On knowing and not knowing about obeah

Abstract

This essay introduces Obeah: knowledge, power, and writing in the early Atlantic World, a special issue responding to recent scholarly interest in obeah and related creole and African-derived medical and religious practices common among enslaved Africans in the pre-emancipation Caribbean. It describes obeah and the epistemological conundrum it posed for colonists in the global Atlantic world, outlining possibilities for how scholars might study the texts that represent these practices.