National Hero Nanny
Nanny,
leader of the Windward Maroons is something of a mysterious figure in Jamaican historiography. Situated somewhere between mystic and martyr, rebel and myth, the former slave and military leader nevertheless occupies a place of great importance and reverence in Jamaica.
After Jamaica gained its independence from Britain in 1962, a national emphasis on the history of resistance from slavery, colonization, and economic oppression was the collective desire. Along with other inductees into national hero status, Nanny of the Maroons was included with slave rebel Samuel Sharpe in 1975.
We know that Nanny was most likely an Akan/Asante woman sold into slavery in the early eighteenth century. Along with other slaves, most of them African-born, Nanny escaped into the mountainous landscape of Jamaica and helped to form a community of free women, men and children-The Maroons.
From the time the British seized Jamaica from the Spanish in the middle of the seventeenth century, wars were fought over the capture and control of Maroons. Using the dense backlands and high, hilly terrain, from 1655 until the land grant in 1739/40, ex-slaves and their would-be enslavers battled over the stolen cargo that the fleeing bodies of the Maroons represented.
The ultimate success of the Maroon population in Jamaica was a combination of wit, military expertise and the West African influenced matrifocal system of cooperative power. The core of Maroon settlement, was the valuation of women and their contribution to maroon survival. Since women played such an integral part of Maroon development in strategic battle defenses, it is no surprise that one of the most famous leaders to emerge out of Maroon oral history is a woman.
In 1994, Nannys image was honored with a denomination of currency in Jamaica. The Gilder Lehrman Center features the identical image as appears on the Jamaican five hundred dollar bill.
According to historical reports, Nanny was believed to be well into her sixties when she led the Maroons. And as Jenny Sharpe suggests, it is unlikely that Nanny would have held such an important position in Maroon society had she still been of childbearing age.
Cudjoe
or Captain Cudjoe (c. 1680–1744),[1] sometimes spelled Cudjo - corresponding to the Akan day name Kojo or Kwadwo - was a Maroon leader in Jamaica, and the brother of Nanny of the Maroons. He has been described as "the greatest of the Maroon leaders. In discussion of important and outstanding leaders in history, one must include Captain Cudjoe. He refused enslavement and freed thousands of captives.
Cudjoe is believed (according to Maroon oral tradition) to have been the son of Naquan, a chief of the Akan people or Coromantee people from what is modern-day Ghana. Naquan was taken captive and sold into slavery in Spanish Jamaica in the 1640s but he initiated a revolt and led his tribesmen into the mountainous interior of the island, establishing the first community of Maroons, as the runaway slaves were called, after the Spanish word cimarron, meaning "wild".
The two main Maroon groups in the 18th century were the Leeward and the Windward tribes, the former led by Cudjoe in Trelawny Town and the latter led by his sister Queen Nanny (and later by Quao). Captain Cudjoe had endless energy and was greatly motivated to stay a free man. He was strong, courageous and relentless. Cudjoe was also a very skilful, tactical field commander and a remarkable leader.
Battles with the British
When the British attempted to recapture the runaways, Cudjoe defeated them on every occasion. Not only did Cudjoe successfully defend his communities, but also, similar to what Harriet Tubman would do in the nineteenth century, he freed many captives by raiding Britain’s plantations. Sometimes his raids were non-confrontational, but most times they were vicious, bloody encounters.
Before he attacked a plantation, Cudjoe would send spies among the captives to gather information from them at the markets and on the plantations. Once his spies collected sufficient evidence of the slave-owners’ plans, they sent them to Cudjoe. Then he determined the time and place of his attacks. During his strikes, Cudjoe and his men burned down mansions, destroyed cane fields and killed many whites along with faithful slaves who refused to help him.
Cudjoe’s attacks were so devastating that many of the early English settlers abandoned their plantations and returned to England. He often killed faithful slaves during these attacks because he despised them. According to one of England’s commanders on the island, General Williamson, it was commonly said, "the British rules Jamaica by day and Captain Cudjoe by night."
In an attempt to capture Cudjoe and the Maroons, British leaders built forts near Maroon communities. They imported Native American tracking specialists from Central America to hunt down the Maroons. In addition, they formed an army of more than 1,000 soldiers to fight Cudjoe’s weapon-deficient military.
However, even with the tracking specialists and formidable army, Cudjoe out-maneuvered the British commander when one of Cudjoe’s spies told the commander that Cudjoe established settlements in a particular valley. As the British soldiers marched into the valley, Cudjoe’s four-sectioned forces watched them from behind the natural boundaries. When Cudjoe’s men attacked the soldiers from all sides, the crossfire surprised and debilitated them. The British soldiers fled the area and left behind guns and supplies.
For the next decade, Cudjoe caused considerable damage to the slave structure of Jamaica. When he raided, he often burned sugar cane fields, houses and barns, and he continued to kill slaves who were loyal to their masters. This latter measure put a great deal of pressure on every African captive to abide by Cudjoe’s advances. Therefore, Cudjoe’s peer-pressure tactic led the British to distrust just about every captive on the island.
To finally stop Cudjoe, the British government planned an elaborate expedition against the Maroons. The British recruited every fighting-eligible man on the island to move against Cudjoe. However, after considering the fact that if all the men went to fight against the Maroons, there would be no one left to protect the women and children, the British had a serious dilemma and they did not know what to do.
Faced with a very disturbing problem, Governor Sir Edward Trelawney weighed the possibilities. Eventually, he decided not to attack Cudjoe. He, instead, opted to make a treaty of peace with the Maroons. To carry out Governor Trelawney’s orders, a rather large army escorted Colonel Guthrie to meet with Cudjoe in Maroon territory. Once he convinced Cudjoe and his men that he would neither attack nor trick them, Cudjoe met with the colonel.
After talking for an hour or so, both men worked out a satisfactory treaty. They agreed that the British must recognize the Maroons as an independent nation; that the Maroons receive a very large tract of land and would not have to pay any taxes on it. Maroon societies still exist in Jamaica today.
Cudjoe died at Nanny town in the Blue Mountains five years after peace was concluded. He was succeeded by his brother, Accompong.
