Colonel claims treaty gives rights to Maroons

MOORE TOWN, Portland:

Colonel of the Moore Town Maroons in Portland, Wallace Sterling, is calling for dialogue and consultation between the Maroon community in Jamaica and the Government to resolve ongoing and long-standing issues affecting both parties.

In a Gleaner exclusive recently, Sterling argued that Maroon were the recipients of lands based on a 1738-39 treaty with their former colonial masters, which gave them rights to ownership of lands in various Maroon communities or settlements.

This treaty, he said, clearly outlined that Maroons were exempt from paying property taxes and that they were the ultimate owner of such properties. He also said that the treaty gave them full autonomy as a sovereign state and allows them to formulate their own laws and policy within the Maroon community.

“This treaty remains relevant up to today, although there are aspects of that treaty which doesn't apply today,” Sterling said.

“The land was given to them (Maroons) by the colonial masters and it is theirs for life. The treaty of 1738-39 gave lands to the Maroons and the land is theirs forever. Our foreparents signed an agreement with the then colonial government that they will be by themselves, and that they will look about their own land and govern their community. Anything that happens in the community should be addressed by the colonel and his council.

“The only matter that needs to come to the magistrate was the matter of murder; and even then, it was the people in the community who decided if one was to be charged for murder. So over all these years, it has been 282 to 283 years, depending on when you started to count, the Maroons have lived in an autonomous way, but it is also fair to say that not everything that was in the treaty applies to today's society,” Sterling said.

Police, Maroons clash

Sterling's comments came in the wake of a near-ugly incident between the Accompong Maroons in St Elizabeth and members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), who allegedly entered properties occupied by farmers to destroy ganja crops on August 10. The police were challenged by the Maroons, who declared that their actions were illegal based on their interpretation of the 1738 treaty with the British government, which gives them sovereignty over their lands.

Under the Maroon Treaty of 1739, the Accompong Maroons claim that they operate under their own laws as a sovereign state. However, those claims have been questioned by persons within the legal profession nationally.

Meantime, leader of the Accompong Maroons, Colonel Richard Currie, made it clear that he is committed to defending the interest of his people.

But statements made recently by Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang and Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, head of the JCF Communications Unit, seek to challenge the Maroons' sovereignty over their ancestral lands.

It is against that background that Colonel Sterling is advocating for dialogue to be held with the respective Maroon chiefs, its council members, legislators, and the police, to not only diffuse the growing tensions, but to examine and analyse aspects of the treaty, with a view to sign off, discuss, amend, and to enact into law the legality of such treaty.

“Aspects of the treaty that speak to returning runaway slaves do not apply today. Successive governments, over the years, have tried to make unilateral decisions as it relates to the treaty, but it never happened. Those lands that we consider to be colonially owned belong to us. It is rather strange for anybody to be thinking at this time that we (the Maroons) do not have lands. We do have lands and it belongs to us, based on a treaty.

“We are in solidarity with our fellow Maroons, and we will support them in any just cause as it relates to establishing ownership of lands. I never heard the minister's statement, but if it is true that he said that he doesn't know of Maroons owning any land, that is an unfortunate statement. From the beginning, there was always two sets of laws. The treaty with our foreparents allows us to deal with our own kind of trial and justice,” he said.