236 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Presentacknowledge a primarily fi xed pantheon of deities or an-
cestors who guide practitioners and manifest themselves
through possession. Although Vodouand Santeria priests
and priestesses are trained with specialized knowledge, any
believer can participate in these religious practices to some
degree. On the other hand, Obeah is individualistic by na-
ture, and practitioners are trained through a lengthy process
of apprenticeship. Not everyone can practice Obeah. Th ere
is also no group ritual involved in Obeah, except in the case
of Myalism, a unique form of Obeah practiced solely in Ja-
maica. Th e supernatural in Obeah are not deities who guide;
rather, they are primarily spirits of the dead manifested in
ghosts and nature, called on for a desired end, both good
and bad. Obeah is not a religion but rather a sacred healing
practice that acknowledges a spiritual belief system.
In the British imagination, Obeah has historically been
the umbrella term for any African-based spiritual practice
unknown to the European tradition that purports to give
the black population a sense of agency or authority. Most
oft en dismissed by the colonial power as the superstitious
beliefs of backward people, the legal impositions put on
Obeah speak to a more complex, ambivalent relationship
to it. Since the earliest days of slavery, Obeah has in fact
proven to be a source of anxiety for the British population.
Its practice, as well as all the cultural practices associated
with it such as drumming, was continually banned through-
out the region at various moments from the 17th through
19th centuries, forcing it underground. Obeah was seen
as potentially dangerous, the source of potential insurrec-
tion. Despite the individualistic nature of Obeah, the Obeah
practitioner was considered a community leader with the
power to incite slaves to rebellion and to poison slavehold-
ers and their families. Two of the most notorious rebellions
in Jamaica were led by those associated with Obeah. Nanny,
also called Queen Mother of the Blue Mountains, or Granny
Nanny, led the resistance against the British during the First
Maroon War (1730–1739). She was known to be an Obeah
woman. Tacky, the leader of the Easter Sunday Rebellion of
1760, claimed African royalty and aid from an Obeah man
while in battle. Th e spirit of resistance inherent in these re-
bellions and others only heightened British apprehension
about Obeah, which reached its peak in the late 18th cen-
tury. Obeah also became a popular motif in British literature
and performance at this moment. Th rough literature and
performance, through fear and mocking, the complexities of
Obeah were made more manageable for a British audience.Kennedy, Ellen Conroy, ed. Th e Negritude Poets: An Anthology
of Translations from the French. New York: Viking Press,
1975.
Michael, Colette V. Negritude: An Annotated Bibliography. We s t
Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 1988.
Richardson, Michael, ed. Refusal of the Shadow: Surrealism and
the Caribbean. Trans. Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Michael
Richardson. London: Verso, 1996.
Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. Negritude Women. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Obeah
Obeah is a sacred healing practice identifi ed with the Ca-
ribbean and Caribbean-based communities. It is rooted in
West African belief systems and characterized by the syn-
cretism, or mixture, of African and European elements. Th e
word “obeah” stems from the Gold Coast region of Africa,
from the Ashanti word obay-ifo or obeye, for witch or wiz-
ard, which was, through the enslavement of large African
populations and the subsequent imposition of British cul-
ture, anglicized into “obeah,” “obiah,” and “obia.” In contem-
porary terms, Obeah is conceptually most closely linked to
witchcraft ; Obeah also carries with it the same myriad of
misrepresentations and pejorative connotations as witch-
craft. Th is accounts, in part, for the secretive nature of
Obeah practice. Th e Obeah practitioner, most oft en called
an Obeah man, Obeah woman, bush man, or bush woman,
consults with an individual client in order to secure for him
or her a desired eff ect associated with the client’s real and
perceived health and personal welfare. Th e Obeah practi-
tioner then uses his or her knowledge of herbal and animal
medicinal properties or ability to invoke ghosts of the dead
and other spirits to produce the desired eff ect.
Obeah is oft en linked, or thought to be synonymous
with, other African-derived religious practices of the re-
gion, specifi cally Vodou (oft en known as “Voodoo”) and
Santeria. Although they are all similar in terms of their Afri-
can origin, syncretic manifestation, and coexistence within
Caribbean cultures, they are not the same. Some diff erences
stem from the dissimilarities in the cultures and political
histories of the colonizing powers. Other diff erences stem
from varying spiritual and stylistic preoccupations within
the belief systems. Both Vodou and Santeria are practiced
through community-based ceremonies characterized by
group rituals, drumming, singing, and dancing. Th ey also