Janet Silvera, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
"DI MAROON dem a weh traitor, dem lef di rest a di slave dem fi suffer, sign treaty wid di white man dem and tun round help dem hunt runaway slaves."
How many times have you heard these accusations levelled against the Maroons?
The group that not only became the most formidable opponents of the English, but was also the first set of slaves to demand their freedom by escaping into the hilly terrains of Jamaica, later forcing the hands of the planters by signing a Peace Treaty in 1738 are very offended by these statements. Such statements are deemed as careless and callous remarks. "The Maroons by their daily struggles forge for themselves, an identity according to which they judge themselves, if you don't understand that struggle, or that identity, you are in no position to judge them," were the stinging words of Captain Frank Lumsden of the Charles Town Maroons.
Unofficial president of the Federal House and former Colonel of the Accompong Maroons, Meredie Rowe, cemented Captain Lumsden's sentiments. "They are obviously extremely ignorant and know nothing of what transpired and led to the treaty of 1738-9.
"To say the Maroons were traitors is a myth: the other slaves wanted to be enslaved, they got the opportunities that we got to run away from the plantations, so the real traitors are those who chose to remain."
Tracing the tale of the courageous runaway slaves goes back to 1655, when the British captured the island from the Spaniards. With the departure of their Spanish masters, about 1,500 slaves decided to seek refuge on the north and east sides of the mountainous terrains, rather than submit to their new English masters, creating free villages and a new way of life.
Despite their distance from the oppressive and tyrannical sugar plantations that the English had established, the two groups still came into confrontations. This eventually set the stage for the Maroon Wars of 1720 and 1739.
As a result of their fierceness, determination for freedom, they were able to sign the Peace Treaty of 1738-9, making history by becoming the first set of slaves in the region to force the hands of the English.
Taking a close examination of the work of the Maroons, the development of the people, their culture, the violence and the confrontations they had with the planters, one can have nothing more than admiration for these special people who could never have imagined the impact they would have made on the British and Jamaican history. And traitors or not, through the courage of fugitive slaves and the leadership of Kojo (Cudjoe) and his colleagues, the Maroons became a people whose history exemplified the driving force of freedom.
Next week we will look at the work of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) task of making the Maroon settlement of Accompong into a national treasure chest.
