Los De Abajo

By Bumpy Walker

A long time ago, two decades before the end of the last century, I read with the help of my mother, “Los De Abajo”(Those people below), the novel by Mariano Azuela on the Mexican Revolution in its original language.  In an early scene in the book, the leader of the bandido/ revolutionaries took off his belt in a flourish and offered each of comrades a single pinch of salt hidden inside. They reacted with enthusiastic approval, each seasoning their freshly killed meat with the mere hint of the luxury of  salt.

These bandidos hidden high in the Sierras, like the treaty Maroons had escaped the injustice of a government. They were driven into this area of in-hospitality by abysmal social conditions, denied rights based on ethno-focused politics. Like the Maroons they were fighting or surviving in a hostile environment against seemingly overwhelming odds.  When I read this, it raised a question that remained unanswered even across multiple centuries!   Where did the Jamaican Treaty Maroons get their salt prior to the treaty?

Unanswered

On various social media forums, I ask this fundamental question of people who claimed to be descended from Treaty Maroons.  At best this question is ignored; at worst, the answers are farcical.  “Maroons only ate ital food.” Or, “they didn’t need salt as they are African.”  Personally, I don’t cook with salt, but then my sedentary, non-Maroon lifestyle makes this a credible healthy option.  Having grown up in a household without electricity with access to livestock, our protein was preserved by salting the meat of the goats, sheep and pigs that we reared. This makes me aware that salt is a necessity to survive.

I am hoping that there is a more utilitarian answer: “There are hidden salt pans in the cock pit country.”  While, geochemically,  this a possibility, having run up and down hills offset for my youthful amusement, I have never heard of or seen these geological phenomena.

Jamaica Defense Force (JDF) to the Rescue

This question of resources; salt in this case, is at the heart of history, though often superseded and overshadowed by immediate events. While the latest event, Hurricane Melissa, exposed many things lacking in the state of Jamaica raising multiple existential questions of resources, its management, interference of “activist” in the distributive role of government, the function of local government. One issue raised seemed pointless. Why did Accongpong’s Chief initially stop the JDF assisting in the rebuilding of his devastated village?

There are many things Jamaica can be proud of:   the JDF engineering skills are one.  Over the years they have maintained a high standard.  My experience of their personnel is they are well trained, motivated, and innovative.  Their skills at disaster remediation have been honed through bitter lessons of experience.  Yes, the JDF’s ancestor organizations, the West India Regiment and the “Black Shot Militia” hunted the Maroons. Could this have affronted the Chiefs sensibilities?  Then the Maroons returned the favor hunting brave Bogle, the saintly Sam, their fellow Asanti’s Takyi and Apongo.

Was this more politics by gesture?

The farcical idea that the Maroons are a sovereign nation is analogous to the Bantustans created by the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Yes, they signed a treaty. The British colonial authorities signed treaties across their hegemonic sphere with surprising frequency, using this mechanism to fold polities into the cold embrace of their empire. Looking to the Indian Raj at independence, while the focus is the bloody partition of Pakistan and India, what also occurred was more than 550 Bantustan type “princely states” which had treaties with the British, folded into the two principal new nations.  The two or three maroon treaties did indeed create tha;t a kind of “honorary” legal status for their denizen, to differentiate from the rest of the African heritage Jamaicans.  At the end of Apartheid, government of the South African Bantustans, like in the Indian case, willing folded into the new South African Union.

The excuse I heard was that it was an infringement on their sovereignty. This seemed strange, given that the MOE and the Ministry of Health do not infringe while routinely offering their services. The Maroons pay taxes, so are entitled to what services are available.  Are there plants that would offend the nose of the Jamaican government if burnt in a controlled manner?  Or is this more symbolic posturing for media attention and social media likes?  Fortunately, also heard were the voices of the actual people who were victims of Melissa’s destruction.  The good Chief then gave his “blessing” for the JDF to carry out its function.  

Irony or Farce?

Earlier this month, forty-nine Army Engineers from Ghana landed in Jamaica.  They were not greeted with scouring disdain, rather they would have been charmed by the smile of Senator Karmina Johnson Smith (Yes, I am a fan!).  I immediately sent a link to a Ghanaian Engineer.  She too was filled with the joy; joyful feelings at this Caribbean – Africa link up.   It would be interesting or ironic to find out if any of their number came from the Asanti region in Ghana, the region / ethnic group that so many Maroons identify with!  

My hope is that the JDF builds stronger links with the Ghanaians.  Sharing expertise and learning skills from each other.  This type of South-South cooperation builds greater value through relevance rather than the usual North- South transactional aid.  I have wondered for nearly half a century about where the Treaty Maroons get its salt?  The Maroon leadership has now raised a new  mystery.  What was their issue with the JDF? Why did it take the ordinary voices to push for a realistic obvious solution? Or was it simply more politics by postering?

Bumpy Walker claims non-Treaty Maroon ancestry