Where is maroon town in jamaica

The treaties of reinforced and institutionalized preexisting cultural differences between the Maroons and the coastal slave population by legally sanctioning the Maroons' existence as semi-autonomous free peoples within a slave colony, and by providing them with bounded territories that came to symbolize their corporate identities as communities of common landowners.

After , the British colonial government helped to further entrench the distinctions between Maroons and other Jamaicans by employing the former as a sort of internal police force whose responsibility it was to track down and capture future runaways and to aid in the suppression of slave insurrections.

The deep divisions and resentments caused by the post-treaty Maroons' willingness to cooperate with the British in this way continue to haunt much of the thinking, both official and popular, about Maroons today. With the general emancipation of slaves in , things changed drastically for the Maroons.

Since the British no longer needed their services as a tracking force, they had little interest in maintaining distinct, partially autonomous communities in the interior of their colony. The first formal attempt to encourage the assimilation of the Maroons into the wider population was the so-called Maroon Lands Allotment Act of This piece of legislation aimed to abrogate the treaties of and absorb the Maroons into the emergent peasantry by dividing the communally owned Maroon lands and parceling them out to individual owners.

The Maroons, however, simply refused to comply, and the colonial government did not force the issue. It soon found that its interests were not, after all, necessarily served by dissolving the Maroon communities. As late as , some three decades after slavery ended, the Maroons assisted the government in putting down the peasant rebellion led by Paul Bogle -- the last time they were to serve in this military capacity. Many Maroons today would agree with Bev Carey when she states that "the period of to [the present] has been marked by the development and existence of one over-riding policy.

And that policy has been, and remains to this day, the compulsory assimilation of the Maroons into the mainstream of Jamaica.

Assimilationist positions and policies have long been counterbalanced by opposing tendencies. Up until the end of colonial rule in , British governors continued to receive visiting Maroon delegations and to consult with Maroon leaders, who were still treated much like foreign dignitaries. The longstanding tradition of ceremonial visits to Maroon communities by colonial governors and their entourages -- a kind of ritual performance of mutual respect -- was kept up through the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries.

Although the first half of the 20 th century saw a gradual erosion of some of the institutions that distinguished the Maroon communities from the rest of the population, this weakening of autonomy appears to have resulted from the complex interplay of various factors, both internal and external, rather than a consistently applied policy of assimilation. The local Maroon system of adjudication, for instance, came under increasing strain as Maroons embroiled in local disputes began to take their grievances to outside courts.

Some magistrates in neighboring jurisdictions would refer such cases back to the Maroon leadership, while others would accept them, thereby undermining the authority of Maroon leaders and their councils. The growing presence of missionaries and the introduction of numerous competing churches also had a profound impact -- in some communities, local converts to Christianity drove traditional religious practitioners underground, succeeding where foreign missionaries had earlier failed.

By the middle of the 20 th century, the Kromanti spirit mediums and healers who had once wielded great authority in the Maroon towns found themselves in an increasingly precarious position. The greatest challenge to Maroon autonomy, however, came with Jamaica's political independence in The country's new constitution did not address the question of the political and legal status of the Maroon communities in post-independence Jamaica. The assumption seems to have been that the treaties of , and any vestiges of legal or political autonomy attached to them, would automatically be rendered null and void by the creation of a new, unitary state.

But the Maroons continued to insist on the validity of their treaties, which they regarded as sacred charters, and they pointed out that these had been made with the British crown, and not with the ancestors of those who constituted the new government. During the s and 70s, successive governments attempted to further the integration of the Maroons into the larger population by demanding that persons living on Maroon lands pay taxes on the individual plots they occupied.

Maroons in the two major communities of Moore Town and Accompong, however, resisted all efforts to divide and tax their communally held "treaty lands. This unresolved debate over taxation is emblematic of the ambiguity that has characterized relations between the Maroons and the Jamaican state since independence.

It represents one of the clearest expressions of the continuing failure of successive Jamaican governments to address head on the question of Maroon autonomy. Symbolically, government officials have generally continued to accord the Maroon communities the special recognition they expect. Thus, in the early s, even as Jamaican Senator Dudley Thompson publicly declared that "there was no difference or distinction whatever in the rights and obligations as defined by the law of the land between the persons residing in the former Maroon settlements and those of any other Jamaican subject" The Daily Gleaner, , Prime Minister Michael Manley made time in his busy schedule for meetings with visiting Maroon delegations, who continued to press for official acknowledgement of what they viewed as their special "treaty rights.

As recently as , P. Patterson, the present prime minister, made a ceremonial visit to Accompong, during which he voiced his support for contemporary Maroon aspirations. A year seldom passes when government officials do not arrive from Kingston to participate formally in one or another of the annual commemorative celebrations held in the various Maroon towns.

There is a marked discrepancy, however, between this symbolic recognition of Maroon distinctiveness and the responses of the Jamaican state whenever real questions of legal or political autonomy arise. The limits of Maroon autonomy are periodically tested, for instance, by those Maroons who claim that the treaties protect their right to cultivate ganja cannabis on Maroon lands.

Although illegal in Jamaica, cannabis cultivation is widespread, and the plant remains one of the island's most important cash crops. Successive Jamaican governments have responded to this challenge by sanctioning police and army raids on ganja farms located on lands generally recognized as belonging to the Maroons. Even those Maroons opposed to ganja cultivation within their own territory are outraged by such actions, which they see as an egregious infringement of the general right to self-determination guaranteed by their sacred treaties.

By and large, the abstract notion of Maroon autonomy seems to have been tolerated by the Jamaican state, so long as its practical consequences have remained insignificant. As an important part of what might be called the Maroon mythos, this idea may even have a certain appeal for representatives of the state, as for other Jamaicans. For many Jamaicans, the continuing Maroon presence serves as a potent reminder of a proud past. Acceptance of Maroon autonomy as a kind of mythic quality belonging to all Jamaicans is exemplified by a letter recently published in The Daily Gleaner, Jamaica's main newspaper, in which the writer waxes enthusiastic about "the magic of witnessing a traditional celebration of the Maroons, our own sturdy, independent descendants of brave, runaway slaves, who still have their own state-within-a-state up in our beautiful hills.

In , Governor General Florizel Glasspole, in one of many such pronouncements, publicly "reminded the Maroons that they are not isolated from the rest of Jamaica neither are they a nation within a nation as is often rumoured.

Among Maroons themselves, the idea of self-determination is no mere abstraction. Maroon Town in the region of Saint James with its 3, inhabitants is a town in Jamaica - some 70 mi or km West of Kingston , the country's capital city. Depending on the availability of means of transportation, these more prominent locations might be interesting for you: Vaughansfield , Summer Hill , Spring Garden , Spanish Town , and Showfield. Since you are here already, make sure to check out Vaughansfield.

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Hidden Charms in the City of Light. Each year, the separate Maroon communities award a special day to the celebration of their history. The most important dates are:. June 23 — The Charles Town Maroons celebrate this day as their special day with activities taking place at their Asafu Yard in Portland.

Today, the future of the Jamaican Maroon communities and their residents is somewhat in question. Job shortages have urged many Maroons to leave their home towns and search for employment elsewhere. In addition, bauxite mining threatens to destroy the biological and cultural integrity of Cockpit Country, where the major Maroon settlements are.

Nestled in the hills of St Elizabeth, is the historical Maroon village called Accompong. The village was named after its founder, Accompong, who was said to be a trained Ashanti warrior from West Africa and was the brother of other Maroon leaders, Cudjoe and Nanny of the Maroons. Founded in after signing a Treaty with the British — runaway slaves led by their leader Cudjoe in defeating the local British militia, were guaranteed their freedom along with the land they had settled on.

Early descendants of the original settlers had managed to retain their African heritage, which they passed on to their children and grandchildren, and to this day, their heritage has remained relatively untouched by the wider Jamaican society. For this reason, Accompong is regarded as one of the only places in Jamaica where African heritage in its purest state can be observed.

Today, Accompong is known for its annual Maroon Festival held on January 6. The festival commemorates the founding of their village, which was signalled by the Treaty signed with the British.