Obeah And All You Need To Know About It

The word ‘Obeah’ has been a part of our Guyanese vocabulary for centuries. There are a lot of misinformation about the real meaning of the word, and as a result some confusion. We at ThingsGuyana decided to assign this topic to one of new our writers, Carol, and here is what she reported, enjoy.

What is obeah?

Obeah (sometimes spelled Obi, Obeah, Obeya, or Obia) is a system of spiritual and healing practices developed among enslaved West Africans in the West Indies. Obeah is difficult to define, as it is not a single, unified set of practices; the word “Obeah” was historically not often used to describe one’s own practices. Some scholars, such as Diana Paton, have contended that what constitutes Obeah in Jamaica has been constructed by white society, particularly law enforcement. Accordingly, different Afro-Caribbean communities use their own terminology to describe the practice, such as science, among the Jamaican Windward Maroons. Obeah is similar to other Afro-American religions such as Palo, Haitian Vodou, Santería, and Hoodoo in that it includes communication with ancestors and spirits and healing rituals. Nevertheless, it differs from religions like Vodou and Santeria in that there is no explicit canon of gods or deities that is worshipped, and the practice is generally an individual action rather than part of a collective ceremony or offering.

Variants of Obeah are practiced in the Bahamas and in the Caribbean nations of Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Virgin Islands,[12] as well as by the Igbo people of Nigeria. In some cases, aspects of these folk religions have survived through syncretism with Christian symbolism and practice introduced by European colonials and slave owners.

Obeah is a form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.

Obeah is a set of hybrid or creolised beliefs dependent on ritual invocation, fetishes, and charms that incorporates two very distinct categories of practice.

The first involves “the casting of spells for various purposes, both good and evil: protecting oneself, property, family, or loved ones; harming real or perceived enemies; and bringing fortune in love, employment, personal or business endeavours.

The second incorporates traditional African-derived healing practices based on the application of considerable knowledge of herbal and animal medicinal properties.

Obeah is something that is real and woe be to the ones who constantly say they do not believe.  When you react this way, this is either ignorance (which cannot be faulted) or a psychological attempt to block out all negative possibilities. The thing is, the realness of Obeah should never be taken for granted because many people’s lives are affected by wicked hands who have the ability to manipulate energy. This really is what Obeah is, good or bad, the manipulation  of energy which is very possible.

Messengers of Obeah

The elders always said never ignore these small messengers

• Birds. Most in particular owls and vultures. Chickens also, especially if they begin dying in the yard. Know that it is not only Obeah, it’s a death strike. In other words, Obeah that came to kill.
• All insects, such and the red and black ants formerly mentioned. But this also includes crickets, extremely too many cockroaches big or small, unless yuh nasty… well…
• Rats. Not mice, Rats. With abnormal behaviour. Abnormal behaviour would be showing no fear, or not hiding when they are in the house, or scurrying about during daylight hours.
• Wasps. Either seeing the wasp itself or the nest. Big sign.
• Too many flies. Big ones with red or green eyes, some will have a grayish colour to them. Look if they congregate in one place in particular most often. As you go to swat them, they disappear before your eyes. If you swat one, 10 more appear, and they make loud buzzing sounds.

• Seeing a random bird. A strange exotic bird, one you’ve never seen before. I have to mention birds again because they are very BIG spiritual messengers, and their warnings are to be taken very seriously. The white owl brings a death message which happens 3 days after it has been seen.
• Spiders. Spiders and cobwebs are not good. It comes to block ways.

Note: These signs do not always have to be physical, but they can also appear in your dreams.

Signs of obeah

1. Angry and frustrated.

When witchcraft attacks, you may feel angry and frustrated. You feel like people and things are standing in your way. You may get mad at yourself, mad at the devil or even mad at God. You’re sick and tired of your circumstances, but what you don’t realise is that the enemy is magnifying your circumstances with distorted mirrors and smoke that clouds reality. When this happens, just keep acknowledging the Lord. He will make your paths straight (Prov. 3:6).

2. Sickness, aches and pains.

I’ve told you before that when witchcraft attacks me, my eyes burn. Sometimes my chest gets tight and I get dizzy. One of my intercessors gets terrible back pain when witchcraft manifests in her life. Another of my friends sees old stroke symptoms return. Sickness is not from God. We have authority over it, but many times we like to grumble and complain and confess how bad off we are, which only strengthens the enemy’s grip on us. The devil brings what Jonah 2:8 calls “lying vanities” against you to make you think something is wrong so you’ll confess it out of your mouth and open the door for it to settle.

3. Just plain worn out.

If you’ve slept eight hours, had a tall cup of coffee and you still feel like you’ve been run over by a truck, witchcraft could be attacking you. This is one of the ways witchcraft comes after me. I’ve learned not to give in by laying down for a nap that turns into four or five hours of witchcraft-induced sleep. If you are eating well, sleeping well, exercising well and living well—and if you are generally healthy—you shouldn’t feel like you’re walking through quicksand. This could be a witchcraft attack.

Obeah has a reputation as the most or one of the most powerful magical systems on Earth.  As powerful as it is, the fact that most information about it is transmitted orally means that much of the specifics are secret.

Obeah practitioners very rarely take on apprentices, and do not even teach it to their children or relatives unless they have the signs.  A person’s secrets and discoveries can die with them.  This is considered part of the natural order of things.

It is believed that a person should go through the steps of learning and discovery on their own.  They should not be written down or passed to others because they won’t learn what they are supposed to learn by discovering the Truth on their own.  The journey, in many cases, is as or more important than the destination.

Is obeah evil?

Another reason for the fear is some true and some false tales of what ‘Obeah people’ do to accomplish their goals.  The use of psychoactive plants is one of the truths.   People generally, do use a variety of herbs for healing and for trance.  Some are less concerned about legality than others.

Obeah itself is neutral.  The person practicing it can be basically good or basically evil.  No human is totally good, so it can be used for evil purposes.

How can you protect yourself from ‘Bad Obeah’?

Don’t do bad things to people.  That’s it.  Anyone, no matter how small or insignificant you may think they are, can enlist the help of an Obeah person.  In fact, one of the ways Obeah practices grew is slaves used it to take revenge on slave owners and other exploiters.

When you do bad things to people, you put a wound on your soul.  So the more wrong you do to others, the more vulnerable you become to dark forces of Nature.

Seek the protection of God. Only he can offer the level of protection against needed to safeguard against the dark forces.

What to do if you think you’ve been cursed?

Think back on all the wrongs you have done to people, and start making amends.  It maybe that nobody has actually cursed you, but that you have done so much bad things that you’re choking on it.  Time to pay the piper.

Prayers and ask for forgiveness.

Obeah in Guyana

As soon as something starts going wrong, Guyanese are quick to say “somebody obeah meh”!

Nevertheless, we could go on, but this is it for now

References:

• Williams, Joseph John S.J.. Voodoos and Obeahs: Phases of West Indian Witchcraft (1932). Publisher: Lincoln MacVeagh, Dial Press, Inc., New York. Chapter “Origin of Obeah.”
• Deane, John Bathurst, The Worship of the Serpent (1883), p.163.
• Heffernan, Andrew. “Obeah, Christianity, and Jamaica”.
• “obeah (religious cult) – Memidex dictionary/thesaurus”. www.memidex.com. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
• “The Igbo People – Origins & History”. www.faculty.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
• Eltis, David; Richardson, David (1997). Routes to slavery: direction, ethnicity, and mortality in the transatlantic slave trade. Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 0-7146-4820-5.
• Payne-Jackson, Arvilla (2004). Jamaican Folk Medicine: A Source of Healing. University of the West Indies Press. ISBN 9766401233.
• Maarit Forde and Diana Paton, “Introduction,” in Obeah and Other Powers: The Politics of Caribbean Religion and Healing, ed. Diana Paton and Maarit Forde (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), 10.
• Diana Paton, “The Trials of Inspector Thomas: Policing and Ethnography in Jamaica,” in Obeah and Other Powers: The Politics of Caribbean Religion and Healing, ed. Diana Paton and Maarit Forde (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), 173-74.
• Jenny Sharpe, Ghosts of Slavery: A Literary Archeology of Black Women’s Lives (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), 3.
• https://exemplore.com/paranormal/Jumbies-of-Guyana
• http://www.tntisland.com/folklore.html