What will become of Jamaica’s Maroons?

Jamaican police entered farms in the village of Accompong in August to destroy ganja crops. The village chief, carrying a rifle, drove them away. ‘This is a gross disrespect and violation of Maroon territorial jurisdiction,’ said the chief, on his Instagram. Richard Currie talks a lot about sovereignty: he was elected colonel, or chief, on a platform of taking back control. A breathless profile in the Jamaica Gleaner refers to him as being like a cross between the hero and villain in Marvel’s Black Panther, but Accompong, with its 788 inhabitants, is no Wakanda. For nearly 300 years it has been more like Asterix’s village in Gaul, holding out against a hostile Empire.

Some history. The year is 1739. Jamaica is entirely occupied by the British. Well, not entirely… Several small villages of indomitable Taíno hold against the invaders. They are reinforced by escaped slaves, and together become known as ‘maroons’, from the Spanish word cimarrón or ‘untamed’. They have been skirmishing with the British army for over a century, using their knowledge of the interior and ambush tactics to resist any direct attack. The colonial government finally accepts the stalemate, and over the next two years makes treaties with the Maroons as sovereign nations. Throughout the colonial period, British governors received their leaders as if they were foreign dignitaries.

And the Maroons still exist. Their towns are still states within a state, they still pay no taxes to the Jamaican government on ‘treaty land’, and they are still led by a chief known as a colonel. This title, which goes back to the treaties, is pure propaganda: the commander of the British troops in Jamaica was a colonel; the leaders of the Maroons must be colonels too. Any lower rank would give the (correct) impression that a British regiment had been defeated by a smaller force.