Friday, August 23, 2013

Obeah, man.



Howdy folks! For this first installment of Spiral Detective I wanted to focus on a character in the game of Pirate101 that introduced me to a rather ancient and murky branch of Shamanistic...let's say Magic called Obeah...

 I first came onto Obeah while playing Pirate101. Now, if you've been following me on Twitter you know I've been playing through the game on my Buccaneer character, Robert Younger (currently Lv 54 as of this post). You'll also know I have a certain weakness for buying companions for my Pirates. Robert is no different and early on when I made him many moons ago I had decided to buy him on a thrill of the moment purchase a Witchdoctor named Uga Buga.

Now I know what some of you are thinking...why would I buy a Witchdoctor on a Melee character? I'd reply why not? Who is gonna make my Yumba Potions if not my Witchdoctor? Joking aside, my Uga Buga has been extremely useful to me. He's the Magic to my Mayhem, Physical Mayhem, so much so he's in my top 2 rows even above Old Scratch. 

Now before I go on I want to list Uga Buga's promotions since he is the central character to this story.

He costs 5,995 Crowns or about 6$ and is a "copy" of Mormo the other Water Mole Witchdoctor given to Witchdoctor pirates.

You do not want to touch my Yum staff, OK?

Uga Buga as a Water Mole Spiritcaller (above).

Water Mole Witchdoctor 

[Comes with Coward's Bane and Hoodoo Touch]
Water Mole Spiritcaller 
-Promotes to this at Lv 15-
[Obtains Vulture's Gift +2 Movement to target for 3 rounds +2 Epics]
Waler Mole Obeah 
-Final promotion as of now promotes to this at Lv 37-
[Hoodoo Touch becomes Mutineer's Grasp and +1 Epic]

Now that you see what he is like let's move on to what this post is actually about. As you can see Uga Buga becomes an Obeah at his final promotion. I was curious what the heck is a Obeah? At first I thought it was simply a title but soon I discovered something entirely different.

Obeah is said to have originated in Central-West Africa or Nigeria and traveled down to Jamaica. Thus, we have our reason or strong possibility why Kingsisle may have used this term. It fits in with the whole tribal aspect of the Water Moles. However, I've always felt the Water Moles were more or less Polynesian/Pacific Islander influenced rather than African or Jamaican. An Obeah man (The term is used for both genders although some say a woman practitioner is also known as a Wise-Woman) can interpret the wishes of the dead, cast spells, and make elixirs. The Obeah man were renowned for his or her skill with herbal medicine and poisons.

Obeah, the word in it's many translations had me confused. One source claims the word is derived from a African word meaning "To put in the ground" in this context the source says it's being used as "To put in the ground [as in a burying a charm or talisman]. Sound familiar? Well we know sometimes Santeria and Voodoo also use this practice but it's usually reserved for curses and other ill intended things. So, is Obeah evil? That all depends on perspective.

Continuing on, we see another possible meaning for Obeah means "Morally Neutral" and in this context it means Obeah can be employed for both good and bad. Aha! So depending on your Obeah man (Which is the term used to call a practitioner of this ancient art) he can do both bad and good things. This is how it's tied together. He can be bad OR good. Although most saw Obeah as bad. This is interesting compared to other practices such as Wicca which follow a strict "Do good" policy because we all know if will something bad or without consent it comes back to you 3 fold. While I am sure there were "bad" Obeah men I think they simply got bad rep and it just spiraled out of control from there. 

In fact though throughout it's history Obeah and the Obeah man has been seen as a negative or evil force. So much so that in 1898 Jamaica passed " The Obeah Law" outlawing it's practice and soon after in 1904, the Leeward Islands followed in Jamaica's footsteps and banned it as well. Why so much hate towards Obeah? One source points out that during these times Jamaica was ruled by the British and we know this as fact that from the 1600s the British ruled and established many colonies as well as converted many to Christianity. 

The British of course didn't accept these types of practices and saw them as Witchcraft and works of the Devil, soon outlawed them. But is that it? Of course not. The Obeah man also had trouble in the form of another branch of folk magic, Myal. While most saw Obeah as "evil" many saw Myal as "good" and so when the Obeah practice was outlawed and even before, the Myal were advocates and sometimes even came to blows with rival Obeah men. This went so far that a Myal was sometimes considered a Obeah Hunter. They would be employed to counter whatever one suspected was an Obeah man's doing. Such as counter spells and curses.

This didn't save the Myal either though from the British and the rise of Christianity and soon Myal was also outlawed and considered Taboo as the population left behind the folk magic of it's ancestors. 

So what did we learn? We learned things always have a deeper meaning, all you have to do is look. We learned about 2 old practices of magic that while greatly diminished still live on through the few who practice it today and through popular culture. Does this mean Uga Buga is a bad evil companion? Of course not! Remember it's all about perspective! I think it's safe to assume that Uga Buga is on the "good" side of things. I'd hate to think of it if he was working for an evil force! Like the Armada. So rest easy tonight no one is casting curse at you and if they were Old Scratch and Uga Buga or Mormo have your back! 

Comments are appreciated and welcomed!

Signed,
Captain Sam Laveer

Sources:
[1] - Obeah and Myal
[2] - Obeah History
[3] - The Obeah Act, 1904
[4] - The Obeah Law, 1898


No comments:

Post a Comment