Glenda Simms, Contributor

At the One-Stop-Shop in the village, things were relatively quiet. It was Wednesday afternoon and all the old timers were in the habit of congregating, even though there was no organised activity.

After all, it was the middle of the week and Miss Mattie and Maas George were usually present to enlighten everyone on the happenings since Sunday, and to remind the young people that they need to start thinking about the upcoming Gungo Peas party when the remaining articles of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) would be discussed.

After ordering white rum on the rocks for herself and a Dragon Stout for Maas George, Miss Mattie lifted her eyes to the brilliant blue skies that stretched ever so comfortably over the top of the ridges of the Santa Cruz Mountain. She took a deep breath and asked Maas George if he had spoken to his great grand-daughter who seems to be in love with the 'dutty wine'.

It is reported that this young woman has been doing this dance in church especially when all the women get into the spirit and start jumping, rocking and speaking in unknown tongues. Maas George quietly informed Miss Mattie that he has heard that when the girl start making her moves in the aisle even the deacon forget what foreign tongue he had just spoken in. He had to revert to English to quote the sections of the Bible that promised to rain fire and brimstone on all 'leggo beast'.

Serious state of affairs

"That is a most serious state of affairs," whispered Miss Mattie. She had better not tell Maas George about the nice young woman who dropped dead after a hectic involvement with the 'dutty wine'. The old man's heart might not be able to take the stress and since the few ram goats in the district are being fattened up for the Christmas and New Year's celebrations, the district folk are not thinking about any funeral party, and certainly not one for their beloved and revered Maas George.

When the discussions at the One-Stop-Shop take on a religious or 'churchy' flavour, all the old-timers and the few Wednesday afternoon young idlers pay keen attention to Miss Mattie's take on the state of the nation and the linkage to her understanding of a personal God.

It was not surprising to anyone that 'out of the blue' Maas George asked Miss Mattie if she had seen the front page of the October 30 edition of The Gleaner. According to Maas George, Norman Grindley, an exceptionally talented son of St. Elizabeth, who is now deputy chief photographer, captured a scene in which three men were holding on to a woman "whom members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church claimed was possessed by demons", during a crusade against crime at the Police Officers Club in St. Andrew.

After listening to the heightened excitement in Maas George's voice, Miss Mattie quickly concluded that the idea of a woman filled with demons was quite plausible in the 'old geyser's' scheme of things.

The time had arrived for Miss Mattie to take a bit of the shine off Maas George's masculinist religious comfort armour.

"Tell me something Maas George," exclaimed Miss Mattie as she took a big gulp of white rum. "How is it possible that a woman exhibits the signs of being invaded by demons at an event that was meant to address crime and criminality?" Maas George was quite taken aback by Miss Mattie's questioning. He was even more intrigued when the woman who is so full of spunk and knowledge drew the group's attention to an article which was written by one Donald K. Stewart, and published in the Mind & Spirit section of the August 26 edition of The Gleaner.

Miss Mattie pointed out, in her most high-pitched Sunday voice, that this Mr. Stewart's research described the possession of demons as a "woman thing". For instance, he detailed his experience in Aruba in 1995 where he made "a passing mention of sex spirit demons which gain control and often manipulate people's sex organs, desires, cravings and promiscuous behaviours ..."

According to this Mr. Stewart, "all hell broke loose" when a full-bodied, distinguished looking woman in her '50s started to "flatter uncontrollably, like a mullet fish on dry land".

Maas George shook his head from side to side and wondered aloud if this Mr. Stewart was born in Great Bay or by the seaside in Treasure Beach. How else could he come to link sexual desires to a mullet fish on dry land?

"Hold on Maas George," said Miss Mattie, "keep your commentary 'till the end."

The interesting part of the story according to Miss Mattie, is that Mr. Stewart and his Jamaican colleague Keith and the Aruban Pastor Tom and some other strong young men lifted the woman and took her to an adjoining prayer room where they remained with her until the end of the service. "Strange indeed," thought Maas George, but he was warned to keep his thoughts to himself.

Further information gleaned from the article by Miss Mattie made her more and more determined to expose the underbelly of these men who go across the world from church to church to find demons in women. In fact, in his article Mr. Stewart detailed a trip which a group of Jamaican men of God had taken to Tanzania to partner with one Pastor Boaz Sello of the Endtime Harvest Church. On this trip, they also experienced a demon located in a woman.

Mr. Stewart also professed to have had several encounters with demons that live in women's bodies in Jamaica.

In fact, he claims that in 1989, a first-year student in Mary Seacole Hall at the University of the West Indies was in need of prayer because demonic forces had invaded her body.

The point that Miss Mattie wished to make was that it appears that these demonologists and "duppy catchers" always find their demons in women and girls.

Men and demonic activity

Maas George suddenly found his voice at this juncture and rested his ancient head on his left shoulder and boldly concluded that the demon catchers needed to go back to their universities of demonology to understand that in all societies, including Jamaica, the most demonic deeds are carried out by the male of the species. For instance, rape, carnal abuse, incest, murder and related mayhem are overwhelmingly carried out by men.

"Right on!" said Miss Mattie. "We can always depend on Maas George to put sense into nonsense. After all, everybody at the One-Stop-Shop knows that in their community, demons are not high on their priority list. They are more concerned with the water problems during the dry season, the low prices that they are getting for their agricultural products from the "van men" who come in once a week to "rip them off", the terrible state of the district road, the involvement of the young men in ganja cultivation and the little girls who have to do the "dutty wine" after they leave the basic schools in the afternoons, and the concerns of the parents who feel that the local primary school will never produce students who can get the kinds of marks to land them in the corridors of Hampton or Munroe.

To make matters worse, they keep complaining that their Member of Parliament and their Councillor have not come around to see them since the last election which was a long time ago. Indeed, none of their demons reside in any woman that they know!

Glenda P. Simms is a gender expert and consultant.