DEFENDER OF THE MOUNTAIN DWELLERS
Our ancestors never submitted meekly to the injustice
of slavery in the West. Slave revolts were increasingly common throughout the
Caribbean and the Americas from the 16th century until emancipation
was finally achieved in the mid 19th century.
A small, wiry woman with penetrating eyes, she came
fem the fierce Ashanti tribe of west Africa. She and her brothers
Cudjoe,Accompong,Johnny,Cuffy and Quao became leaders of the rebel Maroon
towns. Nanny of the Maroons was
born in Ghana, and folk history says that she came to Jamaica with the express
purpose of becoming a high priestess and leader of her people, never having
been a slave. She led the eastern Maroons based in Moreton, and forged an
alliance with another group led by Cudjoe. (The name Maroons comes from the
Spanish cimarron,meaning "gone back to the wild.")
The Spaniards first brought slaves to Jamaica in
1519.there was constant rivalry between European powers for the rich pickings
of the slave trade. In 1655 the British captured the island from the Spain.
Slaves on the island took the advantage of the ensuing confusion and fled to
the Highlands of Jamaica where they could be free. These free Africans were
known as Maroons Nanny controlled the Maroons town in the east. She was
renowned as a military strategist. Camouflaged by the natural forest, her
troops would set deadly ambushes for the British soldiers who were unprepared
for such strategies; she also organized raids on British plantations, seizing
food and arms and freeing slaves who swelled the numbers of runaways under her
command, she was a constant sword in the
side of the British who suffered massive
losses in supplies, slaves and morale. In the west Cudjoe used similar
methods to unsettle the British.
At first she refused to sign the treaty, urging that
the Maroons should continue to fight the British until all salves were on the
island were free in the end she agreed to a truce because her people were tired
of fighting. In Maroon Lore, Mother Nanny is remembered as a spiritual leader
and a healer accredited with natural powers. She preserved the culture of
Africa in a new world and kept her people mindful of their pride and dignity as
free Africans, she was an inspiring example and a role model for those who
followed in her wake Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle and Marcus Garvey mother Nanny died
in 1755.
She was Jamaica’s first National Heroine. One of these communities was named Nannytown after the female Ghanaian leader. Maroon country was so feared by the English that it became known as the "Land of Look-Behind."
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW3O__j0KiU
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