The words of Colonel Colin Lloyd George Harris, leader of the Windward Maroons in Moore
Town, Jamaica, since 1964, reflect a very important part in the history of the African
Diaspora in the Americas. But very little is known about the African experience of
marronage or cimarronaje (escape from slavery), its survivors, and their descendants in
the New World. |
For more than four centuries, thousands of
enslaved Africans managed to escape from the plantations and mines of European colonizers
throughout the Americas, searching for freedom in the wilderness. Between the early 16th
and late 19th centuries Maroons challenged the colonial powers and violently resisted
enslavement, striking hard at the foundation of the plantation economy of the Western
Hemisphere. |
In remote areas throughout the
United States,
the Caribbean, Central America, and South
America, Maroon communities emerged as free and
independent societies that forced colonial governments to sign treaties and pacts
guaranteeing their freedom, their land, and their political autonomy. These communities
emerged as an integration of African, Native American, and European cultural elements.
After centuries of struggle, survival, assimilation, and adaptation, these Maroon
communities were able to develop a unique sense of identity and history, contributing in
many ways to the shape of the Western Hemisphere. |
Today, descendants of some of the original
Maroon communities live in Jamaica, Suriname, French Guiana, Colombia, Mexico, Texas,
Oklahoma, and the Bahamas. Challenged by a modern and changing world, contemporary Maroons
still preserve a strong sense of their history, traditions, values, and identity, deeply
rooted in an African past. Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the
Americas
focuses on contemporary Maroon peoples of Jamaica, French Guiana, Suriname, and the
Seminole community along the United States and Mexican border. Through examples of
cultural expression and historical documentation, and by combining the voices of living
Maroons such as Colonel Harris with those of their ancestors, this exhibition provides
visitors with a unique opportunity to understand the cultural vitality and creativity of
Maroon people, the strong links between their past and present, and the importance of
their ancestors' struggle and success in their collective sense of self-determination and
identity. |
The exhibition Creativity and Resistance has
been organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in
collaboration with the Center for Folklife and Cultural
Heritage, with the support of the
Special Exhibition Fund of the Smithsonian Institution. It began its national tour in
March, 1999. |
|
|