[ajaguna]

Self-Determination: Traditions of Government

Creating new societies away from the plantations could not be achieved through cultural creolization alone. In order to survive, early maroon groups needed to devise ways of regulating social and economic life. Rights and obligations toward neighbors and kin, mechanisms for dispute settlement and rules of leadership, succession, ownership, marriage and inheritance all had to be established. Free to experiment, maroons succeeded in developing a range of political systems that effectively fulfilled these needs.

In the early days, political organization was frequently shaped by military considerations. Strong and able leadership, often backed by religious sanctions, helped to ensure survival in societies under siege. Among the early maroon leaders who achieved fame for their exceptional qualities were Bayano of Panama, Yanga of Mexico, Ganga Zumba of Brazil, Benkos Bioho of Colombia, Nanny and Kojo of Jamaica, Boni of Suriname and John Horse (also known as Juan Caballo or Gopher John) of the southern United States and Mexico.
In later years, the treaties many groups made with colonial governments led to a gradual erosion of autonomy. Nonetheless, some Maroon societies maintain distinct political systems stemming from the early days. Surinamese and French Guianese Maroons, for instance, are headed by paramount chiefs known as Gaama or Gaunman, who are installed with great ceremony and hold office for life. The office of paramount chief is vested with a great deal of authority, and its occupant is treated with great respect. Assisting these tribal chiefs are a large number of village chiefs (Kabiteni), under-officers (Basia) and councils in which elders play a leading role.

Public issues are discussed and debated, and cases tried and judged, in the context of formal meetings known as kuutu. The more serious kuutu are presided over by chiefs and prominent elders. Kuutu oratory is always interactive and highly stylized, performed as an antiphonal exchange between a series of speakers and a formal interlocutor known as pikiman (literally, "the man who answers"). Governed by a complex etiquette, and characterized by indirection, digression and metaphor, oratory is easily distinguishable from ordinary speech.

Kuutu may be spontaneous meetings of four or five family members who come together to iron out a domestic problem; or they may be carefully planned gatherings in which the paramount chief and all the village chiefs assemble to discuss issues affecting the entire society. Well adapted to highly fluid social circumstances, such as those in which the early ancestors lived, the kuutu tradition continues to serve Surinamese Maroons admirably today.

Jamaican Maroons also maintain their own special system of local government. The Windward Maroon community of Moore Town, for example, is led by an elected chief bearing the title Colonel, who works together with under-officers and an appointed council known as the Kamati (Committee). Disputes between individuals over sections of communally held Maroon lands, and a host of other relatively minor problems, are aired and resolved in the context of committee meetings. Issues that concern the entire community, on the other hand, require larger gatherings called "Township Meetings," to which the general public is summoned by blowing the abeng, a West African signaling device made from a cow's horn. These communities carry on the proud traditions of self-government established and maintained over the generations by their predecessors.