The Caribbean Blog

This article will be looking at a poem by James Grainger. This is part of looking at literature as a source to be able to understand the presence of Obeah in the community at all levels of society. Examining this poem will show glimmers of lives erased from official documents and colonial narratives. James Grainger was a physician, but he wrote this poem in 1764 based on living in St Kitts and the cultivation of sugarcane. This is an opportunity to see the European perspective and ideas about life in St Skitts, and dissect the lives left out of the poem. This poem presents the European negative lens on obeah practices, and the use of obeah by enslaved people for medical purposes.

Grainger provides a blended perspective on medical practices and the experience of living in St Kitts. By 1764, St Kitts had been under British rule since 1624 and had a functioning British plantation society. The culture of an average of 3,479 Africans forced to St Kitts had fully developed by 1764. Looking at St Kitts will not only represent this island alone, but also reflect the larger society and encounters across the Caribbean and the Atlantic community. This poem describes the environment, plants, plantation systems, and general observations of enslaved people including Obeah practice. The inclusion of Obeah is significant because in 1764 the practice was prevalent enough to be included in his observations. This poem was written before Obeah was outlawed so it had not been highlighted or brought to light as a concern officially. This shows that it was part of society and evidence of permanency to the practice. It also suggests there were two understandings of Obeah which was the European and the enslaved perspective. Obeah was held as important and vital to society, and on the other hand viewed as foolish. Caribbean society held both perspectives in the same space and society.

Grainger describes Obeah practice as mischievous and filled with falsehood that enslaved people fully believe in. He first describes “… a conjurer’s snake-mark’d staff hath struck!” which he explains in his note section that the “negroe-conjurers or Obia-men, as they are called …” carry a staff which is marked with frogs and snakes (143pg). The description of the staff wielder as a ‘conjurer’ shows the belief that Grainger had held about Obeah practices. He saw it as a performative practice that played tricks on people. The Obeah man depiction shows that Grainger had negative observations on the practice. This perspective reflects wider colonial ideas on Obeah practices in the eighteenth-century.

Grainger describes the serious terror it had created in the enslaved community. The enslaved peoples physically experience the downfall of being touch by this staff; “Whom drowth, convulsions, and whom death surround, Fatal attendants! If some subtle slave […] do not engage, To save the wretch by antidote or spell” (144pg). I suggest from this description that Obeah practices had the power to strike fear and doom into enslaved people. The observations by Grainger shows the dramatics he witnessed, however if we observe a bit further into this scene we can recognise the faith of the enslaved people. The sudden human deterioration once touched by this staff wielded by the Obeah leader caused destruction. Grainger shows Obeah as a pitiful example of people as he places the belief in magic to be part of human nature. He compares Obeah faith and practices to European witchcraft and superstition. This is further proven as he mocks the faith in the Obeah man as Grainger makes the scene more dramatic in this poem. The extreme emotions shown with exclamation marks and the description of all the reactions to the staff. This shows his perspective influencing how he depicts the scene and furthers the colonial ideas of ‘silly slaves’ and superstition. However, you can also suggest that this is evidence of the act of Obeah being practiced in the community and believed in regardless if it was frowned upon.

Grainger continues to belittle the belief in Obeah in the description of the magic potions’ ingredients. He uses a sarcastic tone on what this potion will protect people from and what it was meant to do. The potion includes fern roots, old teeth of a white man’s skull, lizard skeleton, salt, water from the spring and as it is poured into a glass bottle the Obeah, what Grainger calls the “leach”, mutters “strange jargon, and wild circles forms” (145pg). This potion was for each enslaved individual who believed to be secure from poison. He sarcastically writes “To work them mischief. This, diseases fly; Disease follow: such its wonderous power!” (145pg). He has stated he does not believe in this practice and potion, but exclaims the “wonderous power!” which gives this depiction a sarcastic and mocking tone. This portrays the negative and mocking image of Obeah practices which stems from colonial ideas about African religions and cultures. My analysis of this supports Keith Sandiford’s argument that literature reflects the society it was created from.[Discussed in this article button below]

Thinking critically about this poem, that is meant to be based off his own experiences in St Kitts. However, in this small passage that mentions the observation of Obeah ‘magic’ it does not include the specific demands of the enslaved person or people. Questions such as why they had requested the potion leaves a gap in this story. This account’s depth is weakened by Grainger’s vagueness. It can be suggested that this vagueness was a result of it originating from a rumour or conversation. This dampens the source’s ability to be an account of a direct experience of Obeah practices. However, it is useful in examining a perception of Obeah practices which defined Obeah as a trick. This highlights the archival silences and gaps that are apparent in colonial sources.

Nevertheless, if we follow the idea that he did witness this, it is interesting that as a European educated physician that he would attend it or be aware of it. Even if to mock it or be an entertaining inclusion in his poem. What can be understood about the enslaved peoples experience in this poem is that they come to the Obeah man with concerns involving spiritual and physical illness. Going to the Obeah man means that they believe he will provide a cure and an explanation of why they are feeling this way. This shows the medical respectability that Obeah men and women had in St Kitts. The trust they had in the community is proven by the description that enslaved people would reach out to an Obeah practitioner to receive information on their future. The connection to West African traditions is evident in this excerpt, “Their sable country demons they defy, Who fearful haunt them at the midnight hour [.]” which results in “[…] mope, love silence, every friend avoid, They inly pine; all aliment reject; or insufficient for nutrition take”(144pg). This excerpt shows West African medicine and supernatural forces traditions continuing through Obeah.  The “ country demons” that impact their well-being stems from the theory of disease and death connected to supernatural forces. Obeah men and women had connected enslaved people to this tradition and supernatural world. Obeah men and women treated/cured people as the body, the mind, and the spirit together.

This supports Jerome S. Handler’s argument that to be able to understand Obeah practices you must examine the West African theory on magic and faith. By including West African practices in understanding Obeah practices in Grainger’s writing it can be used to understand Obeah in enslaved communities. This shows the many ways this poem can be read and used to lift out enslaved experiences out of the prejudice against Obeah practices. This poem presents the depictions of Obeah and the relationship enslaved people had with Obeah practices.

reference list:

James Grainger, The Sugar-cane. A Poem (London: printed for R. and J. Dodsley in Pall-mall, 1764) (p.i). Accessed online: https://ecda.northeastern.edu/item/neu:m0410946n/ [ADD DOWNLOADED DOC]

Stuart M. Nisbet, ‘Early Glasgow Sugar plantations in the Caribbean’, Scottish Archaeological Journal (2009) 31.1/2, 115-136

Aaron O’Neill, ‘Slave arrivals from African to the British Caribbean by region and century 1606-1842’ Statista (2022). Accessed online: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1150546/number-slaves-arrived-in-each-region-of-british-caribbean-from-africa/#statisticContainer

Handler, J.S., and Bilby, K. M., ‘Notes and documents – on the early use and origin of the term ‘Obeah’ in Barbados and the Anglophone Caribbean’, Slavery and Abolition (2001) 22.2, 87-100.

Handler, Jerome S., ‘Slave medicine and obeah in Barbados, circa 1650-1834’, New West Indian Guide (2000) 74, 57-90.

Handler, Jerome S., and Bilby, Kenneth M., Enacting power: The criminalisation of obeah in the Anglophone Caribbean 1760-2011 (Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2012).