Slapping Hands

In order to tell this story, I cannot begin with ‘Once upon a time’ or ‘Monsieur crie’ or even ‘Tim Tim!’ This story is not even a ‘Crick Crack’. This story is Geography, History, Truth and Lies, Fact and Fiction, Myth and Legend all rolled into two words that light up the eyes of folks old or young enough to know. This story skirts the edges of their logic to slip off their tongue into eager ears, like yours and mine

We journey back to the 1950’s. Back when the city of St. John’s on the island of Antigua was, more then than now, a series of interconnected communities. In a time when Jumbie and Loa were as real as you and I, roaming as they will, visiting whoever they fancy and answering the call of sósié (sos-yae) and any of the 99 Obeah men of Potters. There lived an inquisitive young girl. This young girl, Elba Aloway, lived in a community called Fibrey with her father. Fibrey was as small community that used to occupy an area to the west of Tanner and Market streets near the water front looking into St. John’s harbour; A space now predominantly occupied by a parking lot and a clothing store.

Elba’s father possessed a certain black book. A book of certain craft and mysteries. A book usually found in the possession of practitioners of the dark arts, a book some call: The Black Heart Book whose origins might have have been traced back to New Orleans, Louisiana. It is said he often warned his daughter not to interfere with the book, to leave it alone and do not read its contents. But we all know how powerful a thing curiosity is and like Pandora, Elba took the opportunity there within the narrow warrens of Fibrey to disobey her father, disregard his warnings and delved into the contents of the book.

It is common practice among Sorcerers and Practitioners of the Arcane arts to place wards and gaes on items of importance as a form of protection. In this instance, a gaes was placed on the book, binding a malevolent spirit known as a Jumbie to it. Shortly after Elba began to read, the Jumbie was summoned and proceeded to slap her.

She could not see or hide from the fiend. It would slap her at random. This phenomena, of course, drew the attention of the public. People would gather at times to catch a glimpse of her eager to believe or disbelieve. Some say that she was going insane, slapping herself, others claimed it was in fact a Jumbie attacking her. Whatever it was, the hand prints on her face were clear enough on her fair skinned face. Elba, hardly left her home, but when she did it was usually a spectacle like this one instance when she was making her way to the Public Library from Redcliffe Street and being slapped along the way and even in the Library itself.

Elba’s tale, which became known as: Slapping Hands has more than one ending but even then they aren’t conclusive. One ending claim she was taken to an Obeah man who was able to lift the curse. yet another spoke of her travelling to England to receive psychiatric help. She then returned home to Antigua where the attacks began again and she suffered from severe depression and had to travel back to England. Whatever the ending, nothing more was heard of Elba Aloway

In 1960, a local calypsonian named King Canary performed a song based off the incident titled Slapping Hands, written by Marcus Christopher see https://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/calypso-writers/ and so Elba’s story was preserved and endured in our minds entering our pantheon of Folktales, Myths and Legends.