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25/02/2025
Bahamas Ole tale...
Dancing Trees in Nassau 1950's
Back in the 1950s, Nassau had a man known only as The Obeah Man. Nobody knew his real name, but everybody knew his power. He was feared, respected, and whispered about in hushed voices. Some say he was just a man with gifts, others believe he was something more. One thing was certain he could heal the sick, fix ailments no doctor could explain, and cure people from things even pastors were afraid to pray against. Fever, blindness, strange illnesses that had no name he handled them all. Some say he had herbs no one else knew about. Others believed he whispered into the wind, calling on spirits to do his work.
But for all his healing, he had a love that ran just as deep as his powers Junkanoo. Every year, he would be there, dressed in wild colors, lost in the rhythm of the goatskin drums, moving like the music was part of his soul. And twice before, when he got too deep in his liquor and the spirit of the festival took him, he did something nobody could explain.
The first time was in Centerville. The crowd was thick, music pumping, cowbells ringing, when The Obeah Man staggered toward a tall palm tree. He started chanting, moving his hands in strange patterns, and before anybody could stop him, the tree moved. Not just swaying in the breeze it danced. The whole Junkanoo crowd went silent as the palm tree shook its leaves, twisted its trunk like it was alive, moving in rhythm with the beat of the drums. Some ran. Some watched in horror. Then, as suddenly as it started, the tree froze, and The Obeah Man collapsed to the ground laughing.
The second time was in Fox Hill. Another Junkanoo night, another drunken spell. This time, he walked up to another palm tree, placed his hand on it, and whispered something nobody could hear. The tree started spinning roots still in the ground, but it moved like a man in a feverish Junkanoo rush-out. People screamed. A few even fainted. And just like before, when it stopped, The Obeah Man disappeared into the crowd like nothing happened.
But after that, he was never the same. Some say he started changing, becoming something else. His skin grew darker, his eyes glowed strange in the moonlight, and people swore he could walk into shadows and vanish. Then one day, he was just gone. No one saw him die, no one found his body. Some say he never died at all.
They believe he turned into something else. What exactly? Nobody knows for sure. Some whisper he became a bird, flying high above the islands, watching everything from the trees. Others say he turned into a black cat, slipping through the alleys of Nassau, seen but never caught. And some believe he walks among us even now, shifting between forms, waiting for the right moment to reveal himself again.
And even now, when the Junkanoo drums hit just right, if you look closely, you might still see a lone palm tree swaying a little too perfectly to the rhythm of the beat it could be him you never know.
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I heard of this story as a kid too.
