Legalize Obeah in Jamaica

Jamaica News: As a past student of Edna Manley College where I gained a deep understanding of folk practices I understand the trepidation Jamaicans have for “obeah”. However…. the practice of Obeah is distinctly different from the practice of Myal and over the years the 2 have been interchanged until people don’t even realise that they are different practices. Technically Obeah is Good magick to heal and Myal is bad magick to harm others. Notice it’s magick with a K which is different from magic which is entirely ceremonial. Magick is the manipulation of elements thru spiritual forces to achieve one’s desire.

Obeah is Jamaican witchcraft. Used by traditional healers with knowledge of our ancestral ways. Most of this knowledge has been passed down from our African ancestors who were pagans as Christianity was introduced by white people during the slave trade. The concept of Jesus, coming from the West was fused with our ancestral practices from the east to create revivalism. Kumina is distinctly different from Revivalism as it includes no worship of a western God and is strictly coming from Africa. Kumina is the closest thing I’ve seen to African paganism in Jamaica. Yet we dance Kumina with glee at every single nine night. Then nuh Obeah that pawdy??? Kumina is the dance done by our African ancestors after them perform them Obeah acts. So u participate willingly every time somebody die for u once u hire a “bans” as Jamaicans call it.

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Every damn day I wake up in the mornings and see Indian Astrologers packing up my TV screen. Indian astrology is practically the same thing. Only difference is India has different pagan practices, but it is legal in Jamaica.

So if you are going to decry the removal of archaic Obeah laws from the books then you should demand that Indian Astrology become outlawed in Jamaica as the practice is quite similar to Jamaican Obeah with many of these Indians incorporating Obeah that they learn here into their practices.

Cut the hypocrisy and go and learn ur culture. Interestingly it’s the JLP themselves that created and perpetuated this fear of our ancestral traditions so its only right that they are the ones who correct the wrong. After all One Don was a big Obeah Man so how can they not fix the problem?

By: Kamla Forbes