voodoos - Namaste Gent

VOODOOS
and OBEAHS
Phases of West India Witchcraft
Joseph J. Williams
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Voodoos and Obeahs
Phases of West India Witchcraft
Author: Joseph J. Williams
Original publication: (1932)
Cover image: V
eve for the Sky Loa Damballah and his wife the Fertility Loa Ayida-Weddo
Lay-out: www.burokd.nl
ISBN 978-94-92355-11-9
© 2015 Revised publication by:
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VOODOOS
and OBEAHS
Phases of West India Witchcraft
Joseph J. Williams
Ph.D. (Ethnol.), Litt.D.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts;
Fellow of the Royal Geographical and the American
Geographical Societies;
Honorary Member of the Société Académique
Internationale (Paris) Member of the International Institute
of African Languages and Cultures (London);
Member of the Catholic Anthropological Conference;
Member of the American Folk-lore Society.
VAMzzz
PUBLISHING
4
contents
Introduction 7
CHAPTER I
African Ophiolatry 25
CHAPTER II
Serpent Cult at Whydah 43
CHAPTER III Voodoo in Haiti 83
CHAPTER IV Origin of Obeah 143
CHAPTER V
Development of Obeah in Jamaica 183
CHAPTER VI Conclusions 265
Footnotes 301
Bibliography 351
Post Scriptum
5
CHAPTER I
African Ophiolatry
EDWARD B. TYLOR writing as long ago as 1871 observed: “Serpent
worship unfortunately fell years ago into the hands of speculative
writers, who mixed it up with occult philosophies, Druidical mysteries, and that portentous nonsense called the ‘Arkite Symbolism,’
till now sober students hear the very name of ophiolatry with a
shiver.’1 Yet it is in itself a rational and instructive subject of inquiry,
especially notable for its width of range in mythology and religion.”2
Dr. C. F. Oldham, Brigade Surgeon of his Majesty’s Indian
Army, tells us in the Preface of his interesting little volume, The
Sun and the Serpent:3 “This work, which is based upon papers read
before the Royal Asiatic Society in 1901, was at first intended to
refer only to Indian serpent worship. It was soon found, however,
that the serpent worship of India did not originate in that country
but was, in fact, a branch of the worship of the Sun and the Serpent,
which was once well-nigh universal. It became evident, therefore,
that a history of the Indian cult would go far to explain the nature
and origin of serpent worship, in other countries and in other times.”
While we cannot accept many of the views expressed in the course
of this work, his final conclusion is most important, coming as it
does from such a source. He says: “It would seem, moreover, that
25
the deification of totems, of kings, of ancestors, and of the heavenly bodies, which furnish so many of the divinities associated with
the Sun-god; as also the human sacrifices and other abominations,
which occurred in some Sun-worshipping countries, all arose from
the corruption of the earlier worship of a supreme deity who was
believed to reside in the Sun. The Gayatri—the most sacred text of
the Veda, which must not be uttered so as to be overheard by profane
ears, and which contains the essence of the Hindu religion, is a short
prayer to the Sun-god, who is addressed as Savitri, the generator or
creator. The early Egyptians, and other ancient peoples also, seem to
have worshipped the Sun- god as the Creator.”4 in speaking of Africa,
however, Egypt, at least for the present must be excluded from our
consideration. For our question now deals with rites distinctively
belonging to the black tribes, whether we class them as Bantus or
Negroes in the strict sense of the word. And while at first glance it
seems but natural to assign an Egyptian origin for the cult, as far
as the dark continent is concerned, Wilfrid D. Hambly, Assistant
Curator of African Ethnology at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, the first to produce a strictly scientific work on the
question of serpent worship in Africa5 after a prolonged and careful
study, has adduced strong and convincing reasons to the contrary.
Hence his conclusion: “Examination of African Python worship in
relation to cults and beliefs from other parts of the world provides
no evidence that Africa received Python worship from extraneous
sources. On the contrary, the evidence is strongly in favour of an
indigenous origin of Python worship.”6 And again: “There is nothing
more than a superficial resemblance between the snake beliefs of
26
Africa and those of ancient Egypt.”7
In any case, the subject does not really come within the scope
of the present work. We are, it is true, in quest of the origin of
Voodoo as a serpent cult, but precisely, as we shall see later, under
the particular aspect of worshipping the non-poisonous python. We
have nothing to do here directly with rainbow-snakes, or other like
variants of the serpent cult.8
Canon Roscoe furnishes us with a description of the principal
centre of serpent worship in East Africa. He tells this: “The python
god, Selwanga, had his temple in Budu, by the river Mujuzi, on the
shore of the lake Victoria Nyanza. . . . The appearance of the new
moon was celebrated by a ceremony extending over seven days;
for this the people made their preparations beforehand, because no
work was done during the festival. A drum was sounded as soon as
the moon was seen, and the people gathered together to make their
requests and to take part in the ceremonies. Those who wished to
make any request brought special offerings, whilst the rest brought
beer and food as they pleased. The priesthood of this deity was
confined to members of the Heart Clan; the chief of the state upon
which the temple stood was always the priest. His dress was the
usual priestly dress, that is, it consisted of two barkcloths, one knotted over each shoulder, and two white goat-skins as a. shirt; round
his chest he tied a leopard-skin decorated with beads and with seed
of the wild banana, and in his hand he carried two fly-whisks made
from the tails of buffalo. The priest first received the offerings for
27
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Sorcery & Witchcraft in the Caribbean
Voodoos and Obeahs: Phases of West India Witchcraft by
the Jesuit anthropologist Joseph J. Williams (1875-1940)
offers a careful documentation of the history and
ethnography of Voodoo and reveals the connection
of both Haitian Voodoo and Jamaican Obeah to snake
worship (ophioletreia). In Jamaica, Obeah is the general
term to denote those Africans who in the island practice
witchcraft or sorcery. Williams includes numerous
quotations from rare documents and books on the topic.
This work goes into great depth concerning the New
World-African connection and is highly recommended
if you want a deep understanding of the dramatic
historical background of Haitian and Jamaican
magic and witchcraft, and the profound influence of
imperialism, slavery and racism on its development.
Williams is best known for his anthropological writings
about African and Caribbean people, which include
Whispering of the Caribbean, Whence the “Black Irish” of
Jamaica?, Psychic Phenomena in Jamaica and Africa’s God.
9 789492 355119