LA Lewis: the high priest - Nyang Ko Pong leader declares himself an obeahman, claims ancestral powers

It was well past midday on Wednesday, and Constant Spring Road throbbed with the chaos of lunch-hour traffic.

Inside a well-appointed office, LA Lewis, self-proclaimed emperor of the Nyang Ko Pong Maroon government, leisurely sipped Hennessy while crunching on water crackers. His gaze, however, was fixed on a tiny fire crackling in a metallic container, a blaze that seemed to pulse with more than just flame.

"Yuh hear dat noise deh, brethren? Is the destruction dat a move eno," said Lewis, whose given name is Horace Lewis. The young man across from him responded: "Yes, Fada."

Lewis, known to many as the seven-star general, then flicked a mysterious potion into the fire, and from the glow, retrieved a silver guard ring, handing it to the man. He is also sprayed with various oils, which Lewis said are to ensure prosperity and to protect the man from evil.

The man, one of Lewis' many clients, is reverent.

"Bout four years ago, mi come see Fada fi $10,000 to buy a uniform," he said, his voice tight with awe. He was in need, and Lewis, as he so often does, decided to part with some cash. But that day, he did more for the man than giving him money. He offered him a free 'reading'. He is convinced it changed his life.

"After dat, mi start mek $40,000 a day just in tips - sometimes mi nuh even remember pay come," the man said.

But life wasn't all smooth. The man was later fired from his job and turned to hustling. He scraped together $150,000 and returned to Lewis, pleading for a fully charged guard ring.

"Fada tell mi say is $500,000 for the ring, but mi must forward," the man said. "From mi get the ring four years now mi never broke like for a week. Mi nuh make under $300,000 a week. It fully active because all two car mi buy," he said, eyes alight with conviction.

On Wednesday, the man was getting a reload.

"Mi just come link the general make him top up the ring. A energy we work off enuh, and it get warm before supmn ago happen. The ring talk to yuh first. The general is a good man and know what him a do," the man said.

Lewis, dressed in his signature all-white outfit, sits comfortably on a throne in his office. Around him are dozens of gold and silver candles, each said to possess powerful spiritual energy. A massive crystal ball and books on the dark arts and black magic are on full display.

"Yes, I am an obeahman, but the right word for it is high priest," Lewis told THE STAR. "Some people will call it voodoo or witchcraft. To be a real chief like I am, you have to know spirituality, and that has to do with even ths rings what we wear," he said.

"I have a ring that cost little bit over US$300,000 because of the diamond, and what is powered up in it. The way it powerful, if mi put it down now and any one tried to take it away, it a guh come right back to mi," Lewis said.

Even as he speaks, his phone rings incessantly. One caller, a woman overseas, has already spent over US$3,000 to purge a destructive spirit from her life. She pleads with Lewis for relief, offering photographs of the forces tormenting her, a desperate testament to the reach of his influence.

Amid the buzz of calls and the flickering candlelight, Lewis remains focused as he explains the deeper meaning behind his work.

"The Bible tell yuh seek physicians, because spiritual wickedness lurk in high and low places," Lewis explained, his voice steady. "What we call obeah is just culture. European ideas twist it, but di power inside us is real," he said.

"I can drink water through mi nose, heal people with a touch, [and] put ancestors back in di rings. When the Catholics do it, yuh call them Saints - but when we do it, yuh call us obeahman."

With eyes that seemed to pierce the shadows, Lewis declared himself "a fully guzzu man", a successor to generations steeped in hidden power.

"Pharaoh and Moses used to turn rods into snakes," he said, as the incense smoke twisted like spirits around his office.