Stop being divisive, Currie
Published:Tuesday | January 18, 2022 | 12:07 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
IF CHIEF Richard Currie of the Accompong Maroons want to be a state within a state, he won’t win that argument publicly because the public is not on his side. I am here wondering why the new chief is trying to be so divisive publicly when he can carry the Government to court or international organisations that may rule in his favour.
I do agree with Prime Minister Andrew Holness that you can’t have a state within a state. The only circumstance in which I believe in that is if the people are natives of our island. In America, you do have Native American communities where they govern themselves. I’ve now seen reports of some Maroons now trying hard to claim that they are descendants of Tainos and not Maroons, just to win the argument of indigenous people. No doubt, Maroons aren’t indigenous people, they were brought to Jamaica like many of our black ancestors during slavery. Some English slaves who turned Maroons don’t recognise any Taino heritage. If you go into a Maroon village now, you don’t see where they’re claiming their so-called Taino heritage. Slaves brought by the Spaniards had children with the Tainos, and a lot of Spaniards had children with the Tainos. So, I don’t get the point of what some of these historians in Jamaica are trying to say. Maroon villages should point out the economic, political, social and cultural things they’ve brought forward from the Tainos, who are the indigenous people of Jamaica.
TEDDYLEE GRAY