PART I
SUPERNATURAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN
This aspect of the slavesâ lives may be considered under two heads. First, the survivals of African supernatural behaviour as they were reshaped during slavery; and secondly, the impact of Christianity on the slaves. The latter was of no real significance until the last three or four decades of slavery and will be considered last. The former, which we shall presently consider, was neither approved of nor fully understood by the whites, and this includes those on whose writings we must depend for data.
In one respect, however, our position is far better than that of contemporary observers in that we are now able to draw upon a wealth of anthropological material on Africa. This material clarifies much that must have appeared utterly confusing in this aspect of the slavesâ lives as seen through the eyes of the contemporary chroniclers. Our present knowledge of African tribal life makes it possible for us to re-read the descriptions of the chroniclers and extract from their statements implications of which they themselves were not aware. Where the chroniclers are too vague, or silent, we have the assistance of modern sociological researches into the life of the descendants of the slaves, the findings of which are significant with regard to the light they throw on the past.
Let us begin then, with a few observations on the African background of the slaves as it relates to this aspect of their lives. There is a remarkable uniformity in the supernatural beliefs of all West African Negroes. We have already noted Daryll Fordeâs and Herskovitsâ concurrence on this fact. Other writers may be cited. Geoffrey Parrinder has made a careful examination of the literature on West African religions and has demonstrated the uniformity in these beliefs all over the Guinea coast.1 This is even more true of witchcraft and sorcery beliefs. Here there is a continuous process of external influence due to the strong belief that the magical practices of a neighbouring or distant tribe are always more powerful than oneâs own.2
Further a clear distinction was often drawn between the different categories of the supernatural. This may seem an obvious point but its importance will be demonstrated later. Field has given us what is perhaps the clearest account of these categories in relation to West Africa. The primary distinctions are those between religion, medicine, and witchcraft. The main features of West African religion are the beliefs in a supreme being too remote to be active in the ordinary affairs of man; the worship of a pantheon of gods which are usually non-human spirits associated with natural forces; ancestor worship; and the belief in and use of charms and fetishes. Revolving around these various areas of beliefs are large numbers of cults.
Medicine in West Africa means anything which possesses a âpowerâ or âbreath of lifeâ and âis the abode of a spiritual being or wonâ.3 A won is morally neutral and can be employed for either evil or good, âas long as the proper ceremonies are performedâ.4 On this basis, the Ga, like other West African peoples,5 make a distinction between the good medicine-man (wontfe) who uses a combination of good medicine and ordinary herbs for good purposes only; and the bad medicine-man (wontfulo) who is âexclusively engaged in killing and harming and is employed by people who wish to hurt othersâ.6
Witchcraft, on the other hand, has nothing to do with either bad medicine-men, or the tangible embodiment of their medicines. Witchcraft is defined by Field as: âa bad medicine directed destructively against other people, but its distinctive feature is that there is no palpable apparatus connected with it, no rites, ceremonies, incantations, or invocations that the witch has to perform.â7* The precise nature and function of witchcraft and witchcraft-beliefs has attracted a considerable amount of anthropological interest and speculation.8 From the various points of view advanced on the subject we may select the structural framework â the main proponents of which are Nadel and Wilson â as being most useful for our purposes. According to Nadel:
Witchcraft beliefs enable a society to go on functioning in a given manner, fraught with conflicts and contradictions which the society is helpless to resolve; the witchcraft beliefs thus absolve the society from a task apparently too difficult for it, namely, some radical readjustment.9
Monica Wilson emphasizes the moral and psychological functions of such beliefs in her study of the Nyakyusa, writing that witchcraft âis perhaps the main sanction for moral behaviour within the villageâ.10 People who are moody, solitary, irascible and generally not âgood companyâ, who are proud and unsociable, tend to be those who are accused of witchcraft. Witchcraft victims are also people whose conspicuous happiness or success arouses envy. The Nyakyusa recognize that the type of person accused of witchcraft is usually himself a âvictimâ of the society, feeling isolated, unwanted and inadequate.11 Very common among African peoples too, is the belief that illness is caused by a witch eating the Kla (to use the Akan term meaning life-blood) of another.12
In the light of the above observations, let us now examine the material relating to the subject during slavery in Jamaica. To begin with, it must be noted that the clearly defined categories of supernatural practices which one finds in Africa were not to be found in Jamaica, where elements of ancestor worship, of the various divinities and of the cult of the dead, were all incoherently combined in the supernatural beliefs of the slaves.
The two words used by writers on Jamaica to describe these beliefs were obeah13 and myalism. Obeah or Obi was sometimes used in the generic sense to designate all forms of supernatural beliefs and practices among the slaves, including myalism. This is the sense in which it is used both by Long14 and in the Fuller report,15 But generally a distinction was drawn between obeah proper and myalism in which the latter was seen as the opposite of the former.
There has been some controversy regarding the etymology of these words.16 Williams and later Cassidy suggest the Twi word bayi, meaning witchcraft.17 However, the closely related Twi word obeye (which in pronunciation is far closer to the Jamaican word) seems more convincing, especially in view of the f...
