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| Olga aged 16 | Olga aged 88 |
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Report from Fr Frank Butler, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston, to His Lordship Bishop Robert Collins, London. Your HolinessI, too, have seen the recent articles in the English Times, and share your concerns that obeah is flourishing unchecked in Jamaica and that it would appear that the people are choosing it as their religion rather than Christianity. It is an interesting view that the Times puts forward, that “obeah is a spiritual disorder” but I tend to disagree and think that it is a “psychological disorder” as it seems to me to be based on suggestion. Startling effects can be produced by suggestion and drastic changes in personality. Two persons quarrel over some difference they might have. One throws out the suggestion that he is going to obeah the other and, whether consciously or subconsciously, the victim accepts the evil threat planted into his mind. Obeah’s power lies in an obeahman or woman working on the fears of people who are fundamentally superstitious to start with. Most Jamaicans are Christian and are certainly aware that obeah goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church, yet, you couldn’t miss seeing how important religion is to the people simply because of all the many churches and chapels of different denominations there are. Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians, a few Anglican as well as the Catholic Church. In Jamaica it is believed by most that when a man dies, his body goes to the ground and his soul goes to God, but his spirit, is known as a duppy and stays for a while or even permanently. There are good duppies and bad ones, but all are feared because, apparently, one doesn’t know how they’re going to behave. They are deemed to be the instrument of the obeahman or woman and do revengeful and malicious thing. Just about everywhere on this island any accident or misfortune, illness or death is attributed to the malign influence of the spirits of the dead either initiated by the duppy’s own wicked purpose or carried out through envy or else by someone bent on revenge towards an perceived enemy of the sufferer. Here superstitious rites and practices are observed with regard to every phase of life from birth to death. Is obeah a sort of religion with Jamaicans? Instead of offering a prayer to heaven, a man will give three pounds to an obeahman and then pray to heaven that the obeahman is successful in what has been asked of him. The man says that Heaven keeps him waiting. The obeahman does not because he settles matters satisfactorily and quickly. Every parish in this island has its corners where the art of obeah is practised and some localities have a particular reputation for it. An obeahman’s influence is strong because the people believe that he cannot not be harmed by the law or any white person. It seems to me that people of every calling in life, including well educated men and women, white, coloured or black, depend upon it in some shape or form and there are certain people who openly condemn obeah and yet, to my astonishment, I find them rushing at the first opportunity to consult with an obeahman to fix something or other.
I
realise that my report may sound pessimistic, but I am optimistic that
the continued teaching of religious instruction and an essential
understanding of the psychology of the people, is the answer to
eradicating the belief in and practice of obeah. |
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