Obeah
A Caribbean word for African-derived harm and healing, long criminalised by colonial law and still contested.
Also: obi, obia, obeah man, obeah woman
Obeah, also spelled obi, is a term from the English-speaking Caribbean, including Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana, for a set of practices of protection, healing and harm drawn from West African traditions. Its derivation is disputed, with Akan and Igbo roots proposed. After Tacky's War in Jamaica in 1760, colonial authorities linked obeah to enslaved resistance, and the laws against it were passed, and their later versions stayed on statute books on several islands into the twenty-first century, where they were used mainly against poor practitioners; repeal has been argued and in places enacted. Many Caribbean people see obeah as feared and as part of heritage, and some avoid the word. Scholars trace its connections to Kongo and Akan ritual specialists.