The Maroon Heritage of Moore Town

　　Proclamation: 2003

　　Member State(s): Jamaica

　　Region: Latin America

　　Associated themes: Cultural spaces

　　Situated in the lush highlands of eastern Jamaica, Moore Town is home to the descendants of independent communities of former runaway slaves known as Maroons. The African ancestors of the Moore Town Maroons were forcibly removed from their native lands to the New World by Spanish slave traders in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term Maroon, derived from the Spanish word cimarron (wild) , refers to those slaves who fled the plantations in the early 1600s and established their own settlements in the Blue and Johncrow Mountains of eastern Jamaica. By the early 18th century, the Maroon communities controlled much of the eastern part of the island. In order to paralyze the expanding plantation system then under British control, the Maroons formed well-organized and efficient underground military units. After decades of warfare, the British finally yielded to the communities' demands for official recognition of their autonomy by signing a treaty with the Maroons in 1739.

　　Hailing from West and Central African regions with diverse languages and cultural practices, the Moore Town Maroons elaborated new collective religious ceremonies that incorporated various spiritual traditions. These traditional expressions and practices, which were eventually named Kromanti Play, constitute the very foundation of Maroon identity to this day. During Kromanti ceremonies, dances, songs and specific drumming styles are performed to invoke ancestral spirits. These ceremonies also feature Kromanti, an African-derived esoteric language, and rare medicinal preparations. Although Kromanti Play remains the principal cultural practice that distinguishes Maroons from other Jamaicans, the inhabitants of Moore Town have also preserved several economic, political and social aspects of their specific heritage: a unique system of communally held "treaty lands," a local political structure and the use of the abeng, a side-blown "talking" horn of Jamaican origin, which serves as a means of long-distance communication.