to achieve good or evil. He could summon these unearthly spirits to cause death, pain, illness, poverty, but also make them undo harm. Thus, his supernatural powers allowed him to manipulate his environment and to shape it according to his own will. During slavery Obeah men were highly respected and feared by their fellow slaves. Obeah fulfilled various important social functions within the black community. Through Obi, a thief could be convicted or a murderer be made to confess his deed. Thus, even within a system of oppression which deprived the individual of his natural rights, social control and justice could be maintained on a microcosmic level.

Obeah worship and the secret rituals performed at midnight marked a spiritual sphere which was carefully concealed from the white master and which, therefore, belonged exclusively to the slaves. To many of them Obeah rituals represented a meaningful bonding-experience. As a strategy of spiritual survival within the foreign Caribbean environment it helped them to keep the common memories of their African past alive and to develop a cultural identity of their own - different from that of their masters. Nevertheless, the veil of mystery and secrecy surrounding Obeah and the exclusion of the white master made the representatives of the dominant culture suspect that Obeah was also a form of resistance and opposition. The profession of Obeah was a self-conscious claim to power. Lawrence Levine in his influential study on Black Culture and Black Consciousness observes:

There were many things white folks did not know, and because of this their power, great as it was, was limited. This, I think, is one of the primary messages of slave magic. The whites were neither omnipotent or omniscient; there were things they did not know, forces they could not control, areas in which slaves could act with more knowledge and authority than their masters, ways in which the powers of the whites could be muted if not thwarted entirely. (Levine, 1977, 73-74)

Obeah indeed played a significant role in slave resistance. When in 1760 a slave revolution known as Tacky’s Rebellion took place in Jamaica, the white perception of Obeah as a harmless phenomenon of black life changed radically. Thirty to forty white plantation holders were killed. Bryan Edwards’ description, written 30 years after the event took place, still reveals the subtle anxieties and insecurities of the white planter aristocracy. Edwards construes the black revolutionaries as savage, vampire-like cannibals without any human sentiment. What made matters worse was the discovery that the rebellion was initiated by an Obeah man who was, according to Edwards,

[...] an old Koromantyn Negro, the chief instigator and oracle of the
insurgents in that parish, who had administered the Fetish or solemn oath to
the conspirators, and furnished them with a magical preparation which was to
render them invulnerable [...]. (Edwards, 1793, 94)

From then on Obeah was viewed as a resistant cultural practice which challenged British domination. Tacky’s Rebellion gave rise to strong official sanctions and to the passing of Anti-Obeah Laws: Drumming and dancing at night were strictly prohibited, and masters had to notify and prevent any assembling of slaves. In addition, slave owners were encouraged to spread the Christian gospel among their slaves and to insist on their conversion. In 1789 these Anti-Obeah-Laws became even stricter. (vgl. Götz, 1995, 114 ff)

Even though it never became clear if Obeah really played a part in the preparation of Tacky’s Rebellion, rumors were sufficient to establish a link between Obeah belief and slave revolution in the white man’s mind. Shortly after Bryan Edwards had published his influential study of Jamaica and the West Indies, and had thus introduced Obeah to a wide British public, the Obeah man as instigator of revolt became a standard motif in British literary texts. Especially during the years of the Haitian Revolution from 1792 to 1804, when one of the leaders, Boukman, was said to be a Voodoo Priest, the subject of Obeah became highly popular in Britain. Novels, poems and theatre productions which dealt with the topic flooded the market. This amazing amount of publications dealing with the subject of Obeah cannot simply be explained as a romantic longing for the exoticism of distant countries. It was, more likely, a reaction to the increasing instability of the colonial set-up which was constantly being challenged by slave revolutions in overseas territories. Such literary productions reflect white anxieties triggered by the on-going revolutionary struggles in St. Domingo. Frequent slave uprisings and fights for national independence followed the French Revolution. The slave revolt in the French Caribbean island of Santo Domingo, which finally led to the foundation of the black Republic of Haiti, and the utter defeat of Leclerc’s troops, ultimately opened the eyes of the British public to the limitations of colonial power and expansionist politics, while at the same time pointing out the dangers of tampering with the established order.

In British literary representations of Obeah, however, the multi-facetted social, moral, and psychological functions these disporic rituals fulfilled for the slave community became limited to one single aspect: Obeah and its inherent potential to inspire slave rebellion.

Haste! The magic shreds prepare—
Thus the white man’s corse we tear.
Lo! Feathers from the raven’s plume,
That croaks our proud Oppressors’s doom
Now to aid the potent spell,
Crush we next the brittle shell—
Fearful omen to the foe
Look the blanched bones we throw.
From mouldering graves we stole the hallow’d earth,
Which mix’d with blood, winds up the magic charm;
Wide yawns the grave for all of northern birth,
And soon shall smoke with blood each sable warrior’s arm.
(W. Shepard, 1797, 415)

In this poem Obeah features as a serious threat to imperial stability and the white man’s safety: "When we with magic rites the white man’s doom prepare." James Montgomery warns the British readership not to delay abolitionist measures any further: "Tremble Britannia! While thine islands tell/The appalling mysteries of Obi’s spell." (Montgomery, [1807] 1850, 26) These excerpts illustrate the various narrative strategies British authors applied in order to come to terms with the unsettling implications of Obeah. Obeah worship is either construed as merely a trivial and, at best, amusing idiosyncrasy of slave life and it is dismissed as irrelevant and meaningless to the enlightened white observer. At the same time, however, Obeah worship was rendered responsible for the slaves’ discontent. The revolutionary scenario presented in these texts is mostly inspired by the perfidious deceptions of Obeah practitioners who manipulate the till then contented and obedient slaves into rising against their masters. Europeans were thus absolved of their guilt.

Most of these poems envision Obeah rituals as group gatherings –which in fact they weren’t – and as dangerous seedbeds of rebellious plotting. Even when written in support of the Abolition Campaign they still reveal severe colonial unease and racial prejudices. Black revolutionaries, in spite of their justified course, were portrayed as savage and coded as heathen primitives, who were in need of redemption from spiritual darkness. Therefore, conversion to Christianity was increasingly promoted as a cure to slave unrest--which of course was just another form of hidden colonialism.

To the white master the unsettling otherness of the slaves became most evident in their religious practices. Interestingly enough, portrayals of diasporan religion were modeled on European concepts of witchcraft. This becomes especially evident in Maria Edgeworth’s portrayal of the Obeah woman Esther in her narrative “The Grateful Negro”. "Esther, an old Koromantyn Negress, [who] had obtained by her skill in poisonous herbs, and her knowledge of venomous reptiles, a high reputation among her countrymen." (Edgeworth, [1803] 1985, 312) Esther prepares her fellow slaves for rebellion and administers the "solemn fetish oath" to the revolutionary slaves. While she sings "incantations" by "the blue flame of a cauldron" she prepares a "bowl of poison" into which the conspirators are supposed to dip their knives. Esther, like the witches in Macbeth is constructed as an old "hag" with "shriveled hand[s]" who viciously "burst[s] into an infernal laugh" while stirring a venomous liquid in a "cauldron" on a "blue flame". Apart from the desire to come to terms with and control the threat of slave rebellions there was also the colonizer’s need to delimit anything that eluded control. The strange and incomprehensible actions of the slaves were translated in terms of the familiar. By modeling portrayals of diasporan religion on European perceptions of witchcraft the ungraspable and threatening other could be contained and reinvented as something known, a force which could be overcome and exorcised – just as occurrences of witchcraft in Europe were now considered as historical past.

Until 1760 the colonial masters paid little attention to the cultural-religious ceremonies of their slaves. Being well aware of the revolutionary potential inherent in Christian concepts of equality, they even strove to prevent the slaves from Baptism. In the revolutionary era the slaves’ conversion to Christianity was increasingly seen as a potential cure to African savagery as constructed in white accounts of Obeah:

Obeah is the witchcraft of the West Indies. The sworn foe of Christianity and civilization, it hinders every effort to uplift the negro race; it is a superstition as degrading as widespread, a standing menace to the social order. But for the strong hand of the British Government, it might at any time incite the mass of ignorant blacks to massacre the mere handful of whites thinly scattered amongst them. (Anon., 1902, 81)

The soothing and consoling effect of the Christian message of salvation was intended to lighten the burden of slave existence by promising a better and glorious life to come. Feelings of hatred and revenge might be soothed and replaced by the New Testament’s message of brotherly love and forgiveness. How little slave-holders knew and understood of the spiritual world of their slaves can best be illustrated by the observations of the Jamaican planter Matthew Gregory Lewis:

The whole advantages to be derived by negroes from becoming Christians, seemed to consist with them in two points; being a superior species of magic itself, it preserved them from black Obeah; and by enabling them to take an oath upon the Bible to the truth of any lie which might suit them to tell, they believed that it would give them the power of humbugging the white people with perfect ease and convenience. (Lewis, [1834] 1969, 374)
Lewis’ insights reveal the short-sightedness of the white mission to convert slaves to Christianity and illustrate the limitations of white influence over the spiritual lives of slaves. The apparent readiness of black people towards conversion was, in reality, a suitable means to manipulate their masters by paying lip-service to their beliefs and by faking the impression of willing obedience. Beyond the sphere of white influence they could thus maintain a space of free agency and power, build a culture of their own and develop an alternative identity: “[...] the missionaries led and guided the slaves far less than they imagined. They congratulated themselves on the way in which the slaves joyfully accepted Christianity in slavery’s last phase, but failed to notice how the new religion was shaped by the slaves in their own needs and ends.” (Craton, 1982, 103)

Enslaved people found elements in Christian worship that resembled their own religious practices of their African heritage and they reinterpreted the new religion according to familiar patterns. The Christian concept of a Supreme Being, the worship of saints, the sensuous services with incense and altars showed strong analogies to black religious beliefs and could thus easily be adopted and fused with non-Christian religious practices.

What appealed most to the slaves was the story of Exodus. The biblical narrative of the Jewish Diaspora - the Israelites who were captured, displaced, enslaved and wronged provided a compelling parallel that could be employed to make sense of their own suffering and diasporic displacement. Moreover, the parallels enslaved Africans constructed between themselves and the Israelites as the chosen people, their rescue at the Red Sea and entrance of the Promised Land provided them with the prospect of hope and thus encouraged endurance. In this respect, the adoption of the Judeo-Christian myth fulfilled the same social functions as the practice of Obeah.

Even the element of subversion and revenge is still present: While blacks envisioned themselves as the Israelites, their white enslavers were cast in a different part of the Exodus story – their role was that of the Egyptian oppressors, their prospect that of defeat, death and destruction. The lyrics of slave songs such as: „My army cross ober, My army cross ober,/ O Pharaoh’s army drownded,“ speak to the retribution blacks envisaged when adopting and reenacting the tale of God’s liberation of his chosen people.

The above examples were chosen to illustrate how black diasporan thinking, rituals of remembrance, social bonding across racial diversity, worship of African Gods, and imagined return to the homeland did in fact challenge conceptions of white superiority in colonial discourse. Obeah worship not only just provided the real potential of slave uprising--the cultural expressions of the slaves seemed to have haunted their masters on a day to day basis. The fact that the theme of Obi permeated British colonial discourse illustrates that the slaves’ voices could not be fully silenced. Obeah becomes a resonant reminder of the instability of an already crumbling system of coerced obedience.

Source

[rufian]

Re: What is Obeah?

This thread developed nicely. Your research you are doing too. Man me hate reading [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

MissB it would also be nice to get you opinion on the texts you present.

[qb]They are opposed to white Christianity and pose a threat to the white man’s safety. The slaves’ worship of their African God Whidah evokes a bloody atmosphere of uncontrollable hatred, and merciless retribution and thus reveals the unease and suspicion with which slave masters watched the religious and cultural ceremonies of their African slaves.[/qb]
This has much to do with his opinion of the blacks rather than their religion. Whidah?
I believe this is quite likely to be a misunderstanding on his part whether this is the name of a God or not. Ouidah(having the same pronounciation) is now the Voodoo headquarters(centre of pilgimage) of Benin and was also a slave port.

http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi3/ouidah.htm

[qb] The perception of black religious belief systems as powerful, exotic and ultimately “other” and its presentation as unintelligible and threatening to the established order, call into question white constructions of European domination and African powerlessness in colonial discourse.[/qb]
It is this otherness which classifies obeah as devil worship
[qb]
Within the colonial framework the slaves’ survival depended on their ability to resist their complete absorption into the masters’ cultural ideologies. Their resistance to coerced acculturation is most evident in the slaves’ Creolization of African-based religions, which in a dynamic process merged with - but never surrendered to – European Christian religious, social and cultural practices. African-derived elements were preserved and either coexisted or converged with Christian symbols. These heterogeneous diasporan religions – a term coined by Joseph Murphy – share a common African heritage. They were reshaped in response to the demands of the new environment and used as a form of protest against the ideologies underlying European colonialism. (vgl. Olmos; Paravisini-Gebert, 1997, 3)
In providing a repository of collective memory, African-based religious belief systems offered strategies of survival and identity formation, but most of all they could be opposed to the dominant European culture.
[/qb]

Exactly, the Christians saints and symbols should not be seen as a sign of weakness or submission but quite the opposite.

[qb] Obeah was considered more subversive, inspirational and dangerous. It threatened to undermine European authority because it involved secret nightly rituals and individual consultations with an Obeah-Man or Woman, which could not always be controlled by the slave master.[/qb]
waaaaa, me impressed [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[qb] Through Obi, a thief could be convicted or a murderer be made to confess his deed. Thus, even within a system of oppression which deprived the individual of his natural rights, social control and justice could be maintained on a microcosmic level.[/qb]
quite right, obeah is also a legal system

[qb]
Lawrence Levine in his influential study on Black Culture and Black Consciousness observes:

There were many things white folks did not know, and because of this their power, great as it was, was limited. This, I think, is one of the primary messages of slave magic. The whites were neither omnipotent or omniscient; there were things they did not know, forces they could not control, areas in which slaves could act with more knowledge and authority than their masters, ways in which the powers of the whites could be muted if not thwarted entirely. (Levine, 1977, 73-74)

[/qb]
straight up and right until this day. Them still a try fe find out wa obeah be. Mek dem gwaan, there is no more to it than paganism [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] thiefingniss

[qb]Thirty to forty white plantation holders were killed. Bryan Edwards’ description, written 30 years after the event took place, still reveals the subtle anxieties and insecurities of the white planter aristocracy. [/qb]
you see that house plant? it can work wonders.
[qb]
Edwards construes the black revolutionaries as savage, vampire-like cannibals without any human sentiment. [/qb]
First them illtreat the slaves and now de same slaves fe have mercy pan dem. So mek we tek weh dem obeah


[qb]From then on Obeah was viewed as a resistant cultural practice which challenged British domination. Tacky’s Rebellion gave rise to strong official sanctions and to the passing of Anti-Obeah Laws: Drumming and dancing at night were strictly prohibited, and masters had to notify and prevent any assembling of slaves.
In addition, slave owners were encouraged to spread the Christian gospel among their slaves and to insist on their conversion. In 1789 these Anti-Obeah-Laws became even stricter. (vgl. Götz, 1995, 114 ff)
[/qb]
And all who bow down to massa a ......

[qb] Black revolutionaries, in spite of their justified course, were portrayed as savage and coded as heathen primitives, who were in need of redemption from spiritual darkness. Therefore, conversion to Christianity was increasingly promoted as a cure to slave unrest--which of course was just another form of hidden colonialism.[/qb]
just like how Haiti got a bad rap after defeating France. An act that no other black nation has done.

[qb]
To the white master the unsettling otherness of the slaves became most evident in their religious practices. Interestingly enough, portrayals of diasporan religion were modeled on European concepts of witchcraft.
This becomes especially evident in Maria Edgeworth’s portrayal of the Obeah woman Esther in her narrative “The Grateful Negro”. "Esther, an old Koromantyn Negress, [who] had obtained by her skill in poisonous herbs, and her knowledge of venomous reptiles, a high reputation among her countrymen." (Edgeworth, [1803] 1985, 312) Esther prepares her fellow slaves for rebellion and administers the "solemn fetish oath" to the revolutionary slaves. While she sings "incantations" by "the blue flame of a cauldron" she prepares a "bowl of poison" into which the conspirators are supposed to dip their knives. Esther, like the witches in Macbeth is constructed as an old "hag" with "shriveled hand[s]" who viciously "burst[s] into an infernal laugh" while stirring a venomous liquid in a "cauldron" on a "blue flame". Apart from the desire to come to terms with and control the threat of slave rebellions there was also the colonizer’s need to delimit anything that eluded control. The strange and incomprehensible actions of the slaves were translated in terms of the familiar. By modeling portrayals of diasporan religion on European perceptions of witchcraft the ungraspable and threatening other could be contained and reinvented as something known, a force which could be overcome and exorcised – just as occurrences of witchcraft in Europe were now considered as historical past.
[/qb]
you see um deh?
bout witchcraft.

[qb]
Until 1760 the colonial masters paid little attention to the cultural-religious ceremonies of their slaves. Being well aware of the revolutionary potential inherent in Christian concepts of equality, they even strove to prevent the slaves from Baptism. In the revolutionary era the slaves’ conversion to Christianity was increasingly seen as a potential cure to African savagery as constructed in white accounts of Obeah:

Obeah is the witchcraft of the West Indies. The sworn foe of Christianity and civilization, it hinders every effort to uplift the negro race; it is a superstition as degrading as widespread, a standing menace to the social order. But for the strong hand of the British Government, it might at any time incite the mass of ignorant blacks to massacre the mere handful of whites thinly scattered amongst them. (Anon., 1902, 81)

The soothing and consoling effect of the Christian message of salvation was intended to lighten the burden of slave existence by promising a better and glorious life to come. Feelings of hatred and revenge might be soothed and replaced by the New Testament’s message of brotherly love and forgiveness.
[/qb]
JesusDread pan tape.


[qb]The apparent readiness of black people towards conversion was, in reality, a suitable means to manipulate their masters by paying lip-service to their beliefs and by faking the impression of willing obedience. Beyond the sphere of white influence they could thus maintain a space of free agency and power, build a culture of their own and develop an alternative identity:
[/qb]
father god anansi coming een pan de scene [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[qb]
Enslaved people found elements in Christian worship that resembled their own religious practices of their African heritage and they reinterpreted the new religion according to familiar patterns.[/qb]
starting with Psalms 23

[Guest]

Re: What is Obeah?

Originally posted by sukuna:
[qb] This thread developed nicely. Your research you are doing too. Man me hate reading [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

MissB it would also be nice to get you opinion on the texts you present.[/qb]

Reading on screen is uncomfortable - sorry about that long article. It is informative and well-written so I thought it was important to post it.

As for my opinions, well I have plenty being an opinionated sort of person, so here goes.

I don't believe in the supernatural, superstition, or anything even remotely related. When I was a child, my cousin used to scare me with duppy stories and the like, but I feel (maybe mistakenly) that I've grown out of it.

The roots drinks and oils most likely have molecules with medicinal properties. Modern science is now discovering the importance of tropical flora and taking it away from people and selling it back at much higher prices. We should protect our heritage before the US pharmaceutical companies come in and patent what belongs to us.

The forces of nature are bigger than all of us and no man on earth can harness them. A few do have a better understanding of these forces than the majority. Genuine Obeahmen or -women may have that understanding. (I suppose there are lots of charlatans though.)

Jamaican people will continue to rely on Obeah for "healthcare" because some of the plants really do have medicinal properties, and also because conventional medicine is just not readily available. My uncle had to get a death certificate for my grandmother and waited in the doctor's waiting room for several hours. Patients were there who had travelled from near and far to see the doctor for their ailments, some of them in a very bad state indeed. Well, the doctor never arrived, nor did he call the office to say he wasn't coming. What do you think poor people are going to do after that? They scrape up their little money to travel a long distance, take time off from their occupations to travel adding up to further loss of income and the doctor couldn't bother to turn up!! As long as this situation repeats itself, Obeahmen are not going out of business anytime soon.

I almost forgot: the cotton tree is a symbol and is to be respected like any other symbol. Dead people are just as much in a cotton tree as they are in a graveyard. You wouldn't pee on a tombstone, so don't pee on a cotton tree.