The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was fascinated by a February 22 front page Tribune article titled “Sacrilege.” The article was about the alleged desecration of several graves at the Spikenard Graveyard off Cowpen Road. What I found interesting was a funeral official alleging that witchcraft was one of the motives for unscrupulous individuals desecrating the graves. The word witchcraft is a synonym of Obeah, which is a system of belief among Black people of the West Indies, that is characterised by the use of magical ritual to ward off misfortune and to cause harm, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Obeah is a spiritual derivative of Myalism, and is similar to Santeria in Cuba and Brazil; Voodoo in Haiti and Shango in Trinidad and Tobago.

Other well-known synonyms of Obeah are necromancy, sorcery, wizardry, black magic, divination and Satanism. Anton Lavey played a pivotal role during the twentieth century in the popularisation of Satanism in the US, while Aleister Crowley popularized it in England. I believe the case can also be made that the Jamaican spiritual religious traditions of Pocomania, Revival Zion and Revivalism are similar to Obeah, despite all three having a few elements of the Judeo-Christian tradition. I have arrived at this conclusion after reading Jamaican anthropologist Dr. Barry Chevannes’ “Rastafari.” An uninformed observer would typically mistake Revivalism for Pentecostalism, as its practitioners also practice glossolalia. According to British historian Diana Paton, the European colonialists’ attempts at suppressing the religious beliefs of the Black slaves in the West Indies was to “reinforce class and race hierarchies.” By mentioning the historical fact of Obeah being legalized in Jamaica after the Tacky Revolt between 1760-1761, Paton view laws against Obeah as being deeply rooted in prejudice against Black Jamaicans and their Afro-Caribbean counterparts.

Obviously sympathetic to the practice of Obeah, Paton wrote that prior to the 1950s, Rastas, Revivalists and Garveyites were regularly prosecuted under Jamaica’s 1898 Obeah Act. In her History Workshop write-up titled “The Racist History of Jamaica’s Obeah Laws,” Paton observed that Obeah was decriminalized in the Caribbean countries of Barbados (1998); St. Lucia (2004); Anguilla (1980) and Trinidad and Tobago (2000). Apparently oblivious to its destructive nature, Paton sees nothing wrong with the religious practice.

Fortunately for Bahamians, Obeah is legally prohibited in our penal code. Its illegality does not mean that it is not being practised, however. I believe that the Obeah practitioners who desecrated the Spikenard graves were in search of Obeah instruments, such as blood, bones, images and other articles necessary for their dangerous religion. They may have also been attempting to communicate with the dead. Those who practice necromancy believe that the dead are communicating with them, when it is actually evil spirits masquerading as dead human beings. By evil spirits, I mean reprobate angels who were thrown out of heaven after Satan’s rebellion. Those who engage in this ritual mainly do so to obtain a job, win the lottery, win over a spouse, attain physical healing or to harm an enemy. I have heard of business persons who have consulted the Obeah man or woman in order to save their struggling businesses and to pay off massive debts. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were politicians who practised Obeah in order to win an election. We have all heard of the popular Bahamian song The Obeah Man by the late Tony McKay. McKay’s music and stage act were both imbued with the West African Obeah tradition. How widespread is Obeah in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas? No one knows for obvious reasons. What one can accurately deduced is that, like the overwhelming majority of Black Caribbeanists, Black Bahamians’ navel strings are buried in West Africa, which is the home of the main source of Obeah.

In closing, the Bible condemns Obeah in 2 Chronicles 33:6; Galatians 5:19-21; Malachi 3:5; Deuteronomy 18:10-12 and Revelation 18:23. In fact, God threatens eternal damnation to Obeah practitioners in Revelation 21:8 and 22:15. One of the reasons God expelled the Canaanites from the land of Canaan in the Book of Joshua was because they were deeply engrossed in sorcery. I am for celebrating our African heritage and culture, just as long as it does not include any religious tradition that runs counter to the Bible. I am also a champion of religious liberty under our constitution. But that liberty should not entail consulting evil spirits, whose sole purpose is to destroy this nation and its citizens via the practice of Obeah.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama

February 22, 2022.