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Repression of Obeah: A Reflection Paper

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Repression of Obeah: A Reflection Paper
Religion tends to give people an identity. It did that to the black population of slaves from
the Gold coast of Africa during the time of slavery in the Caribbean. The emergence of Obeah
and continued practice among the slaves attracted the attention of the respective white masters in
the British, French and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean (Bisnauth 22). A practice that allowed
the slaves to reconnect with the spirits, cast spells and pursue healing through the use of
supernatural powers and herbs, it did not appeal very much to the white masters. Though the
Africans would pursue it for their personal reasons, their masters looked at its potential to cause
unity and thus rebellion. This paper looks at the repression of the Obeah as a religion from a
personal perspective through examination of written texts.
From the constructions of the white masters in their colonies, I think it is not genuine
how they argued for the criminalization of the Obeah practices. The obeah practices, from the
start did not basically advocate all out evil on other people. Rather, the Obeah practices were
meant to create an identity for the African slaves, give them a means of protecting themselves
from the evils they were bound to face as well as seek healing through use of the derived
mystical powers. It is evident from the excerpts that the white masters used the basics of morality
to argue that Obeah practices were evil thus needed to be criminalized and punished by death.
There was a sense of insecurity in the white masters which prompted them to act in the interests.

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They wanted the slaves to continue working in the plantations (Paton 5). It is clear that they saw
that the obeah practices as a threat to them because it would united the slaves in a rebellion, give
them mystical power and give them a sense of confidence to pursue all that was good for them.
For them to label Obeah as evil, I strongly feel that they had no moral interest at hand but rather
their self-interests. On the contrary, the white masters were holding the slaves in the Caribbean
against their will. They were in the moral wrong. Therefore, the repression of the Obeah
practices was not initially justified.
While it cannot be ruled out that some of the slaves could use Obeah for inappropriate
reasons, obeah was not intentionally to be used a weapon against the white masters. It emerges
that the aggressive nature of the white masters in the colony, the advances to deny the African
populations something they could identify to was the cause of the retaliation and transformation
of obeah practices of casting spells and poisons as a weapon. I think the transformation would
not have occurred so aggressively to amount as a perceived threat had the white masters not
committed to oppression and criminalization of the important slave religion. Simply put, Obeah
began to become “evil” in the eyes of the masters when it became a reaction to a threatening
action against the slaves.
In Jamaica, there was an unpredicted rise of Myalism which was a form of obeah.
However, myalism became extensively regarded as a way forward from the evil Obeah. It was
essentially the good magic because it shunned performance of evil magic towards others. Its
practitioners contributed to the repression of obeah after an anti-Obeah campaign in 1860s. I
think there was an undue glorification of the myalism by labeling it as the good magic. In
essence, I think their foundations basically were intended for the good of the slave population
and not for evil. Evil was a consequence of threats by the masters. With the powers of obeah in

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Repression of Obeah Name Course Instructor Date Repression of Obeah: A Reflection Paper Religion tends to give people an identity. It did that to the black population of slaves from the Gold coast of Africa during the time of slavery in the Caribbean. The emergence of Obeah and continued practice among the slaves attracted the attention of the respective white masters in the British, French and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean (Bisnauth 22). A practice that allowed the slaves to reconnect with the spirits, cast spells and pursue healing through the use of supernatural powers and herbs, it did not appeal very much to the white masters. Though the Africans would pursue it for their personal reasons, their masters looked at its potential to cause unity and thus rebellion. This paper looks at the repression of the Obeah as a religion from a personal perspective through examination of written texts. From the constructions of the white masters in their colonies, I think it is not genuine how they argued for the criminalization of the Obeah practices. The obeah practices, from the start did not basically advocate all out evil on other people. Rather, the Obeah practices were meant to cr ...
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