Don’t discredit Maroon Lumi currency – Golding
Published:Wednesday | January 8, 2020 | 12:34 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Pan-Africanist advocate Steven Golding is pleading with Maroons and the Government not to pour scorn on the ethnic group’s Lumi currency distributed by the Accompong Central Solar Reserve Bank (CSRB).
His call follows months of a war of wills between the fragmented Maroon communities which are divided on the utility of a currency that has been declared illegal by Jamaica’s central bank but which has been embraced in some quarters as having symbolic worth in the thrust for sovereignty.
“I think the idea of developing a currency, as long as they all agree to, it is something that should not be discredited,” Golding, president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), told The Gleaner on Monday.
“I don’t feel the Jamaican Government should feel that it is a problem to them,” he said, while opting to reserve any further comment on the Lumi, the local currency of the Accompong Maroons.
At Monday’s 282nd anniversary celebrations of the signing of the peace treaty between the Maroons and British colonisers in Accompong, St Elizabeth, a Gleaner news team observed the Lumi in circulation at a discounted cost of J$1,000.
One Lumi is generally being traded for J$1,200 or US$10.
“I am very impressed with what I see here at their headquarters. Certainly the most impressive building I have seen in Accompong for some time ... ,” said Golding, who leads the black-pride organisation founded by National Hero Marcus Garvey.
The UNIA president revealed that he had also met with executives of the CSRB, which is also not recognised as valid by state authorities.
Fearon Williams, chief of the Accompong Town Maroons, appeared uncomfortable about the printing and distribution of the Lumi through the CSRB in his jurisdiction but refused to speak in detail with The Gleaner on the matter.
However, Colonel Wallace Sterling of the Moore Town Maroons in Portland said that while there was pushback against the currency, he was pleased that the circulation of the Lumi had gained traction ahead of its full roll-out in Maroon territory.
“Sooner or later, it will be what it is intended to be. It’s not intended to replace the Jamaican dollar; that’s not the idea,” Sterling said in an interview with The Gleaner in Accompong on Monday.
The Bank of Jamaica Banking Services Act prohibits persons from engaging in activities involving the taking of deposits or in any other banking business without a licence being issued and has advised that the Maroon bank is operating contrary to its regulations.
“It is something that we are trying to do inside the Maroon communities, to uplift the people and give them a sense of pride, a sense of belonging, and how by our own initiatives we can improve our economic situation within the Maroon communities,” Sterling said.
The Lumi currency, he said, was not intended to be used outside Maroon communities, but was to be incorporated in its emerging hospitality industry as a tourist souvenir, especially for foreigners, as well as in the annual peace treaty celebrations.
Meanwhile, Michael Barnett, who represented the overseas Maroon Council at Monday’s anniversary celebrations, has expressed disfavour with the proposed currency, which has been promoted by Timothy McPherson, governor of the CSRB.
“I personally don’t think we are at the place in establishing something like that (Maroon currency). Not at this time,” Barnett said when quizzed by this newspaper.
“I am not saying that probably some time in the future it will be beneficial to the community and the diaspora of Maroons, but I personally don’t think it is needed at this time.”