Maroon Culture, Maroon
Language
Nicole Scott
Aims

To discuss the impact of separation on
culture and language
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To ascertain why maroon communities
adopted Creole Languages.
Issues to be considered
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What is marronage? Who is involved in the
process (marronage of “salt water” slaves vs.
acculturated slaves and Creole slaves
Rate of marronage and nature of marronage
(petit Marronage vs. grand Marronage)
Extent of contacts between maroon communities
and plantations
Ethnic and linguistic homogeneity within the
maroon population
Issues to be considered cont’d
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Extent of contacts between maroon
communities and plantations.
Ethnic and linguistic homogeneity within the
maroon population
Issues to be considered con’t
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Stability of maroon communities (related
to efforts made by colonial administration
to “hunt down” maroons, in turn related to
the resources which planters were willing
or forced to commit to these efforts)
What is the impact of separation on
language and culture?

To discuss we need to become aware of the
history of the maroons.
History of the Maroons
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Maroons formed one of the oldest free black
societies in the new world.
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How?
History of the Maroons
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Africans were brought to the Caribbean
under different European authorities to work
on sugar plantations.
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Maroon communities were formed by
runaways from the plantations.
History of the Maroons cont’d
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The new societies were: –
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tiny bands that survived less than a year
powerful states encompassing thousands of
members. These larger communities survived for
generations and even into the twenty first century.
History of the Maroons cont’d

The English word ‘maroon’ like the French
‘marron’ comes from the Spanish word
‘Cimarron’
History of the Maroons cont’d
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Maroons are characterized by their history of
resistance.
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Revolts in slave factories of West Africa.
Mutinies during the middle passage
Organized rebellions
Day to day resistance – subtle but systematic acts
of sabotage.
History of the Maroons cont’d
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Wilderness setting of early New World
Plantations made marronage and the
existence of organized maroon communities
an ever-present reality
History of the Maroons cont’d
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Today their descendants form semiindependent enclaves in several parts of the
Caribbean.
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They remain proud of their maroon origins
They remain faithful to unique cultural traditions
History of the Maroons cont’d
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Marronage – two types
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Petit marronage – repetitive or periodic truancy
with temporary goals such as visiting a relative or
lover on a neighbouring plantation.
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Grand marronage – individual fugitives banding
together to create independent communities of
their own.
History of Maroons cont’d

Grand marronage was a chronic plague in
the plantations. It posed military threats and
economic threats.
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Harsh penalties were often imposed
History of Maroons cont’d
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“If a slave runs away into the forest in order to
avoid work for a few weeks, upon his being
captured his Achilles tendon is removed for the
first offence, while for a second offence…his right
leg is amputated in order to stop his running
away; I myself am a witness to slaves being
punished in this way” [18th cent. visitor to
Suriname]
Castration, slowly roasted to death etc.
History of the Maroons cont’d
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To be viable maroon communities had to be
almost inaccessible.
Villages typically located in inhospitable “outof -the- way” areas.
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Jamaica – Cockpit Country (deep canyons,
limestone sinkholes, water and good soil scarce
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Guianas - impenetrable jungles
History cont’d
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Locales often inhospitable for troops and
original runaways.
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…the harsh natural environments of early
communities at first presented terrifying obstacles
and it was only with a great deal of suffering and
by bringing to bear the full range of their collective
cultural experience and creativity that adaptation
was finally achieved.
History cont’d
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Alienation
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Lack of adequate resources
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Few tools (hoes, axes, guns)
History cont’d
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Some maroon communities in the Caribbean
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Cuba
Hispaniola
French Guyana
Suriname - Saramacca / Bush Negros
Jamaica – Leeward and Windward
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Leeward (Trelawny Town, Accompong)
Windward (Scotts Hall, Charles Town, Nanny Town,
Moore Town and adjacent villages)
History cont’d
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Economic adaptation – They succeeded in
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Horticulture
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Manoic (cassava)
Yams
Sweet potatoes (other root crops)
Bananas
Plantains
Dry rice
Maize, ground nuts, squash, beans, sugar cane,
vegetables, tobacco cotton.
History cont’d
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Hunting
Fishing
Some areas did not achieve this degree of
economic independence or were
uninterested in seeking instead they lived
directly off plantation society
History cont’d
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Maroons remained unable to manufacture
certain essential items (guns, tools, pots
cloth). This kept these societies unavoidably
dependent on the very plantation societies
from which they were trying to isolate
themselves.
Internal organization – assured absolute
loyalty of its members. (Loyalty, women etc)
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E.g. desertion punishable by death.
History cont’d

The least acculturated slaves were among
those most prone to marronage (escaped
within the first hour/days of arrival in groups).
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An unusually high proportion of Creoles and
highly acculturated African-born slaves ran
off.
History cont’d
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Typical community composed of
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Africans (literally just off the ship – middle aged
men). Highly acculturated Africans.
Unskilled plantation slaves born in Africa but who
lived for years on the plantation – bulk of the
maroon community – embittered slaves.
Creoles –strong ideological commitments against
the system of slavery
History cont’d
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Contributions to culture and language was
from newly arrived Africans, who represented
a variety of languages and cultures, as well
as by long term African born slaves and
Creoles with a wide range of individual
adjustments to slavery, orientations to reality
and ways of handling problems.
History cont’d
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They shared however a recently forged AfroAmerican culture and a strong ideological
commitment to things which were African.
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Environment alien and hostile but the maroons were
equipped to deal with the alienation and hostility. Africans in
the Caribbean who at first often shared little more than a
common continent of origin and the experience of
enslavement developed distinctly Afro-American ways with
life from the very beginning.
History cont’d

Maroons drew on their diverse African
heritages in building their cultures. Unlike
other Afro-Americans who were unable to
pass on integrated patterns of traditional
culture, maroons could and did look to Africa
for deep-level organizational principles
relating to cultural realms e.g. naming
children, systems of justice
History cont’d
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Practices from different areas were
incorporated more or less harmoniously into
new developing systems in the Caribbean.
Maroon cultures contain a number of direct
continuities from particular tribes e.g. military
techniques, recipes for warding off sorcery
(usually found throughout the Caribbean)
History cont’d
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Physical isolation
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Marronage created a context in which Africans
communicated largely with Africans.
Isolation encouraged the development of a
distinct culture and language(s).
Similarity in purpose – survival outside of the
jurisdiction of Europeans—encouraged linguistic
similarity
A look at Jamaica
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The Jamaican Maroons
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Focus on Moore Town
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There are a number of complex linguistic phenomena
closely tied to the ceremonial sphere in the community.
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Basis of linguistic complexity - Kromanti ceremonies
center around the possession of participants by ancestral
spirits.
Ancestors have their own form of speech, different from
that of living maroons.
A Look at Jamaica
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Kromanti Play must involve only the
language of the living but that of the dead as
well.
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Language of the living, normal discourse –
Jamaican Creole
Language of ancestors – form of Jamaican Creole
but sharply different from the most basilectal form
of JC. Unintelligible to non maroons and those
unfamiliar with Kromanti Play
A Look at Moore Town cont’d
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Living speak to each other during Kromanti play in
JC
Address those in possession –deep talk (so visiting
ancestors will understand)
Possessed addressing unpossessed or possessed
use MSL
Kromanti used to communicated with the earliest
ancestors, many of whom were born in Africa.
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Characteristics of “Deep Language”
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Vowel Epithesis e.g. waka ‘walk’
Liquids e.g. pre ‘place’
Metathesis of Liquids
Vowel nasalization e.g. grãfa ‘grandfather’
Na –verb ‘to be,’ locative preposition
Verbal markers
Interrogatives and personal pronouns
Conclusion
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With a rare freedom to extrapolate African
ideas and adapt them to changing
circumstances, maroon groups include, what
are in many respects both the most
meaningful African and the most truly ‘alive”
of all Afro-American cultures.