He was sometimes called upon by other missionaries to travel to distant places during a revival of obeah and myalism during the early 1840s.
In Myal, a community invokes myalism, the earliest documented Jamaican religion with African roots, to counteract the psychological damage inflicted on a young woman by the circumstances of her life.
The other, myalism, was intended to counteract obeah.
The centrality of myalism in the novel indicates the constant process of creolization that is sustained by elements from the different cultures that make up Caribbean communities.
Higman notes these men of God lost their enthusiasm for the August 1st festivities as myalism infiltrated the churches.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from myal, in the same sense (perhaps from Hausa mayl 'sorcerer'), + -ism.