FROM AFRICA TO THE HILLS OF JAMAICA - JAMAICA TOURIST ISSUE 10
The Maroons were Africans who escaped from enslavement in the New World and set up their own communities throughout the Americas, fighting over many years to retain their freedom. Unconquered, Jamaica’s Maroons eventually forced the British colonial authorities to negotiate peace treaties that gave them their own land and some internal autonomy in their settlements. Some 275 years later, the Maroons still maintain their independence. Recognized as an indigenous people by the United Nations, they remain autonomous from Jamaican society to a significant extent.
EXTRACT FROM THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAMAICAN HERITAGE BY OLIVE SENIOR. TWIN GUINEP PUBLISHERS.
When the English took Jamaica from the Spaniards in 1655, many of their African slaves fled to the woods and played a major role in helping the Spaniards sustain the five-year struggle against the English. Eventually, one band went over to the English but others continued to resist and by the time the last Spaniard left, the remaining ex-slaves had established a life of freedom in the woods. They continued to harass the English settlers, raiding plantations for supplies, arms, and women. Over time their numbers were augmented by enslaved Africans fleeing the plantations of the English. The Maroons, as they came to be called, were predominantly Akan speakers from the African Gold Coast, referred to as Coromantees, though other ethnic groups were also represented.
There are several explanations for the origin of the word ‘Maroon’, the most commonly accepted being that the English word maroon, like the French ‘marron’, derives from the Spanish cimarrón meaning ‘wild’. Originally applied to cattle that had escaped into the wild, the word soon came to refer to the human runaways who fled to the bush and established communities in inhospitable terrain from which they resisted European forces sent against them.
In time, there were several Maroon bands organized under strong leadership. The mountainous areas they inhabited protected their camps against the incursions of British soldiers and settlers. They lived as a fighting force so they could move quickly and were able to communicate with one another by means of their talking drums, the Abeng animal horn, and through their secret language shown to contain many Akan words.
The Maroons split into two main groups called the Leewards and the Windwards from their geographical locations. The so-called Leeward Maroons lived at the western end of the island in the mountains bordering Clarendon and St Ann Parishes and were united under the great leader Cudjoe, assisted by his brothers Johnny and Accompong. In time, Cudjoe moved his band to the wild Cockpit Country in the western parishes. From there they raided the nearby plantations for 40 years, preventing settlement of the interior.
Meanwhile, the other bands had concentrated in the eastern end, making their homes in the high mountains of Portland and St Thomas Parishes and were called the Windward Maroons. Two of the leaders of the Windward Maroons were Quaco and Kofi. But their greatest leader was Nanny, whose name is recalled in their old settlement of Nanny Town. Like the Leewards, these Windward Maroons were also worrying the authorities, carrying out lightning raids on settlements and retreating to their mountain fastness. The many swift rivers in Portland and the high rainfall made pursuit difficult. As in the west, they prevented the expansion of European settlement in the area, Portland Parish at the time being virtually unsettled. There were many clashes between the Maroons and government forces sent against them over the years.
However, the Maroons wanted to settle down as free people and in 1739 a peace treaty was negotiated between Cudjoe and the British government. According to the agreement, the Maroons were given land and certain freedoms, including freedom from taxation. The main settlement in St. James on 600 acres was named Trelawny Town in honor of the governor of the day and was the headquarters of Cudjoe. Land (400ha) was also given in St Elizabeth Parish and the settlement named Accompong after the leader of that band.
Shortly after Cudjoe signed the peace treaty for Maroons in the west, Quaco signed for the Maroons in the east (on 23 June 1739). But there was a split among the eastern Maroons and one year later, Nanny signed a separate treaty for her band, founding what is now Moore Town in the Rio Grande Valley. It remains the principal Maroon settlement in the area. After the signing of the peace treaties, the Maroons lived quietly in their settlements. In fulfillment of one of the conditions of the treaties, they returned runaway slaves and generally helped the authorities to maintain law and order.
But the peace did not last forever. In July 1795 the Trelawny Town Maroons rebelled, partly in response to long-simmering grievances with the government. The immediate spark was that two of them had been convicted in the courts for pig stealing and, to add insult to injury, had been flogged by a runaway slave whom the Maroons had previously caught and handed over to the authorities. When meetings with the authorities failed to appease them, the proud Maroons took up arms again. A few of the older Maroons heeded the governor’s call to surrender by 12 August and were promptly imprisoned, but many of the young warriors once more engaged the soldiers in guerrilla warfare, raiding and plundering crops and plantations in surrounding parishes. There were only about 300 fighting Maroons in Trelawny Town but they held out against the 1,500 soldiers sent against them.
The Trelawny Maroons agreed to a truce only when dogs were imported from Cuba with their handlers to hunt them down. As demanded by the authorities, most of the fighting men and their families assembled in Montego Bay by 6 March 1796, and the governor Lord Balcarres declared the war over on 16 March. The Trelawny Maroons had come expecting to negotiate another treaty, but they were tricked by Balcarres who had personally taken charge of the war, for he ordered all of them put on board three ships he had waiting in the harbour. The ships sailed on 6 June for Port Royal, and from there transported the Maroons to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Deported were 568 Maroons of whom 401 were old men, women and children and 167 arms bearing men. Their life in Halifax was never satisfactory and after two years they were sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in Africa. These Maroons were to form an elite in Sierra Leone, from whom many of that country’s prominent families are descended and some 60 of them returned to Jamaica in the 19th century.
Maroon communities have never been large in numbers, but they have imprinted themselves on the consciousness of the wider society. In earlier centuries they created fear among the authorities and the colonists, holding up settlement of vast areas of the island through their guerrilla activities and putting military campaigns against them high on the agenda. As symbols of resistance, they have played a significant role in shaping the psyche of Jamaicans.
Town and Charles Town in Portland Parish, and Scot’s Hall in St Mary Parish.
Each Maroon settlement is governed by a colonel, an honorary title dating from the peace treaties. The leadership is decided on among the Maroons themselves. The Maroons still retain some of their old traditions and the abeng and the drums are still used on ceremonial occasions. The Maroons distinguish between their ‘business dances’ to which visitors are not permitted, and ‘pleasure dances’ which allow visitors. Researchers have argued that the isolation of the early Maroons helped to preserve many of the old African customs, among them the Myal healing tradition. Certain types of celebrations among the Maroons also hark back to earlier times, including an ‘ambush dance’ in which Maroons dress in green leaves to reenact their guerrilla days in the bush and initiation dances and warrior types dances testing male courage, part of the Kromanti tradition. Music and dance styles unique to them are also found among the Maroons. A Maroon religious chant recorded in 1953 proves beyond doubt that an African-based pidgin existed alongside Jamaican Creole, and was a mixture of Akan and other African languages.
In recent times, much of the separation and isolation of Maroons has broken down, helped by intermarriage between Maroons and others and by the need for Maroons to leave their communities and live outside for education and work. In the wider society, it is impossible to tell a ‘Maroon’ apart from another Jamaican. The Maroon communities themselves that were once shrouded in secrecy, are now sharing part of their rich heritage with the rest of Jamaica and the world through their participation in international symposia and cultural events and publication of research by scholars who have lived among them. The Maroon community of Accompong now has a tour for tourists and the celebration of the town’s founding and Cudjoe’s birthday on 6 January is a public one, attracting hundreds of visitors.
Nevertheless, there are still secrets that are never revealed to outsiders and Maroons preserve among themselves remnants of their sacred traditions handed down by the Maroon ancestors and preserved by each generation. Maroons are credited with being the repository of African traditions, especially those relating to healing, divination and sorcery and ‘Maroon medicine’ is still regarded by many in the wider society as most powerful. Farming, fishing and hunting (including the wild pig) are still major Maroon activities. All of these elements contribute to what might be called the Maroon identity, shared by any who claim it by birth. Maroon societies have not only conserved elements of African culture but also provide a direct link with the indigenous people of Jamaica, the Tainos. The oral culture has always held that such linkages exist, but they are now being supported by solid evidence from archaeological research in old Maroon settlements.
NANNY OF THE MAROONS - A NATIONAL HERO
Nanny of the Maroons, also known as Queen Nanny and Granny Nanny, the only female listed as a National Hero, was a well-known leader of the Jamaican Maroons in the eighteenth century. A legend on the island, this military genius is said to have led over 800 free Africans for 5 decades. Nanny was known for her exceptional leadership skills, especially in guerrilla warfare and was widely believed to possess supernatural powers. This spiritual leader would change the history of a nation and has been immortalized in songs and legends. Most of what we know about Nanny comes from the oral tradition, and many claims about her cannot be verified with traditional historical evidence of the textual or empirical sort.
Source: Wikipedia
EXTRACT FROM THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAMAICAN HERITAGE BY OLIVE SENIOR. TWIN GUINEP PUBLISHERS.
When the English took Jamaica from the Spaniards in 1655, many of their African slaves fled to the woods and played a major role in helping the Spaniards sustain the five-year struggle against the English. Eventually, one band went over to the English but others continued to resist and by the time the last Spaniard left, the remaining ex-slaves had established a life of freedom in the woods. They continued to harass the English settlers, raiding plantations for supplies, arms, and women. Over time their numbers were augmented by enslaved Africans fleeing the plantations of the English. The Maroons, as they came to be called, were predominantly Akan speakers from the African Gold Coast, referred to as Coromantees, though other ethnic groups were also represented.
There are several explanations for the origin of the word ‘Maroon’, the most commonly accepted being that the English word maroon, like the French ‘marron’, derives from the Spanish cimarrón meaning ‘wild’. Originally applied to cattle that had escaped into the wild, the word soon came to refer to the human runaways who fled to the bush and established communities in inhospitable terrain from which they resisted European forces sent against them.
In time, there were several Maroon bands organized under strong leadership. The mountainous areas they inhabited protected their camps against the incursions of British soldiers and settlers. They lived as a fighting force so they could move quickly and were able to communicate with one another by means of their talking drums, the Abeng animal horn, and through their secret language shown to contain many Akan words.
The Maroons split into two main groups called the Leewards and the Windwards from their geographical locations. The so-called Leeward Maroons lived at the western end of the island in the mountains bordering Clarendon and St Ann Parishes and were united under the great leader Cudjoe, assisted by his brothers Johnny and Accompong. In time, Cudjoe moved his band to the wild Cockpit Country in the western parishes. From there they raided the nearby plantations for 40 years, preventing settlement of the interior.
Meanwhile, the other bands had concentrated in the eastern end, making their homes in the high mountains of Portland and St Thomas Parishes and were called the Windward Maroons. Two of the leaders of the Windward Maroons were Quaco and Kofi. But their greatest leader was Nanny, whose name is recalled in their old settlement of Nanny Town. Like the Leewards, these Windward Maroons were also worrying the authorities, carrying out lightning raids on settlements and retreating to their mountain fastness. The many swift rivers in Portland and the high rainfall made pursuit difficult. As in the west, they prevented the expansion of European settlement in the area, Portland Parish at the time being virtually unsettled. There were many clashes between the Maroons and government forces sent against them over the years.
However, the Maroons wanted to settle down as free people and in 1739 a peace treaty was negotiated between Cudjoe and the British government. According to the agreement, the Maroons were given land and certain freedoms, including freedom from taxation. The main settlement in St. James on 600 acres was named Trelawny Town in honor of the governor of the day and was the headquarters of Cudjoe. Land (400ha) was also given in St Elizabeth Parish and the settlement named Accompong after the leader of that band.
Shortly after Cudjoe signed the peace treaty for Maroons in the west, Quaco signed for the Maroons in the east (on 23 June 1739). But there was a split among the eastern Maroons and one year later, Nanny signed a separate treaty for her band, founding what is now Moore Town in the Rio Grande Valley. It remains the principal Maroon settlement in the area. After the signing of the peace treaties, the Maroons lived quietly in their settlements. In fulfillment of one of the conditions of the treaties, they returned runaway slaves and generally helped the authorities to maintain law and order.
But the peace did not last forever. In July 1795 the Trelawny Town Maroons rebelled, partly in response to long-simmering grievances with the government. The immediate spark was that two of them had been convicted in the courts for pig stealing and, to add insult to injury, had been flogged by a runaway slave whom the Maroons had previously caught and handed over to the authorities. When meetings with the authorities failed to appease them, the proud Maroons took up arms again. A few of the older Maroons heeded the governor’s call to surrender by 12 August and were promptly imprisoned, but many of the young warriors once more engaged the soldiers in guerrilla warfare, raiding and plundering crops and plantations in surrounding parishes. There were only about 300 fighting Maroons in Trelawny Town but they held out against the 1,500 soldiers sent against them.
The Trelawny Maroons agreed to a truce only when dogs were imported from Cuba with their handlers to hunt them down. As demanded by the authorities, most of the fighting men and their families assembled in Montego Bay by 6 March 1796, and the governor Lord Balcarres declared the war over on 16 March. The Trelawny Maroons had come expecting to negotiate another treaty, but they were tricked by Balcarres who had personally taken charge of the war, for he ordered all of them put on board three ships he had waiting in the harbour. The ships sailed on 6 June for Port Royal, and from there transported the Maroons to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Deported were 568 Maroons of whom 401 were old men, women and children and 167 arms bearing men. Their life in Halifax was never satisfactory and after two years they were sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in Africa. These Maroons were to form an elite in Sierra Leone, from whom many of that country’s prominent families are descended and some 60 of them returned to Jamaica in the 19th century.
Maroon communities have never been large in numbers, but they have imprinted themselves on the consciousness of the wider society. In earlier centuries they created fear among the authorities and the colonists, holding up settlement of vast areas of the island through their guerrilla activities and putting military campaigns against them high on the agenda. As symbols of resistance, they have played a significant role in shaping the psyche of Jamaicans.
Town and Charles Town in Portland Parish, and Scot’s Hall in St Mary Parish.
Each Maroon settlement is governed by a colonel, an honorary title dating from the peace treaties. The leadership is decided on among the Maroons themselves. The Maroons still retain some of their old traditions and the abeng and the drums are still used on ceremonial occasions. The Maroons distinguish between their ‘business dances’ to which visitors are not permitted, and ‘pleasure dances’ which allow visitors. Researchers have argued that the isolation of the early Maroons helped to preserve many of the old African customs, among them the Myal healing tradition. Certain types of celebrations among the Maroons also hark back to earlier times, including an ‘ambush dance’ in which Maroons dress in green leaves to reenact their guerrilla days in the bush and initiation dances and warrior types dances testing male courage, part of the Kromanti tradition. Music and dance styles unique to them are also found among the Maroons. A Maroon religious chant recorded in 1953 proves beyond doubt that an African-based pidgin existed alongside Jamaican Creole, and was a mixture of Akan and other African languages.
In recent times, much of the separation and isolation of Maroons has broken down, helped by intermarriage between Maroons and others and by the need for Maroons to leave their communities and live outside for education and work. In the wider society, it is impossible to tell a ‘Maroon’ apart from another Jamaican. The Maroon communities themselves that were once shrouded in secrecy, are now sharing part of their rich heritage with the rest of Jamaica and the world through their participation in international symposia and cultural events and publication of research by scholars who have lived among them. The Maroon community of Accompong now has a tour for tourists and the celebration of the town’s founding and Cudjoe’s birthday on 6 January is a public one, attracting hundreds of visitors.
Nevertheless, there are still secrets that are never revealed to outsiders and Maroons preserve among themselves remnants of their sacred traditions handed down by the Maroon ancestors and preserved by each generation. Maroons are credited with being the repository of African traditions, especially those relating to healing, divination and sorcery and ‘Maroon medicine’ is still regarded by many in the wider society as most powerful. Farming, fishing and hunting (including the wild pig) are still major Maroon activities. All of these elements contribute to what might be called the Maroon identity, shared by any who claim it by birth. Maroon societies have not only conserved elements of African culture but also provide a direct link with the indigenous people of Jamaica, the Tainos. The oral culture has always held that such linkages exist, but they are now being supported by solid evidence from archaeological research in old Maroon settlements.
NANNY OF THE MAROONS - A NATIONAL HERO
Nanny of the Maroons, also known as Queen Nanny and Granny Nanny, the only female listed as a National Hero, was a well-known leader of the Jamaican Maroons in the eighteenth century. A legend on the island, this military genius is said to have led over 800 free Africans for 5 decades. Nanny was known for her exceptional leadership skills, especially in guerrilla warfare and was widely believed to possess supernatural powers. This spiritual leader would change the history of a nation and has been immortalized in songs and legends. Most of what we know about Nanny comes from the oral tradition, and many claims about her cannot be verified with traditional historical evidence of the textual or empirical sort.
Source: Wikipedia
_lowres.jpg)
