The Obeah Man

by Ismith Khan

Carnival Day, Tuesday: Port of Spain, Trinidad. Into this heady bacchanalian atmosphere, filled with men and women seeking the sinful anonymity of costumes, in street processions gyrating to the music of steel bands and in bars packed beyond capacity, where menace seems familiar but lurks in unkown places - comes the Obeah Man, Zampi, in search of the beautiful Zolda. By the time the festivities are over, disaster has struck, and the powerful but good Obeah Man Zampi has learnt an all too human lesson in love.

"A brilliant revelation of the dark reality under a lively Caribbean surface, "The Obeah Man " combimes the humour of Samuel Selvon, the pathos of George Lamming and the irony of V S Naipaul all in one."
- Frank Birbalsingh, York University.

..". a compelling story of living in changing times ... its message and impressions are long lasting ... "The Obeah Man" is a very human story."
- Cecil Foster, The Toronto Review

Genres: Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Ismith Khan was born in Trinidad in 1925. He grew up within a Muslim family, who came from the country to Port of Spain, strongly influenced by his grandfather, a Pathan from Northern India, who was a militant community leader who had been shot and wounded by the colonial authorities in their suppression of the San Fernando Hosay rebellion of 1884. Ismith Khan makes use of this background in his first novel, The Jumbie Bird, 1961.

Ismith Khan attended Queen’s Royal College in Port of Spain and later worked as a reporter on the Trinidad Guardian. He was a close Trinidad friend of Sam Selvon, who edited the literary page of this paper before he emigrated to the UK. Khan himself left Trinidad in the 1950s to study at Michigan State University and Johns Hopkins University.

Following the publication of the semi-autobiographical The Jumbie Bird, which explores the impact of urbanisation on an Indo-Trinidadian Muslim family, came The Obeah Man (1964), a profound but oblique exploration of the possibility of seeing the contemporary tensions between Afro and Indo-Trinidadians as a dialectic relationship which had the latent potential for the creation of a truly culturally dynamic society. The Obeah Man was recast as a play and broadcast by the BBC in 1970. His novel The Crucifixion, written in the 1970s, but not published until 1987 by Peepal Tree, develops ideas from both earlier novels. It encompasses the folk history/archetype of the Preacher/Prophet who calls on his followers to crucify him, and one episode draws on the folk narratives of the 1937 Trinidad uprising, particularly the actual event when a deeply unpopular police sergeant was burnt to death by a crowd. It also develops in a more symbolic way the issues of the dialectic between freedom and order in Trinidadian society.

Ismith Khan’s short stories, which have been much anthologised (‘The Red Ball’, ‘A Day in the Country’, ‘Shadows Move in the Britannia Bar’ in anthologies such as New Writing in the Caribbean (1972), Caribbean Rhythms (1974) and From the Green Antilles (1966)), are brought together with several previously unpublished stories in the Peepal Tree collection, A Day in the Country (1994).

Ismith Khan lived in New York until his death in April 2002.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contrary to the common theme in many Carribbean books which centre around pride in ethnicity, whether African, Indian or Chinese, this book embraces idea that there is strength and potential for positive growth in the mixing of all races, an assimilation of all the strengths of all the cultures to make a better world. This idealism was rare when this book was written 40+ years ago. The action takes place over a single weekend of carnaval in Trinidad and uses the metaphor of masks/unmasking throughout. The author's underlying message is that if we can put down our masks and embrace truth we will be better able to realize our true potential and live in balance and harmony with one another and with nature.

[2TReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is steeped in the Caribbean. The descriptors, the characters, Carnival all came to life within these pages. A must read.

[Karen A. Lloyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried really hard to like this novel but ultimately it fell short on a number of accounts.
I couldn't connect with any of the characters in any real way and the plot only got slightly interesting towards the end.

[Ashley Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

What sticks with me are the constant descriptions of enemas... which never failed to make me laugh.

A comedic look at love, Carnival, and the Caribbean.