OBEAH IN THE LEEWARD ISLANDS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 66, 11 December 1907, Page 4

OBEAH IN THE LEEWARD ISLANDS

An interesting report from the Colonial Secretary of tlio Leeward Islands concerning tho condition of tliafc portion of His Majesty's dominions has. been issued by tho Colonial Offico as one of the regular "kn-' nual Colonial reports." It represents the stato of tho islands generally as very satisfactory, tho financial outlook in:most cases being much more promising than - previous reports had led us to expect. But perhaps tho most interesting portion of- the report is to bo found in a passage describing the operation of the Obeah Act of 1904, for the. putting down of tho "degrading'} and: dangerous crimo of practising Obeah. • It is stated that'the Act has. been "a marked success," and that the crimo "has-received a check from which it is never likely -to recover." "Obeah, Voodoo,-or Juju" is described, as "tho survival of tho whole body of primitive beliefs and customs of fotishistic African tribes," and its great danger is "tho power which a belief in its practices places in tho hands of some degraded but sharp-witted scamp, who with no belief in it himself terrorises over tho community." When the new law was enforced some throe years ago "several Obeah men quickly discovered that tho Leoward 'Islands woro no longer a fitting place for abodo;" and "the Obeahmun now finds it" a difficult and dangerous tiling to.keep his stock-in-trado by him, and, deprived of his paraphernalia of human skulls, cocks' heads, bones, and filthy meshes, his fame has vanished. Tho flogging of tho offenders, coupled with a term of imprisonment, lias had .a-most wholesome deterrent., eflect, for . "up to the very last tho peasants believed that, the threatened de-. gradation of a flogging would bo.warded off by sonio magic influence," and when no such result happened' "ridiculo of tho practices took tho place of tho dread which they formerly inspired." So tho march of civilisation is no longer to be impeded in tho islands bv "Obeah" with all its Hastiness and criminality. •