Page 56 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

June 2018 Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine

HOW DID OBEAH COME TO JAMAICA?: practices and religious symbols to form various
CREOLISATION IN THE DIASPORA syncretized Spiritual practices such as Lucumi in
It is widely understood that the Africans taken to the Cuba, Haitian Vodou in Haiti and in Jamaica the
Americas as slaves came from a corridor approxi- Kumina, 60 Zionists, 61 Revivalists etc. It is the
mately seven hundred miles wide by four thousand various rituals of these creolized Spiritual practices
three hundred miles long, on the west coast of Africa, that the colonisers ‘lumped’ together and subsequently
stretching from modern-day Senegal and Mali in the referred to as ‘Obeah’, in Jamaica and around the
north to Zaire and Angola in the south…’. Moreover, Diaspora.
they were all bundled together, not from one place or
ethnic group, speaking different languages and with WHAT IS AN ALTAR?
various spiritual beliefs. An altar is a flat surface, used as the focus for a
religious ritual, or offerings to a Deity.
This set the stage for creolization - the mixing,
massaging and molding of commonly understood There are altars all across the world, some are
words, signs and actions to over time, formed a more dedicated to the Ancestors and others to various
widely understood medium of communication and Deities depending on the Spiritual practices of the
expression. Out of this process came various creolized people involved. When rituals require offerings or
languages e.g. French creole, Dutch creole and sacrifices of various types, these are usually made on
Jamaican creole known as Patwa. Additionally, this altars.
resulted in the mixing and moulding of Spiritual

Four Altars – four different Spiritual philosophies. From left to right - Korean, Yoruba, Vietnames and Christian Altars

Altars to Ogun: The above image shows altars to the same Deity (i.e. Orisa of Ogun) across three different Spiritual traditions. (left)
The Vodun altar is in Benin, (Centre) the Ifa altar is in Nigeria and (right) the Lukumi altar is in Cuba.

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