Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

[Tropicana]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: makabush</div><div class="ubbcode-body">In fact, if we want to talk about majority religion, then we should be adopting myalism. The majority of Jamaica did myalism until after slavery, and even then it infiltrated into the &quot;christianity&quot; Jamaicans adopted. So we need Usain to marry a myal man daughter, if not a obeah man daughter.

</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style="font-weight: bold">until after slavery </span>

....that is not today.

I suppose you would support obeah too.

Curious, why is obeah sometimes called Guzoo? </div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: makabush</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Guzoo is thought to be from Twi and Obeah from Efik or Igbo. It is dialectal in Jamaica. </div></div>

Thank you. I always wondered about that.

Also many people don't realize that the myalman and the obeahman had completely different functions.

Is obeah still illegal in Jamaica?

[evanovitch]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

Posted an article some time ago re the thriving &quot;underground&quot; obeah industry in JA...people fly down to consult dem obeah man on par wid di Stella industry...matte of fact dere is chat re Obeah tourism...but the practice is still illegal sooooooo

[makabush]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

<span style="font-style: italic">Meanwhile, when THE WEEKEND STAR made checks with Deputy Superintendent Altemorth Campbell, who is attached to the Flying Squad, he explained that the practising of obeah is illegal.

&quot;The practice is illegal, but it cannot be hearsay. The police have to get evidence for court. If convicted an individual is liable to a fine not exceeding $100 or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 12 months,&quot; Campbell said.</span>


$100? They have to be talking US dollars

[evanovitch]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: makabush</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-style: italic">Meanwhile, when THE WEEKEND STAR made checks with Deputy Superintendent Altemorth Campbell, who is attached to the Flying Squad, he explained that the practising of obeah is illegal.

&quot;The practice is illegal, but it cannot be hearsay. The police have to get evidence for court. If convicted an individual is liable to a fine not exceeding $100 or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 12 months,&quot; Campbell said.</span>


$100? They have to be talking US dollars </div></div>


Curious ting bout dem needing proof wen obeah man a yaad advertise dem wuk wid dat red, blu n white flag a fly above dem gate pon di tallest bamboo dem can cut....but mi memba a Deputy Commissioner who was a frequent visitor n customer to one up my country...fi him clientele was a who's who of Kingston bigwigs....but him was a toss up between a obeahman/poco church leader...but him gi bathes n beatings fi transgressions wid equal zeal...I love my yaad people....

[Tropicana]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Curious ting bout dem needing proof wen obeah man a yaad advertise dem wuk wid dat red, blu n white flag a fly above dem gate pon di tallest bamboo dem can cut </div></div>

[makabush]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Curious ting bout dem needing proof wen obeah man a yaad advertise dem wuk wid dat red, blu n white flag a fly above dem gate pon di tallest bamboo dem can cut... </div></div>

It is interesting that guyanese people use a red flag on a bamboo pole for Hinduism worship. It is said that the Indians that came to the caribbean were from an area where such flags were normal. I wonder if di obeah man dem took this practice from them.

[makabush]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

This book claims that the East Indians were very much into obeah when they came to Jamaica. It fit right in to their previous methodology in the mother land.

[Tropicana]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

I am curious to know which aspects of Myalism slipped into Christian workship styles in Jamaica. Is it all the ...how should I put this....active participation that goes on in some churches? You see it in African American churches too. Apparently some of the Jamaicans who migrated to Cuba found Santería (Yoruba in origin) appealing. It is also a form of syncretism simlar to what one finds in Candomblé in Brazil

[Tropicana]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

I had heard about the baths and oils but not the beatings.

[jah_yout]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

no religion or faith or belief system exists in a vacuum...

they are all influenced by something else or mixed with something else; including the major known religions of today;

the only difference between christianity/islam/judaism and obeah is that we have been conditioned to accept the former three and to condemn the latter;

christianity is no more from god than anything else...only human teaching makes it so

[makabush]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I am curious to know which aspects of Myalism slipped into Christian workship styles in Jamaica.
</div></div>

Book: Rastafari and Other African-Caribbean Worldviews

[makabush]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

Another Book: Jamaican Folk Medicine

[Tropicana]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

Thanks. I remember at one time I had Religion and Art in Ashanti and I still have Leonard E. Barrett's &quot;Soul Force&quot;. I think that is where I first read about this at university. Time for a refresher.

&quot;...myalism was the legitimate survival of the traditional religion of Africa and... myal and the Jamaican Cumina religion therefore are one and the same phenomenon&quot;. Page 68

According to Barrett, our ancestors perceived being carried into slavery as being the result of obeah.

[Morwen Edhelwen]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

I agree with that. Every religion has influences.

[Tropicana]

Re: Obeah, Guzoo, Myalism

Jah_yout of course you know there is no way I will ever agree with your last comment.