В 1910 году в Порт-оф-Спейне судили знаменитую целительницу Мэри Клемент за практику обиа

Deputy Managing Editor More than a century ago, in the streets of Port-of-Spain, people seeking relief from illness could find themselves moving between worlds. There were hospitals and formally trained doctors, but there were also bush remedies, religious rituals and healers whose knowledge had been passed down through generations. For some, the boundaries between these forms of healing were not rigid. A person could pray, consult a doctor, take a bush remedy and seek a spiritual healer, all in the same search for a cure. It was in this world that Mary Clement, better known as “Ma Joe” or “Madam Joe”, built her reputation as a healer. In 1910, however, that reputation brought her before a Port-of-Spain court. Mary and her husband, Arthur Clement, were prosecuted for obtaining money by false pretences with intent to defraud through the practice of obeah. Both were convicted, although the evidence presented suggests that what happened in the Clements’ practice was considerably more complicated than the label “obeah” suggested. The couple maintained Mary was a mesmerist, a practitioner of a fashionable European healing practice, and not an obeah woman. Their case offers a remarkable glimpse into how Trinidadians understood illness, healing, and spirituality more than a century ago. When mesmerism came to Trinidad Mesmerism took its name from Franz Mesmer, an 18th-century European physician who developed the theory that an invisible force called “animal magnetism” flowed through all living things. According to Mesmer, illness occurred when this force became blocked. He believed the force could be manipulated and transferred, sometimes without physical contact. The ideas became fashionable in Europe and eventually spread to the Americas. By the early 20th century, however, mesmerism had largely fallen out of favour with the medical establishment and was increasingly regarded as quackery. For Mary Clement, mesmerism provided a different explanation for her work. Arthur’s account of his wife’s treatment of a man named Mr Stewart was that she would gaze at a candle held by the patient, deliberately inducing a hypnotic sleep. While in this state, Stewart would describe his problems, and Mary would respond with remedies. Six days later, the couple returned and Mary again entered what Arthur described as a trance. Arthur said his wife charged two shillings for her services as a mesmerist and for providing “bush remedies”. But there was another side to the story. An AI image depicting Mary Clement and Arthur Clement, facing the Colonial Magistrate in 1910. AI generated Rum, ritual and ‘Devil Spirits’ The Clements came under prosecution after Stewart, who had been ill for some time and unsuccessfully treated in hospital, died. His widow, Annie Stewart, provided the most striking evidence against the couple. She said Mary and Arthur told her that her husband’s illness was caused by three “Devil Spirits”. The treatment involved prayer and a ritual that included a fowl, rum and blood. She testified that Arthur killed the fowl over a white plate and placed the plate containing its blood between her husband’s legs. He then poured rum into a saucepan, lit it and placed a bottle containing liquid on Stewart’s stomach while reciting a prayer. The process was repeated three times, with Arthur declaring each time that “the spirit is off”. Annie also said Mary, with her eyes closed, dictated a list of items for her husband to purchase from a drug shop for a ritual bath over six days. For this treatment, Annie said she paid the Clements $5. Arthur disputed almost every important part of her account. His version was that Mary used mesmerism to place Stewart in a hypnotic state and then recommended remedies. He denied receiving $5, maintaining his wife charged only two shillings. Where faith and healing collided Among the evidence were references to Catholic religious symbols, including a crucifix and a chaplet, or rosary beads. Their lawyer, Gaston Johnston, argued the couple were simply making use of symbols of their Roman Catholic faith. This is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the case. The Clements’ work appears to have occupied a space where several traditions overlapped - European mesmerism, Catholic religious practice, bush medicine and healing practices with African connections. To a modern observer, those elements might appear contradictory. To people seeking healing in colonial Trinidad, they may not have been. The search for a cure was pragmatic. If one method failed, another could be tried. A hospital could be followed by a bush remedy. Prayer could accompany medicine. The Stewart family themselves sought treatment through different sources before turning to the Clements. That made the world inhabited by Ma Joe less unusual than the court case might suggest. It also demonstrates how difficult it was for colonial authorities to draw a clear line between accepted religion, folk healing and practices condemned as obeah. An AI depiction of the treatment of Mr Stewart. AI generated A popular healer on trial There was another problem for the prosecution: Ma Joe had people who believed she could heal. At least three witnesses testified in her defence that she had successfully treated them. One man said he had been considered incurable by hospital doctors after suffering a fractured skull, yet Ma Joe managed to help him. There were others apparently willing to testify. Johnston asked the magistrate to hear evidence from additional witnesses privately because their “public positions” made them reluctant to give evidence openly. The magistrate refused. As a result, we do not know who these people were. But their willingness to defend Mary offers an intriguing indication of how widely her services were used, and the social range of those who turned to her. Ma Joe was not necessarily operating on the margins of society. People who consulted healers accused of obeah came from different backgrounds, including those with access to conventional medical care. When the law called it obeah The court ultimately rejected the Clements’ defence. Both were convicted. Arthur was sentenced to three months in prison, while Mary received one month. Mary herself did not testify, so more than a century later there is no way of hearing her explanation directly. We cannot know precisely what happened in the Stewart household or how Mary understood her own practice. It is possible Arthur’s account of mesmerism was genuine. Mary may indeed have used hypnosis and recommended purchased remedies. It is also possible Annie’s account of the ritual involving the fowl, rum and blood was substantially accurate. The two accounts do not have to be mutually exclusive. Mary’s practice may have incorporated several traditions at once, with mesmerism and Catholicism providing forms of healing that were socially acceptable, while other practices carried the dangerous label of obeah. An AI depiction of Mary Clement, “Ma Joe,” in her working environment. AI generated That distinction mattered enormously under colonial law. The case of Ma Joe is more than a century-old courtroom curiosity. It provides a window into a Trinidad where the boundaries between medicine, religion, spirituality and traditional knowledge were constantly negotiated. It reminds us that the history of healing in Trinidad was never simply a contest between “modern” medicine and “traditional” practice. People mixed and matched what they knew. They searched for cures wherever hope could be found. And sometimes, as the story of Ma Joe demonstrates, the person offering that hope could find herself on the wrong side of the law. This article was made possible with the assistance of Professor Diana Paton of the University of Edinburgh, UK, who kindly granted us permission to access her research on the Clement case, published in her book The Cultural Politics of Obeah. More of Professor Paton’s work can be found at www.caribbeanreligioustrials.org.