(A series brought to you by Feminist Global Resistance)
The Series:
Patriarchy ensures that male (almost exclusively white colonizer) history is remembered though a few women shine through or are given a twisted footnote.
More often, women are relegated to lost tomes and forgotten lore. Some shine through in song and tales while others, more recently, are beginning to have their stories told (progress?)
Throughout history, women around the world have stood to fight patriarchy, some winning, some losing, but they often brought revolution and change, their lives given for the just causes of freedom, liberty and justice.
This series will focus on the stories of some of those women who have stood up to patriarchy fighting oppression and colonization; confronting violence and abuse; And sacrificing everything in a fight for freedom, justice, and human rights. There have been many. I have chosen just a few of those who inspire me by their bravery and resolve.
Learn their names, learn from them, let them inspire you to do great things.
Part 14: Nana Obiyaa, Queen Nanny Of The Maroons
Nana Obiaa (Obiyaa), Queen Nanny Of The Maroons (aka, Nana, Granny Nanny, Grandy Nanny), Leader, Warrior and National Hero Of Jamaica
(Born approximately 1685/6 ; Death 1740-1750)
The Spanish “Discover Jamaica”
Christopher Columbus arrived on the island of Jamaica on May 4 1494, claiming it for the Spanish Crown. It was not occupied by the Spanish colonizers until 1509 when Juan de Esquivel founded the permanent settlement of Sevilla la Nueva (New Seville) in modern day parish of St. Ann, on the north coast. The colonizers soon spread to the southern part of the island and built the town of St. Jago de la Vega (St. James of the Plain), which is still called Spanish Town.
What the colonizers found were approximately 60,000 members of the Taino (also known as the Arawaks) people, and various smaller groups, who had lived and thrived on the island for approximately 900 years. The Tainos had migrated from the northern coast of South America in approximately 600 A.D.
Unfortunately, the Taino people were brought to near extinction, within 50 years of Columbus’ discovery of that island. Exploitation by the new colonizers from Spain, starvation and a lack of resistance to European diseases decimated the people. Many of the Tainos fiercely resisted the Spanish occupation of their land – some even committing suicide rather than serve as slaves.
The Tainos may have been decimated but some of their language (Arawak) survives to this day – The terms “barbecue”, “hammock”, “hurricane”, “canoe”, and “tobacco” are all derived from their language as is the name, “Jamaica” (“Xaymaca” meaning “Land of wood and water”)
By the very early 17th century and after wiping out most of the the indigenous population of Jamaica, the Spanish began importing slaves from West Africa to work in Jamaica.
The “Maroons”
By 1530, slave revolts were breaking out in Mexico, Hispaniola and Panama. The Spanish called all slaves, who gained their freedom, “Maroons,” (a word derived from the Spanish word “Cimarron,” meaning “fierce” or “unruly.”)
In 1553, Maroon revolts in Panama had forced the Spanish to the negotiating table; By 1580 Panamanian Maroons allied themselves with British privateers (including Sir Francis Drake). This Maroon-privateer alliance posed a serious challenge to the Spanish dominance in the Caribbean.
In Jamaica, the Maroons occupied a region in the Blue Mountains building their own fortresses and developing their own culture based on their West African roots merging with some European traditions (along with other traditions practiced by the Maroons in the Caribbean, Obeah* and Vodou arose from many of the varied African traditions brought to the islands). Their numbers grew with each runaway slave, and the Spanish began to fear their power.
* Obeah is still practiced in Suriname, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, Belize and other Caribbean countries. The practice incorporates both politics and spirituality; a “creolization” of religions, it draws on elements of African religion while reinterpreting Christian practices. In some areas of the Caribbean, Obeah incorporates elements of Indigenous religions have been incorporated into the practice as well.
Sometimes described as “the “magical art of resistance”, Obeah gave its practitioners and those that sought its aid a sense of empowerment in the face of oppression. Obeah merges medicine and healing with political and cultural power (practitioners becoming the enforcers of social and moral values) as well as a force to protect and defend the society. During colonial rule, both Spanish and English colonizers learned to fear Obeah – the fear was so intense, colonizers attempted to ban the practices. Obeah gave the people a sense of power and fearlessness allowing them to push back against their oppressors.
In 1655 British naval forces captured Jamaica from the Spanish. The British went on to control Jamaica for over 300 years. The British saw Jamaica as a strategic location in the center of the Caribbean that could be used to challenge the Spanish dominance of the region and to disrupt their lucrative trade in gold and silver.
While many new British colonizers were land owners, others were pirates/privateers operating with the consent of the British. Privateers like Sir Henry Morgan, Captain William Kidd, and English admiral Francis Drake had already joined with mercenaries and adventurers as well as Maroons to attack Spanish galleons that carried gold and silver from Central and South America to Spain. Port Royal soon became their headquarters and the city soon became rich with stolen Spanish gold.
During the transition from Spanish to English rule, many of the West African slaves, formerly owned by the Spanish, escaped into the Blue Mountain area joining with the Maroons who had established themselves there. It was there that they developed a strong resistance to slavery that would continue in Jamaica for the next 200 years. The British were never able to recapture or subdue them. In 1739, they were finally granted political autonomy.
Her Story:
The importation of African slave labor continued under the British, with a much greater intensity, growing steadily in volume as sugar production increased in Jamaica. Most Jamaican slaves came from the region of modern day Ghana, Nigeria and Central Africa, and included the Akan, Ashanti, Yoruba, Ibo and Ibibio peoples. By the 18th century, Jamaica had become one of the most valuable British colonies but the conditions endured by the slaves were horrendous. Families were routinely separated; Housing and sanitary conditions were abysmal; Beatings and torture were rampant. Many died from overwork and starvation. Life expectancy of an adult West African slave in Jamaica was 7 years.
Nana Obiyaa (or Obiaa) was probably one of these slaves. Some stories say she was a “free woman” when she came to Jamaica, others say she gained her freedom in Jamaica after escaping from a sugar plantation – the truth of it will never be fully known since written records are few and her history has been handed down through generations of telling and retelling.
She was born in the Gold Coast (the area which is now modern day Ghana), in approximately 1686. There is some disagreement about her origin – Some say she was Assante (Ashanti) and was captured (along with her brothers) by white slavers; Others say she was from one of the other tribes in the area, captured by the Assante and traded to white slavers for guns and ammunition. Either version could be true since colonists didn’t really care from where their slaves came, only that they were able to work.
Once in Jamaica, Nana chose or was given the name, “Sarah Elizabeth Curry” .
Nana’s real story begins after escaping into the jungle, up the Blue Mountains, to Nanny Town, a Maroon stronghold in Portland parish, northeastern Jamaica.
Nana Obiyaa was well versed in the arts of Obeah and was said to have magical or supernatural powers. Her practice of herbal medicine as well as her knowledge and practice of ceremonies and rituals elevated her to spiritual leader of the Maroons. According to oral tradition, Nana had the ability to catch bullets and redirect them toward her attackers.
What is known is that she was a brilliant tactician and master of guerilla warfare.
The Windward Maroons
The Windward Maroons were a coalition of towns and strongholds located on the eastern side of the island in the Blue Mountains. The population grew with the successful escape and liberation of enslaved Africans and indigenous peoples to the area in the 1600’s.
By the 18th century, Nana Obiyaa, along with Quao (some say he was Nana’s brother), had risen to leaders of the Windward Maroons. Under their leadership, the Windward Maroons carried out the bulk of the fighting against the British colonial authorities during the 1730s.
First Maroon War (1728 – 1739/40)
Between 1655 and 1661,the white colonizer population grew to over 12,000 on the island but began to dwindle. The British colonizers were unable to expand their control over the entire island, specifically the interior areas that were under control of the Maroon populations. Small skirmishes and all out revolts continued to plague the British.
A series of rebellions that took place starting in 1728, lasting for 11 years, became known as “The First Maroon War”. It was during this period that Nana became known for her guerilla tactics and leadership. The Maroons used guerrilla tactics on the colonial militias causing huge losses for the British in both manpower and expense.
In 1730, the British sent a large force against the Windward Maroons but the Maroons, under Nana and Quao, defeated the militia. The next year, two additional regiments arrived in Jamaica to assist in fighting the Maroons.
The colonizer army suffered defeat after defeat as the Maroons, led by Nana and Quao, prevailed. They took over a plantation, then a fort. As the British attacked Nanny Town, Nana and Quao attacked Fort George, Titchfield, in Port Antonio, Portland.
As Nana Obiyaa and Quao wreaked havoc from the east, the Leeward Maroon warriors, led by Cudjoe, conquered military barracks in western Jamaica and continued the rebellion on that side of the island.
Colonial Jamaica was counting the cost of the continuing conflict. By the end of 1734, the island’s white population had fallen to about 2,000. Sugar exports had fallen, and the island went through periods of martial law.
By 1739, the British government in Jamaica recognized that it could not defeat the Maroons, so they offered them peace treaties instead. In 1739, the colonial militia signed the first treaty with the Leeward Maroon leader, Cudjoe. A year later, Quao of the Windward Maroons agreed to sign a second treaty under pressure from both white Jamaicans and the Leeward Maroons.
She was correct. The peace treaties declared the Maroon towns could have their own “rulers’ but placed them all under a British “superintendent”. The Maroons also had to agree to support the institution of slavery, required them to cease accepting and protecting runaway slaves, and agree to catch them for the white colonizers. In the end, the agreements divided the Maroons from the rest of the Black population thereby decreasing their strength.
Nana Obiyaa was known by both the British and the Maroons as an outstanding military leader who became a symbol of unity and strength for her people during times of crisis. She has been immortalized in songs and legends, but certain facts about Nana (or “Granny Nanny”) have been documented.
Both legends and documents describe Nana as a small, wiry woman with piercing eyes. Her influence over the Maroons was strong, proving her powerful leadership skills – whether it was, as the Maroons believed, her supernatural powers or, her brilliant tactical skills organizing and planning the guerilla warfare carried out by the Windward Maroons, she excelled at leading her people against the British colonizers, keeping the British out of the Blue Mountains and in disarray.
The British militias did not know what to make of a group of former slaves besting them in battle. Nana’s cleverness in planning guerilla warfare confused the British; The British accounts of the fights reflect the surprise and fear created by Nana’s tactics.
Besides inspiring her people to battle the colonizers, Nana was also a chieftain or wise woman of the village. She was the one who passed down the legends of the people, taught the spirituality and led the ceremonies of Obeah. She encouraged the customs, music and songs, that had come with the people from Africa, and which instilled in the Maroons both confidence and pride.
There are many legends about other women leaders of the Maroons but, among the Maroon legends and the few British documents about Nana, she was the most outstanding of them all, leading her people with courage and inspiring them to struggle to maintain a spirit of freedom and a life of independence – The people’s rightful inheritance.