Maroon (people)

It has been suggested that Cimaroons be Merging and moving pages into this article.

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.

History

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.

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.

Culture

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.

North America

The Black Seminoles, Maroons who allied with Seminole Indians in Florida, were by far the largest and most successful Maroon community in North America.

Mexico

See Gaspar Yanga, Afro-Latin, Black Mexican.

Panama

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.

Honduras, Belize, Guatemala

See Garifuna.

Jamaica

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.

Haïti

See Mawon.

Suriname

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.

Brazil

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.

References

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

External links

Ethnic groups in South America | Slavery

Cimarrón | Esclavo cimarrón | Marronnage | Marrons

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