Moore Town

According to the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, ".... in 1739 Cudjoe, Nanny's brother, signed a peace treaty with the British. The Maroons thereby became the first group of blacks to succeed in gaining their freedom and having that freedom officially recognized. 

Nanny, at first refused to sign a treaty with the British but eventually agreed to a truce. Nanny's Maroons, after the truce, divided themselves into two groups one of which went with her Brother Quako to Crawford Town and the other group followed Nanny to a new settlement, New Nanny Town, now called Moore Town.

Posing with Colonel Sterling,

In each Maroon settlement was a white Superintendent whose job it was to maintain good relations between the Maroons and the British. The success of settlements like Moore Town depended to a large extent on the diplomatic skill of the Superintendent and Moore Town was fortunate in obtaining good ones. 

The most famous of these was Lt. George Fuller, an Englishman, who became the Acting Barracks's master, and later Superintendent at Moore Town between 1809 and 1823. He also started the Fuller family through marriage with a Maroon girl."

Moore Town is today governed by Colonel Sterling who has been in that position for 20 years.

 According to him, the maroons do not have set elections but whenever the residents want a change of leadership, they have their means of asking for a change or letting their dissatisfaction with the current leadership known.

Under his leadership are the villages of ;  Kent, Brown's Field ,  Seaman's Valley, Moore Town, Ginger Hill, Comfort Castle and Millbank with a population of around 10,000 maroons. They have their own regulations and their council deals with all illegal activities except murder which falls in the jurisdiction of the Jamaican state. One way they maintain a low crime rate is that when strangers come into any of their villages, guides immediately approach them to see what they want and if necessary take them immediately to the Colonel.

What I was especially impressed about is how proud they are of their culture and how it is highlighted everywhere. In fact, I had the pleasure of meeting two very nice young men there. They were Kevin Patterson and Rayon Sterling aka. RJ who is a grandnephew of the Colonel. They proudly informed me that they were members of the junior cultural group and their traditions are kept going strong as from an early age the kids are exposed to every aspect of maroon culture in their schools.

Kevin and RJ

This recent trek to Moore Town took place on February 28, 2016 when some 80 persons journeyed to the settlement under the aegis of Fun and Thrills.

Some super fit troupers namely Maurice, Omar, Julian, Derval and Johann rode all the way from Kingston and back (returning home 8 pm I hear!), amazingly some of them even  reached Moore Town before any of the other riders or hikers. The other troupers fell into two groups, B team riders and hikers. The riders drove to Buff Bay and cycled from there whereas the hikers, among which I was numbered, walked from Fellowship.

 As usual, it rained most of the day but that made it a great day for hiking as the steady drizzle really cooled us down. Actually it rains so much in that area that just outside of Windsor we saw a marker on the road showing possible flooding up to 7 feet. When we inquired from a farmer we saw  tending his banana plantation across the road if It had actually reached that height, he said he had never seen it but he had experienced the water rising to the 6 foot level a few years

ago when it flooded his field.

We were actually on a trek to the famous Nanny falls which falls under the jurisdiction of the Moore Town maroons.

As you enter the community, you could almost feel a difference but what really surprised me was the profusion of churches, at least four in the first 200 metres after we left the main road. While most were some form of evangelical denomination, I was interested to learn from the colonel  that the Anglican church there was the very first to have been built in the area, some 100 years before any other.

I loved the pedestrian bridge too, which crosses Wildcane River and leads to Corn Puss pass in the John Crow mountains.

The pedestrian bridge over Wildcane river mountains.

As we arrived, we headed straight to breakfast in the school, where we had pre-arranged to have a typical maroon breakfast.  However, the janga run dung was just not up to the standard of what we had been introduced to on  a previous trip to Millbank,  but I guess that like in all societies, you have good and poor cooks.

After breakfast, we anxiously set off on the 20 minute walk to Nanny Falls. The first thing that struck you on that journey was the profusion of apples strewing the ground. Such a waste when you consider how much they cost in the city. The good news though was that many of the trees had an ample supply of apples hanging fairly low down so we could pick and eat as we trekked.

As, the falls are way below the track we walked on, the maroons built steep steps go get down there and that was quite a  challenge for some people.

The falls that day were also really bursting  as apparently they had been having heavy rainfall in the area so the force far exceeded what we had seen on the exploratory trip some weeks before. In fact so fierce and cold was it that I did not go in at all but most other persons did and had a wonderful time bathing and frolicking around.

  Despite the vast number of persons who accompanied us on this trip and the logistical challenge that it must have caused for the organizers Ayatollah and Chuck, it was an wonderful, well organised fun day.

Unfortunately it did not end too well for the chief organizer Charles Williams and his twin Chully who had to drive back to Fellowship where some vehicles had been left, in the back of an open van in the pouring rain. However I am sure that once they got dry, they too felt that the day had been well worth all the discomforts.

Photos compliments of Janel James, Julian Dadag, Michelle Munroe and David Jo.