Feature: Among Jamaica's untamed Maroons

ACCOMPONG, Jamaica, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The average Jamaican is more likely to visit London or New York than to penetrate the wild Cockpit Country, home of the untamed mountain Maroons.

And until fairly recently, the Maroons -- a nation within a nation -- wanted strangers to stay away. This is reflected in patois place names such as Me No Send You No Come. Translation: If you haven't been invited, keep out! The Land of Look Behind was a place where intruders had to look over their shoulders for ambush. But this has changed, and tourists now are welcome.

By most accounts the Maroons are the descendants of escaped slaves who fought the British to a standstill in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, securing a treaty with the crown a century before emancipation in 1838. But Mark Wright, scion of one of Accompong's leading families, told me his ancestors were originally a West African security force -- mostly Ashanti -- the Europeans used to guard the Arawak Indian slaves on the island. After 60,000 of the Indians died of disease and overwork, the Ashanti resisted the attempt to enslave them as replacements and took to the hills. In any event, the treaty of March 1,1739, obligated the Maroons to return escaped slaves.

Today the story of a few hundred guerrillas fending off the world's mightiest colonial power for almost 80 years is a source of pride on which Maroon identity is based and the defining narrative presented to outsiders.

Doris "Parchi" Parchment, manager of Sunshine Villas in Montego Bay, is one Jamaican who has made many visits to the Accompong Maroons. The Jamaica Tourist Board, which sponsored my trip, was aware that I am an anthropologist with an interest in other cultures and arranged for me to travel to Cockpit Country with Parchment and Nicky Richardson, who acted as my guide for five days.

The route Parchment chose took us up steep tracks that dropped off sharply on the sides. When vehicles came from opposite directions, one had to back up to let the other pass. After some bumpy going, we reached a forbidding limestone landscape of conical hills and yawning basins of deep green vegetation. Pine trees began to appear on the slopes.

Parchment said that in the early 1700s those tracks were just narrow footpaths. In the 1738 campaign, before entering the Cockpit, the British soldiers bivouacked at the Appleton Estates, a great sugar plantation and rum distillery. "It is said that at various points as they were walking up the footpath towards the village, British soldiers would stop to lean against a tree and wipe some sweat off of their brow. Except the tree was a Maroon fighter with hands and feet painted. And when you go to the Maroon celebration on Jan. 6, you will observe that they are dressed in bushes, reminiscent of that time."

Parchment's account of the battle of the Peace Cave, on Jan. 6, 1738, was roughly parallel to that given in the settlement by a village elder.

"The British marched up this hill," she said, "and there were Maroon soldiers lining the entire way. And a man with the abeng horn was placed inside this cave, which they now call the Peace Cave." A stone outside the cave registered the vibration of passing feet. When the last British soldier passed, he blew the horn." The surrounded column was all but wiped out. "At that point the British conceded defeat," Parchment said. The peace treaty of 1739 gave the Maroons the lands on which they now live.

After Parchi greeted her friends, a lean bearded man in a sleeveless undershirt, his hair tucked into a knitted tam, appeared with a knife and a stalk of fresh sugar cane. He peeled the stalk and cut off a section for each of us. Chewing the cane released the sweet juice but resulted in a mouthful of fibers, which I was instructed to discard for the foraging chickens.

After a walking tour of the village, we were treated to lunch under a pole and canvas shelter beside the smoldering cook fire. Roasted breadfruit, yams, and corn, salted fish with onion, were washed down with fresh coconut water (not milk, I was corrected) drunk from the pod. Parchi, regally attired in colorful West African style, was enthroned in an old barber's chair.

The leader of the politically autonomous Maroons, called a colonel, is elected to a five-year term.

Deputy Colonel Rupert Robinson said that the Accompong Maroons have targeted tourism for expansion. "We can cope," he said, "and have the infrastructure now to make them feel at home." An effort clearly had been made to build several tourist-friendly public lavatories in the community, and Robinson said overnight accommodations were available.

Robinson said the Peace Cave, less than a mile from the village, has a crack in it that opens and closes when a certain rock is stepped upon. This enabled Cudjoe, the Maroon military leader, to tell how many British soldiers were passing and when they had passed. The British were ambushed as they rested before the assault on the town, he said. According to Robinson, this defeat convinced the British king, George II, that "enough was enough," and he sent two envoys to hammer out a 15-clause treaty that granted political autonomy in everything except the death penalty.

Robinson said a look at the treaty in the archives in London reveals that a zero is missing from the figure signifying the number of acres the crown ceded to the Maroons. What originally was 15,000 acres is now 1,500. "We ended up with mostly the hilly parts," he said. "Every five or 10 years, the (Jamaican) government sends surveyors. And each time they survey, a piece is wiped off."

Mark Wright took Richardson and me for a walking tour of the community, a service for which he charged $20 per person. (Apparently, some of this fee is used to improve village facilities.) Wright said he is one of the guides trained by Jamaica's Tourism Product Development Board, which designated Accompong as a traditional heritage village. For $400 Wright guides small groups into the mountains for hikes of two or three day's duration.

"Captain Cudjoe is our local hero," he said. "The village is more than 265 years old and bears the name of Cudjo's second brother."

Wright led us to the Kindah tree, where Cudjoe mapped out strategy with his men. "Kindah is an African word meaning that we are family," he said.

Some of the Maroons' beliefs in ritual and magic also reminded me of the Ojibwa and Cree Indians of Northern Canada.

Wright described the ceremonial feasting of the ancestors and the practice of Myal. "The people from Africa were full with spiritual powers," he said. Using a spell called Myal, "the ancestors interact with you and foretell what is going to happen tomorrow morning. It's like a messenger." Unlike obeah or voodoo, which is bad, myal is good.

Wright said Maroons traditionally have been long-lived because they ate unprocessed food with no chemical additives. Fresh vegetables, smoked meat, beans and yams kept them healthy.

They also used natural medicine. He showed us the herb garden the women own and operate. Long rectangular black boxes suspended over the ground proved to be solar dryers. "It's presently going to be a herbal center," he said. "When people come, they'll get their herb tea and packages."

Also under development is a living history village where people will reenact traditional daily activities. Wright showed us an example of a wattle-and-daub, clay-floored sleeping hut. Kitchens and larders are separate structures. Most activities, including food preparation, are done outdoors.

I did not view the overnight guest facilities in Accompong, but the Internet shows single-bedroom thatched cottages available from Mystic Pass Villas (cockpitcountry.com/Mysticvillas.html). Listed rates are about $60 for double occupancy, increased to $100 during the January celebrations.

Many visitors will want to make day trips to the Maroons one feature of longer Jamaica vacations, which can be made more enjoyable and affordable by staying at villas rather than hotels. Villas, self-contained dwellings that come with a cook and other staff, are available at a wide range of prices. If families or couples share a villa, some can be rented at rates comparable to reasonably priced U.S. hotel rooms. Tips for house staff are customarily 10 percent during the winter season and 15 percent in summer, when rates are lower.

Sometimes an extra fee is required to expedite bookings made less than 45 days in advance.

Travelers interested in the Maroons would do well to contact Parchment at (876) 953-2253 or (876) 953-2387. Web site: sunshinevillas.org. E-mail: [email protected].

JAVA -- the Jamaica Association of Villas and Apartments -- advises travelers to choose the slice of the island they would most like to visit, decide on a budget, invite their friends, or plan a family reunion. For information and reservations in North America, call 1-800-VILLAS-6 (1-800-845-5276), 305-673-6688, and JAVA Jamaica 876-974-2508. The Web site is villasinjamaica.com.

Additional information is available from the Jamaica Tourist Board: jamaicatravel.com.