Barrouallie abuzz with talk of obeah in man’s sudden death

Four years ago, Charleston Audain stabbed and killed his ex-girlfriend Michelle ‘Florna’ Frederick, during an event at the Mt Wynne Beach.

Audain was charged with murder, but was released from prison after spending a short time on remand for that June 24, 2012 incident. According to persons with knowledge of the incident, some of Frederick’s family members were dissatisfied that Audain was released from prison {{more}}and talk of using obeah to ‘right the wrong’ began making the rounds in the Central Leeward community of Barrouallie.

Last week, Audain died in his hometown of Barrouallie, under what some are describing as “mysterious circumstances.”

According to reports, while walking home, Audain stopped to ask a friend to use his toilet and seconds after collapsed in a gutter and died. The incident has the community buzzing and many are entertaining the idea that obeah (black magic) had a role to play in Audain’s death.

A family member, however, said he died from heart failure.

When SEARCHLIGHT visited Barrouallie on Tuesday, Venita, Audain’s sister, declined comment, while Frederick’s mother, Vangie Frederick, also remained mum on the issue.

However, a family friend of Audain said that since his release from prison, the dead man had to be hospitalized on numerous occasions and had often complained that someone was ‘hurting him’.

“He would often comment that he thinks that it was an inside job that kept him going to the hospital. He would say someone working obeah on him,” said the source.

The person said she does not believe in things such as obeah and black magic and tried to convince Audain that it was not possible for someone to hurt him by this means; despite this, the now deceased man believed that someone was “working on him.”

“He just fell and died like that; it’s strange,” said the villager, who is rethinking her stance on the obeah issue. She said that Audain would sometimes turn black and complain of pain in his stomach and other parts of his body.

On Tuesday, the Barrouallie community was buzzing and according to one woman, this is not the first time that talk of obeah and black magic have been the topic of discussion in the fishing community.

The woman said that a few years ago, a frog was found in the cemetery with a court summons sewn into its mouth. According to the villager, a woman who had a court case and is known to dabble in the occult was involved in that incident.

Obeah has been a part of Vincentian culture for a very long time, the practice having been brought to these shores by enslaved Africans and while some persons blow it off as “folklore” or “fake”, Pastor George Frederick told SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday that when discussing the topic, “we have to be objective.”

He said that demons are real and sometimes work hand in hand with humans to achieve Satan’s objective, which is to claim a person’s soul.

Frederick noted that as a people, our heritage and our history are African oriented and as a result, we are very spirit conscious, but sometimes do not know the difference between emotionalism, spirituality and spiritualism.

“…There are people who are dabbling in things of the underworld… there are people who have found a way of tapping into the spirit realm and indulge in spiritualism,” stressed the ordained minister.

Using the Bible as an example, the learned pastor said that Saul had lost his way to God and asked his servants to find someone who could consult with the dead, a medium, so that Saul would be able to talk to Samuel, who was already dead.

“This woman that Saul went to, a medium and a necromancer was familiar with spirits of the underworld. She was familiar with them. She and they had a pact working together,” explained Frederick, who opined that persons do not really talk to dead persons, but instead talk to demonic spirits, who would impersonate a person who had died.

“After a man dies, his spirit is not walking around, but if the man is possessed by demonic spirits, those demonic spirits can come like disembodied spirits, going around doing things. This is why people say they see somebody that might have died, because demons can create hallucinations and demons can manipulate situations.”

He stressed that spirits have no legal authority on the earth and in order for them to exist, they need to embody someone and this has been known to happen.

“A demon just can’t watch you and slap you. It can come in me and push me to slap you. That demonic spirit has no legal authority; they need a body in which to operate.

“There are people who are involved in necromancy, which means you are indulging in familiar spirits. Spirits that you and them have a thing going and they work to create havoc on people and if you are not a Christian and Jesus blood has not covered you, things can happen to you,” said Pastor Frederick.

He added. “I’m not going to give you the impression that all this necromancy talk is stupidness; demonic spirits can work in tandem with people and cause things to happen to people that God would not have wanted [to happen]; but when you are a child of God, those things cannot touch you unless you surrender yourself to them”.

Pastor Frederick stressed that Satan’s plan is to disenfranchise man, so demonic spirits can be ordered to subject themselves to somebody, then that person can use that spirit for evil.

Frederick, who pastors the Hill Top Tabernacle church said that necromancers, working obeah, can get demonic spirits to work through them, but they are usually tricked into believing a number of things, as when one looks at a necromancer’s/obeah man’s life, there are a usually a number of deficiencies.

“Look at the people who say they have power, look at other areas of their lives; they are sometimes illiterate and live under extreme poverty, which tells you that once Satan gets his end accomplished, he does not care how he does it.”

In relation to symbols, like voodoo dolls, chicken blood, frogs with sewn mouths, Pastor Frederick said that in our realm, we think physically, so there are persons who need to see images.

“That’s why they need symbols, pictures and images. These things remain longer in people’s mind. When people are dealing in the spirit world; in order for them to make a connection between the spirit and persons, objects are required. Things like dolls are only a projection or trajectory of the evil spirit…we need to understand that we are victims of past ignorance and we need to get past these things,” encouraged the pastor, who has a doctorate in Ministry.

“Man is a spirit; he has a soul and we sometimes lose our way and try to dabble in things to try to get back our way, but we must commit to Jesus.

“A person can put a ‘jumbie’ on you; if your life is exposed it can happen; the devil wants your soul,” said Frederick, who stressed that Satan will do anything to get your soul, from making you rich to making you poor.

Pastor Frederick said that he is encouraging persons to pay attention to God and not just the things of the world, like politics and crime, as these days, witches are beautiful women and there are men in high positions dabbling in demonic things.