During Jamaica's colonial era, the English capitalized on the island's mild weather and rich soil, planting sugarcane, making Jamaica England's largest supplier. But the riches of the sugarcane came with a price. Thousands of Africans were enslaved to work the sugar plantations, but not for long.
In fact one of the earliest slave revolts in New World took place here. The Maroons, as the rebels were called, rose up, destroyed plantations, freed other slaves and then fled to the mountains for safety. The Maroons ambushed the British military from their mountain hideaways. Their leader was a fierce female warrior named Nanny, believed to possess supernatural powers. And after decades of trying to control the Maroons, the British finally granted them land and freedom. Today they live in Jamaica's foothills. As a communal society, they elect a colonel that presides over a tribal council.
They are free people in Jamaica, you know, they have their own laws, their own governor, everything, anything happening in their village. They deal with it from there.
But the Maroon way is slowly disappearing. Originally the Abeng horn was an alarm, a warning that enemy troops were coming up the mountains. A direct link between Maroon customs and their African roots can be traced to a few small tribes in Ghana.
In Ghana, in their shindy when they're having their ceremony, they put a lot of herbs on, on their body. If you come to the Maroons in Jamaica, it is the same way.
For Jamaican Maroons, life continues to be based on the land and their fierce attachment to their hard-won independence.
sugarcane: [植]甘蔗, 糖蔗
riches: Abundant wealth 丰富的财产
revolt: An uprising, especially against state authority; a rebellion. 反叛，叛乱