Maroon (people)
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Body of Djuka Maroon child brought before a medicine man, Suriname 1955 |
A
Maroon (from the word
marronage or American/Spanish
cimarrón: "wild, savage, fugitive, runaway", lit. "living on mountaintops"; from
Spanish cima: "top, summit") was a runaway
slave in the
West Indies,
Central America,
South America, or
North America. Maroon populations are found from the
Amazon River Basin to the American states of
Florida and
North Carolina.
The term
Maroon was generalized to include any slave or group of slaves that had rebelled or escaped from their owners frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa, often preserving their African languages and many of their cultural traits. In
the Guianas they were commonly known as
Bush Negroes or
Refugee Blacks.The
jungles around the
Caribbean Sea offered food, shelter, and isolation for the escaped slaves. There, the Maroons created their own independent communities which have survived for centuries and until recently remained separate from mainstream
society. Individual groups of Maroons often allied themselves with the local
indigenous tribes and occasionally assimilated into these populations. Maroons played an important role in the histories of
Brazil,
Suriname,
Puerto Rico,
Cuba, and
Jamaica.
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Djuka Maroon village, Suriname River, 1955 |
Maroon settlements often possessed a clannish, outsider identity. The villages were sometimes called
palenques or
quilombos. The
palenqueros developed
Creole languages by mixing European tongues with their original African languages. One Maroon Creole language in Suriname is
Saramaccan. Maroons survived by growing vegetables and hunting. They also raided
plantations. At these attacks, the maroons would burn crops, steal livestock and tools, kill slavemasters, and invite other slaves to join their communities.
A British governor signed a treaty promising the Maroons 2500 acres (10 km²) in two locations, because they presented a threat to the British. Also, some Maroons kept their freedom by agreeing to capture runaway slaves. They were paid two dollars for each slave returned.
In the
19th and
20th centuries, Maroon communities began to disappear as forests were razed, although some countries, such as
Guyana and
Suriname, still have large Maroon populations living in the forests. Recently, many Maroons have moved to cities and towns as the process of
urbanization accelerates.
Characteristics of the various
cultural groups differ widely because of differences in history, geography, African nationality, and the culture of indigenous people throughout the
Western hemisphere.
Many African traditions have been preserved among the various Maroon communities. Some of them use medicinal herbs along with special drums and dances when herbs are administered to a sick person. Many other African healing and 'magical' rites have survived through the centuries - see, for example, the accompanying photos of a medicine man and a protective charm from Suriname.
The
Black Seminoles, Maroons who allied with
Seminole Indians in Florida, were by far the largest and most successful Maroon community in North America.
See
Gaspar Yanga,
Afro-Latin,
Black Mexican.
By 1570 the number of
Maroons in Villano, near
Nombre de Dios in the north of
Panama exceeded 2,000. See
Cimarron people (Panama),
Bayano.
See
Garifuna.
In
Jamaica, Maroons intermarried with
Arawak and
Miskito people from Central America, establishing independence in the back country as the island changed hands from the Spanish to the British in the 17th century. Jamaican Maroons fought against slavery and for Jamaican
independence from the British. Ironically, they were also paid to return captured slaves and fight for the British in the case of an attack from the French or Spanish. Many of them were deported in 1796 to
Nova Scotia and eventually to
Sierra Leone. A famous Maroon rebel was
Granny Nanny. She is the only female listed among Jamaican national
heroes. Nanny was leader of the Jamaican Maroons in the
18th century. The Jamaican community has immortalized her in songs and legends. She was particularly important in the
First Maroon War in the early 1700s. Granny Nanny was also known for her exceptional leadership skills. For example, she planned
guerrilla warfare that confused the
British. To this day, the Maroons in Jamaica are completely autonomous and separate from Jamaican culture. In their largest town,
Accompong, they still possess a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are offered to foreigners and a large festival is put on every January 6th to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty that was signed with the British after the
Maroon War. For the early history of the Jamaican Maroons, see Mavis C. Campbell's The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655-1796: A History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal.
See
Mawon.
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Djuka Maroon women with washing. Suriname River. 1955 |
The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname by Wim S.M. Hoogbergen gives an overall picture of the interesting history of the
Aluku or
Boni in
Surinam from their origins until 1860, using the archives of The Netherlands, France and Surinam. Presently they live along the
Lawa River, the border river between
Surinam and
French Guiana, with about 2,000 people. They fled there after protracted warfare against the white planters and their colonial armies. Another author who wrote on the Boni-history is
John Gabriel Stedman. Other Maroon tribes still found in Surinam are the
Saramaka, the
Paramakans, the
Ndyuka or
Aukan, the
Kwinti and the
Matawai.
By
1770 it was said that there were 5.000 or 6.000 Maroons. By
1863, at the
abolition of slavery in Surinam, their number was about 10,000 (and 38,545 slaves). By
1972 the number of Marrons was 35,838, and in
2004 it was 72,553. That is 15% of the total Surinam population.
One of the best-known
quilombos was a Brazilian settlement/kingdom called
Palmares (the Palm Nation) which was founded in the early
17th century by run away slaves in the northeast of
Brazil. At its height, it had a population of over 30,000 free men, women and children, and was ruled by a king,
Zumbi by name. Palmares was eventually wiped out in 1694 by an allied European army made up of Portuguese, Dutch, British, and other troops. It lasted for almost 100 years as an independent nation.
*
Daughters of the Dust,
1991, film by
Julie Dash taking place in
1902 off the coast of
South Carolina and
Georgia. It shows how, on an isolated island, a group of people manages to hold on to their
Ibo customs and traditions. ASIN 6305729212
*
Ganga Zumba,
1963, film by Carlos Diegues
*
Quilombo,
1985, film by
Carlos Diegues about
Palmares, ASIN B0009WIE8E
*
The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname,
1997, Wim S.M. Hoogbergen, Brill Academic Publishers, ISBN 9004093036
*
Runaway Slave Settlements in Cuba: Resistance and Repression 2003, by Gabino La Rosa Corzo, translated by Mary Todd (Envisioning Cuba), Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
*
Sranang Tongo*
Capoeira*
Zambo*
Black Seminoles*
Black Indians*
Afro-Latin American*
Maroon music*
Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas*
A good short history of the "Bush Negroes" of Suriname*
The Maroons, Hindustanis and others of Surinam
