–  Our religions and the proverbial ‘Obeah man’ 

THIS article stems from the recent public debate on the Facebook declaration and assertions by Kester Deane and the counter-accusations that followed. I was a part of the initial engagement that resulted in his apology. Which sadly, under pressure he has recanted on, all to this point I will say on it is that I am convinced that he did not see the religious flags that he circled as ‘Hindu flags’ that if indeed as I am told he grew up and still lives in any South Georgetown ward that includes Lodge, West Le Penitence, Ruimveldt areas, South of Hadfield Street. The Flags he is accustomed to seeing are African non-Christian denomination sects, who are and have been the butt of ridicule and suspicion from since he was a child because I lived in that area, and I am older than he is and know the remarks and castigations directed at those groups. Serving with a constitutional commission, I can recall at a stakeholder meeting at Linden the complaint of Christian prejudices against a non-Christian, African based group was brought to us including that of Mother Archer and Mother Monica and later Brother Neville and others scattered in those wards including Faithist groups. This incident is indicative of the ignorance of Cultural matters that includes religion, which prevail in this nation, and how easily an offence can be extracted without even mentioning a religious denomination. But by circling the flags of the considered other, in this case, anything that is not of Christianity, but in this case which belongs to Hinduism, to be blamed for incidents that are rooted in social defects, and the inclusion of secular lifestyles that have acquired the custom of practice acceptance; that is detrimental.

Obeah is a West African religious practice that is linked to Voodoo. They belong to Old world African mystery systems and have been described as malignant magic by A.J Seymour in his publication ‘Dictionary of Guyanese Folklore 1975’ as his Colonial orientation would have dictated to his sentiments. Obeah was brought here by our African Ancestors and has included other influences from Catholicism that resembles and harkens to older African Nile valley imagery, familiar to those tribes that migrated from the Nile civilizations into West Africa. We do not practice Obeah in Guyana. OBEAH is the term that defines any non-Christian mystical, spiritual practice and this definition is one of the direct legacies of our Colonial past. That we have never directed energies to adjust and correct through any special education because our divisive politics and its allies have dominated and repressed every other social realm not directly bearing on the power thrust. The proverbial ‘Obeah man’ can be a pandit, Islamic reader, African mystical practitioner, and Amerindian ritual herbalist, anybody except a Christian Church leader. And over the years tremendous efforts are needed to distinguish as with the case cited what the differences are, with the casual usage of superstitious jargons with its frightening demon vocabulary against social, medical and narco-substance induced conditions that are prevalent in our society. That is separate from what might be, the genuine unexplainable phenomenon, coming from new-be Christian jump-up Church characters. There is the unexplainable, that we term spiritual phenomenon. But we must respect that religion also caters and makes references to human behavioural conduct. Unwavering moral mechanisms that the writers of the gospel ascribed to ‘The Christ’ messenger “Look not for signs and observations, for the Kingdom of heaven is within you”. That applies to the usage of the divine spark within us that relates to our relationship with our intellect and quest for enlightenment. As an individual, I believe in prayer. I know that there is something intelligent out there that we can have an intuitive relationship with. I also recognise that “The wages of sin is death” it’s a law, and not about angels wielding a judgement sword that there are currents and vibrations linked to our humanity; that will be revealed to science, if not already, that determine consequences of actions, serial killers and psychopaths are the variations. But for the previous notion of our vibratory possibilities, the Hindu’s call it Karma, we all know and use the term, in too many cases ignoring its implications.

Regarding the claims of a mystical conspiracy in Kester’s post, the spiritual flaw is in an evident breakdown in moral and civic responsibility, and religious exploitation, rather than religious instructions towards that end.  Domestic violence is a consequence of economics in a rapidly changing world, cultural rules as applied to Patriarchal creeds on a Matriarchal stage. Many acts of Arson are rooted in domestic contentions that our legal system is lagging to address. Road Carnage requires our observation. I have walked out of buses where the driver was smoking a Ganja spliff or had two Guinness beverages in his hand, of which he was drinking from one. When the government changed, the APNU-AFC had began a training push to accommodate some 40,000 school dropouts, all just out of an era of Gunmen, contract killing and the lazy callous lethal lure of easy money, providing themselves as hit-men, security for dem big man with cartel-political ties, thus our youthful robberies, machismo, gang and finance-related murders.  That the mystic-religious, ‘wuk’ men and women, de salawala tribe are contributing to the confusion cannot be denied, they add to the problem, with their ‘Guard Rings’ ‘Boie’ same as Benna, but they were always there, this I know, though there is an expansion of such due to the criminalisation of our society, many look for mystical ritual based necromantic protection in their criminal exploits, aspects of formal religion have become bastardized.

I can remember when my play ‘Legend of the Silk Cotton tree’ was staged for CARIFESTA 10. I had included the trial of Kate Fullington of the Stanleytown Liliwattie Sacrifice, she was represented by a young Lawyer named Forbes Burnham, he lost the case, Kate and her brother Benfield were hung in 1950. It was the foremost ritual sacrifice of the day. Because I had researched the event from its inception, and it was relative to, and included in the theme of the graphic novel, so, I placed it in the play. It was deceptively omitted simply because it involved ‘Forbes Burnham’. I had met the lone survivor years before in PHG when my great aunt was in there for a minor operation. They called her ‘Booths’ the important thing to observe was how though she played no part in the ritual, she was said to be inspired by Dutch spirits and was in opposition to the very idea it had destroyed her as a person. We spoke for hours in intervals, most times she drifted off mumbling about those times before I could learn basic things from her, that conditions of poverty, superstition, the warnings of the Obeah man at Cotton tree. All amount to the base of a profound study of comparative religion, for which we had no professional expertise at the time. The fact that neurology has so far concluded that a consciousness of God and the divine is wired into our minds, does not leave us with the sole dependency on spiritual and at times superstitious interpretations of all things, there is the term “Give unto Caesar, the things that are of Caesar and to the lord, the things that belong to the lord” our Sciences, Arts, Inventions and Genius are from the same God source of all Enlightenment. This realisation enables us to develop the able character if we so choose, and to have the strength not to follow the temptation of the popular chant.