Don’t stigamatise obeahman Samuels says obeah getting a bad rap for crimes of fraudsters

The outrage sparked by the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a self-described oheahman has prompted prominent attorney-at-law Bert Samuels to issue a stern warning about predators who hide behind religion and claims of supernatural powers to exploit vulnerable people.

But while the case has reignited debate about obeah, Samuels argues that the real issue is not the belief system being invoked, but the individuals who use positions of trust to deceive and abuse others.

“We stigmatised obeah too much, a lot of the wrongs are not obeah-based. Sometimes the man says he is an obeahman [but] he is not no obeahman, he just uses it. He is just a con man,” he said.

His comments come days after a 31-year-old St Catherine man was charged with rape in connection with allegations involving a teenage girl. The girl’s grandmother was also charged with allegedly consulting a person who practises obeah.

Investigators allege that the accused promoted himself on social media as a spiritual healer capable of helping people who believed they were under spiritual attacks and in need of cleansing or healing. It is alleged that after being contacted by the grandmother on August 28, he arranged a meeting and later took the teen and her grandmother to a shed on the property where rituals were performed. During that encounter, he allegedly sexually assaulted the child.

Samuels, contacted by THE WEEKEND STAR, urged Jamaicans not to confuse alleged criminal acts with any particular religion. According to the attorney, the misuse of faith and spiritual authority is a problem that extends far beyond obeah.

Samuels, who supports freedom of religion and has filed a matter in court seeking the decriminalisation of obeah, said the long-standing portrayal of obeah as Jamaica’s only “evil” religion is deeply unfair.

“I am supporting religious freedom from where it comes, Rastafari, obeah, Anglican, all of them,” he said.

He argued that people who abuse spiritual authority can be found across religious traditions, and warned that blind trust in religious figures can leave both adults and children vulnerable.

“We have in the Catholic Church where young boys are being sexually molested by priests. Every time a person outs himself in a space of authority in a spiritual background, you open up yourself, and young children to be abused. So the abuse is not peculiar to obeah but to the behaviour of persons who are wolves who come together in sheep clothing,” he said.

Samuels also contended that Jamaica already has laws to deal with individuals who use deception and false promises to prey on desperate people. He said crimes such as trickery and scamming and lying about what one can do is captured under the Larceny Act. He, however, lamented that: “They don’t lock up the so-called Christian man who say he can heal you, or buy the bottle of water for diabetes. They are con men just like some of the obeahman dem.”

The attorney said cases involving self-proclaimed spiritual leaders, pastors and obeah practitioners often fuel public distrust of religion as a whole.

“I know of a case where a 15-year-old was molested by a deacon who always visited her mother,” he said.

Samuels said the mother was left shocked by the allegations. He said that the man later confessed to the act.

“This was a Christian Church, so don’t stigamatise obeahman,” he said.

Ultimately, Samuels said the lesson from the latest case is not about religion, but vigilance. He stressed that children must be taught to recognise danger, while parents and guardians must remain “proactive, protective and preventive” in safeguarding them from those who seek to exploit trust for their own purposes.