NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2022 6 jamaica at Paul H.Williams/GleanerWriter IN1738, theTrelawnyTownMaroons of St James andSt Elizabeth signeda treaty of peace and friendshipwith the British, effectively putting an end to the protracted First MaroonWar. The third clause of the treaty says that the Maroons “shall enjoy and possess for themselves and posterity forever, all the lands situated and lying between Trelawny Town and theCockpits, in the amount of fifteen hundredacres, beingnorthwest from the saidTrelawnyTown”. The treatywas signed inNewTown, adistrict ofTrelawnyTown inSt James, and not in Accompong Town, which was named after Cudjoe’s brother, Accompong, who was placed in St Elizabethas adefence strategyagainst the British. In 1795, fifty-seven years after the treatywas signed, the secondMaroon War ended when the Maroons of TrelawnyTownwere trickedandexiled toHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Some died there. Otherswere repatriated to Sierra Leone in Africa. This depleted the Maroon population in Trelawny Town,making it lesswell-known than Accompong, where there is anannual celebration of Cudjoe’s victory over the British. Over the years, the Accompong Maroons and subsequent Jamaican governments have been at loggerheads over theMaroons’claims to political autonomy. They havedeclared the spacegiven to them as sovereign territory, a statewithin a state. This rhetoric has been gaining more attention since Richard Currie was elevated to the status of chief of the Accompong Maroons last year February. Things came to a head when the Accompong Town Maroons defied government orders to not have this year’s January 6 celebrations as to do so would be in contravention of the Government’s efforts to contain COVI9. The celebrations went on. The Government responded by establishing a policy to not give any funding to any group that declared itself autonomous. In a subsequent news conference, Prime Minister Andrew Holness shot down the Maroons’ claim to sovereignty, saying that it would not happen as long as he was in office. This did not go down well with Chief Currie and other stakeholders in the Maroon communities. The prime minister even snubbedCurrieby inviting the three other sitting Maroon colonels from the other Maroon communities to a high-level meeting. “I would say all those remarks are just playingpolitics,”was the succinct response from 80-year-old Dolphy Row when The Gleaner broached the subject recently when a team chanced upon him in Santa Cruz. “We fought for our rights and won the first Independence in Jamaica as you all know,” the elder, who was born, brought up, and still living in AccompongTown, said. Rowe, one of over 50 siblings, and a father of 10, himself, is from a long line of people who were leaders in Accompong Town. He said that his great-grandfather, Henry Rowe, was the first colonel in Accompong Town. Chief RichardCurrie is his aunt’s grandson, and the current deputy chief, Chase Rowe, is his son. When Jamaica gained political Independence in 1962, Rowe said he was in Accompong Town on August 6. Some people were “merry and glad”, others were “sad”. There was “no big celebration, more than the ordinary”, though there were ‘clappers’ and ‘starlights’. In essence, the 1962moment didn’tmeanmuch to the Maroons as they had got their “freedom”224 years before. “We the Maroons, we win our sovereignty, wewin our freedom, we are united, we have less crime and violence, we are a little different,” he explained. And in his days, children were not given a free rein in familial andcommunal spaces; they couldnot do or say as they pleased. There was much restriction by parents. “People talking about modern times and changes, and all that, but I wish I could find the living that we havewhen I was growingup, sharing, giving, loving,”Rowe saidwistfully. Andafter over 200 years ofMaroon “freedom” and 60 years of Jamaica being an Independent nation, social and infrastructural challenges abound in Accompong Town. Despite the claims, thepublic institutions thereare runby the JamaicanGovernment, and theMaroons vote in Jamaica’s general and parochial elections. So Accompong Town is at a fork in the road, mired in a political and constitutional conundrum it is. Which way does it really want to go? Full autonomy or assimilation into the wider Jamaican society?“With dialogue, everythingwill soonsortout. I think so,”Dolphy Rowe prophesied. TheGleaner reachedout toDeputy Chief ChaseRowe for an input butwas toldbyAlexMoore-Minott,‘secretary of state’, that he was not available. Accompong Town, St Elizabeth. File Accompong Maroon says 1738 was their 1962 BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! Dolphy Rowe, a Maroon said Independence was not a big deal for the them, as they gained independence before August 6, 1962. NICHOLAS NUNES/ PHOTOGRAPHER JAMAICA AT 60: ST ELIZABETH
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