Traditional food galore at Accompong celebrations

It is a given that there is going to be much food at celebrations such as the annual January 6 observance of the signing of the treaty of peace and friendship between the Leeward Maroons and the British in 1738. And on Saturday, patrons who had gone to indulge in their favourite traditional foods were not disappointed.

All along the stretch and near the parade ground, which was the epicentre of the festivities, there were a plethora of man-made items including clothes, shoes, toys, fashion jewellery, art and craft, floor mats, sheets, and many more. No wonder this event is oft referred to as ‘Maroon Christmas’, a place where unsold items from the Christmas season are back on the market.

The event is a marketplace, among other things. And in that space there was enough uncooked food for a housewife to avoid going to the usual Saturday market. Green and ripe bananas, sweet potato, yam, pumpkin, gungo peas, red peas, coco, sweet corn, citrus, and other staples were present in the attendance register.

Amid the man-made pieces, traditional prepared Jamaican food, food that our ancestors would have themselves eaten, competed strongly. You could smell them all over the place as smoke and aromas wafted through the cool and salubrious air. Nostrils were bombarded, mouths drooled, palates were tantalised, and smoke got into some people’s eyes.

They didn’t mind as they chowed down on roasted and jerked flesh – chicken, pork mainly – fried fish, festivals, fried green plantains and frittas, There were also pots of various types of soups and sips, popcorns, coconut drops, grater cake, gizzada, peanut drops, ‘blue draws’, and a variety of puddings.

Roots wine, roots tonic, fruit wines, jelly and water coconuts, sugarcane and sugarcane juice, stood their ground against a huge array of bottled beverages and water. It would be good to know how they fared as the weather was cool and mild, not the torment of last summer, and it had rained the night before.

The ground was wet at some points, especially under the Kinda Tree, where unsalted food was cooked and Chief Richard Currie addressed the gathering. A bulk of the unsalted food and flesh was taken by way of a procession to an area called Old Town, where the ancestors were fed in a ritual that only Maroons are allowed to witness. Whatever was left in the pots was given to patrons, who in a frenzy tried to get a bite so that they too could eat traditional food with the ancestors.

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com