Hi all! In my fourth week blog, I would like to share some information about a specific culture in Jamaica. I was not able to find research on endangered cultures specifically, but I did find information on a culture that has struggled with representation and rights throughout their history. The community I will be addressing in this blog are the Maroons.
The Maroon community have long fought for their freedom and independence. Tracing all the way back to the 16th and 17th centuries, Maroon ancestors were forcibly withdrawn from their home lands and relocated to the Caribbean due to the Spanish slave trade. Maroons are in fact ex-slaves which escaped British plantations and created their own settlements. This led to the creation of Moore town and several other establishments. It was a fight for the Maroons to keep hold of their land and gain the recognition of their autonomy, but after more than 70 years of war, the British eventually gave into the demands of the Maroons. In 1739, the recognition of Maroon autonomy was honored by the signing of a treaty.
I would like to include a quote from an article called Maroon Autonomy in Jamaica. I believe this excerpt effectively portrays British attitude towards the Maroon culture and may even resemble similar attitudes that we see today toward other smaller and older cultures. The article states that, “The history of infringement on Maroon lands dates back to the colonial period when the British sought to shrink the Maroons to village size and to preserve them at best as a romantic and exotic ‘thing of the past’…” (Cultural Survival, 2001). This perspective that the British held towards the Maroons is one that diminishes the meaning of culture. In present day, outdated perspectives such as this one still reside among mankind, continuing to disparage cultures that are still very much important and alive.
Although injured by the past, Maroon culture flourishes. From a small-scale population of 10,000 people at the abolition of slavery, there are now estimated to be nearly 75,000 Maroons around the world today.
Sources
https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/maroon-heritage-of-moore-town-00053
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/maroon-autonomy-jamaica?gclid=CjwKCAjwwL6aBhBlEiwADycBIESfR9m_Z2m56TVccyl6csYxbeGXYUuHf0JTelEPj2eo3YNg_67N_hoCDckQAvD_BwE
https://minorityrights.org/minorities/maroons/#:~:text=Throughout%20the%20eighteenth%20and%20nineteenth,estimated%20to%20be%20around%2075%2C000.