The Jamaican Marronage, a Social Pseudomorph: the Case of the Accompong Maroons
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THE JAMAICAN MARRONAGE, A SOCIAL PSEUDOMORPH: THE CASE OF THE ACCOMPONG MAROONS by ALICE ELIZABETH BALDWIN-JONES Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia University 2011 8 2011 Alice Elizabeth Baldwin-Jones All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT THE JAMAICAN MARRONAGE, A SOCIAL PSEUDOMORPH: THE CASE OF THE ACCOMPONG MAROONS ALICE ELIZABETH BALDWIN-JONES Based on ethnography, oral history and archival research, this study examines the culture of the Accompong Maroons by focusing on the political, economic, social, religious and kinship institutions, foodways, and land history. This research demonstrates that like the South American Maroons, the Accompong Maroons differ in their ideology and symbolisms from the larger New World population. However, the Accompong Maroons have assimilated, accommodated and integrated into the state in every other aspect. As a consequence, the Accompong Maroons can only be considered maroons in name only. Today’s Accompong Maroons resemble any other rural peasant community in Jamaica. Grounded in historical analysis, the study also demonstrate that social stratification in Accompong Town results from unequal access to land and other resources, lack of economic infrastructure, and constraints on food marketeers and migration. This finding does not support the concept of communalism presented in previous studies. Table of Contents Page Part 1: Prologue I. Prologue 1 Theoretical Resources 10 Description of the Community 18 Methodology 25 Significance of the Study 30 Organization of the Dissertation 31 Part II: The Past and the Present II. The Political Structure – Past and Present 35 a. Introduction 35 b. Marronage in the New World 38 c. Marronage in Jamaica 40 d. The Jamaican Government 43 e. Accompong’s Socio-Political System 46 i. The Office of the Colonel 46 ii. The Council 66 f. Maroon Federal House of Assembly 70 g. The Accompong Maroon Federation 78 h. The Council of Elders 79 i. The Abeng blower 81 j. The Political Structure of the South American Maroons 87 k. Summary 88 III. The Economic Factors – Past and Present 93 a. Introduction 93 b. Land as an Economic Asset 96 c. Marketing 106 d. Shop Keeping 112 e. Remittances 115 f. Tourism 122 g. Non-Governmental Aid 130 f. Summary 135 IV Land History 137 Introduction 137 a. Land as a Symbol of Accompong Maroon Resistance and Freedom 141 b. Land Claims 151 c. The Bauxite Conundrum 159 d. Other Maroon Communities 161 i e. Summary 164 Part III: The People and Social Structure V Kinship and Household 166 Introduction 166 Basic Principles of Maroon Kinship 173 a. Consanguinity and Affinity 176 i. Conjugal Unions 176 ii. Marriage Rates 180 iii Maroon Endogamy 185 iv One-drop Rule 187 v Family Names 187 b. Household 194 i Residence 203 c Inheritance and Succession 205 i Kinship and Land Tenure 205 ii Kinship and Medico-religious Knowledge 208 iii Kinship and Leadership Roles in the Educational Domain 210 iv Kinship and Political Office 212 d. Summary 221 VI Social Groups 224 a. Introduction 224 b. Social Structure 226 c. Education 233 i The Accompng Basic School 236 ii. The Primary and Junior High School 239 iii Other Levels 244 d. Social Groups 248 i. Senior Citizens’ Group 248 ii. Healers’ Group 250 iii. The Cultural Group 256 iv Tour Guide Group 258 v Youth Group 262 e. Summary 263 Part IV Ideology VII Religion, Magic, Witchcraft and Healing 266 a. Introduction 266 b. Religious Practices of the Accompong Maroons 277 i Ancestral Cults 277 a. Myal 277 b. Obeah/Science 283 c. Nine Nights 287 ii ii Revival Churches 294 Zion Church 294 iii. Rastafari, Religio-Political Cult 297 iv. Afro-Christian Churches 298 The United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman 298 Seventh Day Baptist Church 300 Ta-Ta DeNue Assembly of God Church 300 Church of God International 301 c. Religions of the South American Maroons 301 d. Summary 308 VIII Epilogue 311 IX Bibliography 323 iii Appendices Appendix I 1738-39 Treaty (Courtesy Dr. George Brandon) 336 Appendix II 1842 land Allotment Act 337 Appendix III 1914-16 List of Maroons Names (Cooper’s notes) 344 Appendix IV Accompong Maroons’ Foodways 346 Appendix V Timeline of Events 373 iv List of Tables and Figures Flyer I Jamaica Salute 77 Flyer II What Does Accompong Need? 128 Genealogy I, Mr. and Mrs. E. 177 Genealogy II, Colonels Wright 178 Genealogy III, John Wright 179 Table 1 Female Population Marriage Status, 2001 182 Table 2 Male Population Marriage Status, 2001 183 Table 3 Highest Level of Educational Attainment, 2001 245 Figure 1 Pie Chart Female Population Marriage Status, 2001 184 Figure 2 Pie Chart Male Population Marriage Status, 2001 184 Figure 3 Bar Graph of Female Educational Attainment, 2001 246 Figure 4 Bar Graph of Male Educational Attainment, 2001 247 v Maps Map I, Accompong and neighboring estates 19 (Courtesy Department of Survey, Jamaica) Map II, 1976 Land evaluation map of Accompong Village 20 Showing ring road inside Accomopong Town (Courtesy Department of Lands and Evaluation, Jamaica) Map III.1, New World Maroons 34 (Courtesy University of West Indies Press) Map III.2, Jamaican Maroon Settlements 34 (Courtesy University of West Indies Press) Map IV, 1807 Map of Accompong 144 (Courtesy Jamaican Archives) vi Photographs Page Cudjoe’s monument 24 Road inside Accompong 21 Café 24 Hansley Reid, Abeng Blower 86 Basic School Graduation 239 Housing Stock 117 -119 Kindah Tree 282 Sign of 1738-9 Maroon Treaty 281 Zion Church 295 James (Japhet) Chambers, Obeah/Science Man and researcher 286 Past Colonel, Rev. Harris Cawley in front United Church of Jamaica 299 (All photographs are those of the researcher) Saramakan Maroon House 121 Courtesy of Dr. George Brandon (1998) vii Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the Accompong Maroons of Jamaica who allowed me into their community and answered my many questions. A special note of thanks to Past Colonel, Harris N. Cawley, who persuaded me to stay and continue with my research when frustrated, I wanted to leave. My gratitude to others in Jamaica who gave their time including the Librarians of the University of the West Indies Special Collection, the Jamaica Archives in Spanish Town, the Chief Surveyor, David Hemmings, at the Department of Lands and Survey, the Jamaican Records Office of Births and Deaths, the Office of Marriages, the personnel at the Department of Lands and Evaluation, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, and the Office of Copyright at the University of the West Indies Press. Most importantly, I wish to thank the faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University and members of my doctoral committee for their training and encouragement. I also wish to thank Dr. George Brandon, my husband, who introduced me to the Maroons in Jamaica and my son Akeem Jones who helped with the video recording. To my colleagues Marie-Lucie Brutus, Maritza Straughan-Williams, Ph.D. and Chevy Alford, Ph.D. for their endless hours of proofreading and feedback, thank you. A special thank you for technical support is extended to The City College of New York Architectural Center for reducing my maps. Also, thanks to Behavioral Medicine Department of CUNY/The Sophie Davis School of Medical Education for their support throughout the writing period of this research. viii Archival research conducted in 2003 was supported by research grant # 64539- 0033 from the Professional Staff and Congress of The City University of New York,-- Principal Investigator, George Brandon, Ph.D. ix PROLOGUE The Accompong Maroons of Jamaica are a corporate group founded in resistance to slavery. A testimony to that resistance and still forms the basis for the construction of maroon identity is their appropriation of the 1739 treaty between the British and the Trelawny Maroons that ended the warfare. This treaty also continues to serve as the basis for Maroons’ concept of apartness from, and conflict with, the Jamaican government. In the description and analysis of contemporary Accompong Maroons, researchers Besson (1997), Bilby (1994 and 2006) Zips (1996, 1998 and 1999), have argued that the Accompong Maroons are a distinctive socio-cultural group in Jamaican society—a New World Society. Earlier anthropologists such as Hurston (1938), Williams (1938), Dunham (1946) and Kopytoff (1973) argued that by the late nineteenth century, Accompong Maroon culture had converged with the broader Jamaican culture. Williams also wrote that the Accompong Maroons could only speak a few words of Kromantee language, but no one knew the meaning of the words. More recently, Bilby (2006) writes that: [T]the balance of features that distinguished them [Maroons] from other Jamaicans had gradually shifted from the external to the internal; from the visible to the invisible; from the public to the private. Even as they become more and more like their neighbors on the surface, Maroons maintained among themselves a highly distinctive “intimate culture” that remained hidden from most other Jamaicans. This culture came to reside 2 almost in intangibles such as values, ethics, and consciousness of a shared past— as well as coded forms of expressive culture such as esoteric language, music, and dance—with only a smattering of material artifacts (for instance, the Maroon war horn, the abeng, and various kinds of drums) remaining as physical evidence of continuing difference. (Bilby 2006:29) Maroons have been described as an autonomous entity or a nation within a nation by anthropologists as well. Bilby (2002) asked whether or not Maroon communities were “States within a State,” or “Villages No Different From Any Other”? He noted that “By and large, the abstract notion of Maroon autonomy seems to have been tolerated by the Jamaican state, so long as its practical consequences have remained insignificant”(Bilby 2002:28).