‘We’re being stonewalled’
Accompong Town Maroon Chief Currie frustrated over lack of communication from Government
Published:Wednesday | January 10, 2024 | 1:13 AMPaul H. Williams/Gleaner Writer
Dressed in Africanesque attire, with an abeng in his hand, Chief Richard Currie of the Accompong Town Maroons in St Elizabeth stood barefoot at the base of the Kindah Tree as he addressed the massive crowd of local and overseas visitors, and the people from the village on Saturday, January 6.
The Maroons were observing the 286th anniversary of the signing of the treaty of peace and friendship between the Leeward Maroons and the British colonisers in 1738.
But, despite the festivities and celebratory atmosphere in which the cool post-Christmas breeze caressed and enveloped all, Currie did not look and sound like a happy man. His countenance was serious. His stance was resolute, and his tone militant, and at the same time betraying his frustration over the lack of communication between and cooperation with the Government of Jamaica and the Opposition People’s National Party.
He believes that the Maroons are being “marginalised, and subjugated, ridiculed and discriminated [against]”.
“Let it be on file, this is the third January 6th that I have been here. And in each year, I’ve invited both sides of the political agenda. I am still to get the support of the governing party, no matter the level of engagement or attempted efforts at engagement. We’re being stonewalled,” Currie told the attentive audience.
He said he was taking the opportunity again to open the floor of dialogue for “an amicable ending and resolve of longstanding issues”.
TRUE ESSENCE OF HISTORY
“The Maroons are not just fighting for Maroons; the Maroons are fighting for Jamaicans,” he asserted. “If you no longer wish to understand the essence, the true essence of our history and continue to be guided by the said storytellers of the oppressors, as Garvey said, ‘you then might just have died’.”
He then asked the crowd, “Are you cowards?”
Some people shouted, “No way!”
From that response, Currie called upon the Rastafarians, mentioning the persecution that they too had faced. The 1963 Coral Gardens bloodshed was cited. Accompong Town, he said, was the refuge for more than 300 Rastafarians.
“Why?” he asked, and answered himself with, “This is home.”
Going back to the stalemate with the Government he revealed, “The UN told us last year, fix the house, get the thing right. You’re there, you’re recognised, you have a treaty, get the people on board. I’ve been doing that, but the hands that play keep my brothers and sisters far away from me. The hands that play keep covering the eyes of the people.”
Turning to the people of his village he said, “I, Chief Currie, surrender myself to you as a leader. I took the responsibility to restore dignity. Yuh see all these men here sitting in front of you in this sun beating the drum, yuh see these ladies right here, it’s not a joke thing for them. Everything that they do reflects on us as a community. But these are the last few standing warriors of the culture, and I wanted you to raise yuh hand to them right now.”
And the drums played, and the abeng blew.
And, in reference to the freedom gained by the signing of the treaty, Currie said, “Today, I want to honour the freedom that still exists today. And pray that we hold on to it. Listen! Pay more attention to what is happening! What is happening in the east is also happening here, because there’s unsettled lands here. There are minerals here, there’s gold, there’s copper. There’s rare earth elements here. They’re sought after … It’s not a joke.”
In his parting shot, the Maroon chief said, “So when you leave here today, you leave remembering the voice of Chief Currie … not a Taliban, not a Boka Haram, not a terrorist, but a man standing on his square and representing for the rights of his people. We’re on a blood oath and treaty to a colonial government that no longer holds reins over this island. So what do we do with it, is the question I ask … Pay attention, fear not for the ancestors are with us.”
The Jamaican Government, led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, has been at loggerheads with Currie since December 2021/January 2022 when the prime minister declared at a press conference that under his leadership, not one inch of Jamaica will come under any other sovereign authority.
The Maroons are claiming autonomy that they say was given to them by way of the 1738 treaty, and therefore they are a sovereign territory.
In December 2021, the Government issued a directive to all ministries, departments and agencies prohibiting the allocation of funds to any area that has declared itself sovereign.
Holness also hinted that the Currie-led Accompong Maroons could become a guerrilla threat to the nation. Since then, the relationship between the parties has been ice cold, with no rapprochement in sight.