Oh for my superstitious people

Feb 19, 2017 Features / Columnists, My Column

---

The past two weeks actually served to remind me of heaven and hell. They also served to remind me just how tenuous life is. The part of hell was prompted by the spate of fires. There were fires at every turn to such an extent that I can only assume that many people were afraid to sleep.
Some were deliberately set and claimed lives. The Guyana Fire Service was kept busy. Scarcely had the ranks returned to base that they were called on to respond to another fire. To their credit, they managed to save nearby buildings.
It was not long before people began to talk about these fires. Many believed that obeah was at work, because no one could remember so many fires in the different parts of the country about the same time. It had to be obeah and somebody was very powerful, because he or she wanted the politicians to take notice.
When a lady came to me with the news about obeah, I asked her how is it that this obeah man can’t deal with Trump in the United States. The lady had a ready answer. She said that obeah does not cross salt water. I thought I was smart when I pointed out that the rivers — Demerara and Berbice — have salt water. But the lady reminded me that bridges span these rivers.
She proceeded to lecture me on the various types of obeah. There is ‘fire bun’ which destroys selected articles without damaging the other parts of the house. All this sounded interesting, but I still had questions. How is it that all the obeah people are poor? Why can’t they use the obeah to make their lives better?
But this talk about obeah continued. I remember the case of a man who was working, I think with the Department of Forestry. He went to Bartica and raped a young woman. He got off in court, but it wasn’t long before he fell on hard times. He died soon after and people said that the parents of the girl had sworn to get him.
There was another man who worked with the Guyana Telecommunications Corporation. He lived with his wife who later moved to Plaisance. Both were friends of mine. This man would beat his wife and even kick her. I later saw him not only living at the Palms, but also in a wheelchair. He had lost his right leg. People said that his wife resorted to the obeah man.
In my book there is something called retribution, but the believers say that retribution is different from obeah; that obeah is a case of getting payback at the instigation of someone. So if these fires are the work of obeah, then I am forced to wonder what it was that the victims did.
When I was the editor of New Nation way back in the 1980s and working out of an office that was located at Albert and Crown Streets, the manager was one Abdul Salim. The cleaner was a woman who believed in obeah and was therefore the butt end of many pranks.
One day a staff member who now resides overseas collected a hibiscus flower, some rice grains and some other paraphernalia. She placed these things at Abdul Salim’s door, because the cleaner had to clean that office early in the morning. Believe it or not the office was not cleaned until I removed the so-called obeah things.
The story did not end there. The woman went to the General Secretary, Dr Ptolemy Reid and complained that there were people in the office who wanted to harm her. She then explained what had happened.
To his credit, Dr Reid summoned the entire staff to a meeting at Congress Place and lectured us on the power of the mind. He said that if someone believes that something can hurt him or her then it would. I can’t swear to understand but then again, I know the power of the mind.
Guyanese do not settle for the obeah man, they also resort to a pandit who will give them a read. My ex-wife was a believer of sorts. I remember cutting my last son’s hair and the fellow just could not sleep that night. I concluded that his head felt funny but my ex took him to a pandit. She returned an even firmer believer, because the fellow slept peacefully the next night.
Then there are those of us who believe that Suriname has even greater power. Many a convict has gone there to get a ‘buoy’ or ‘knack’. Some members of the then Buxton gang got these things and were supposedly immune from bullets. I can only assume that the ‘knack’ either wore out or simply did not work.
There was this man who went to court, got a sentence, and attempted to walk away on Charlotte Street. He was shot dead.
Having said that, I wonder if the obeah people can do something about the ills in society. The vendors may wish to thwart the efforts of City Hall. Perhaps somebody can do something about the Jagdeo third term.
We are a superstitious lot in this country, yet superstition goes through the window when we are in trouble. Take Cobra. In normal times he might have been scared of the cemetery, but when the police were hunting him he hid in tombs in the dead of night. People took his meals to him there.
And what about the grave robbers? Someone broke into the tomb that held the body of the Bacchus brothers and removed the head from one of them. That head has never been recovered, so perhaps it is being put to good use, hence the fires.

---

---