60199616-flight-to-freedom-african-runaways-and-maroons-in-the-americas

Introduction
11
Maroons from their perspective rather than that of the enslavers. Maroons
had three main identities. In their own view they were self-liberated persons
(who, depending upon their other activities later on, might also regard themselves
as freedom fighters); to enslaved persons they were successful rebels
(people who had beaten the system); whereas to the enslavers they were simply
“runaway slaves” (who might also be bandits or vagabonds). A notary act
of Guadeloupe specified that runaways should be considered as “present
though absent” (Dubois 2004, 45), and it was not unusual for planters in various
colonial jurisdictions to include runaways in the rental or sale of their
properties.
Maroons drew a clear distinction between enslavement and marronage.
The creation story among the Jamaican Windward Maroons contrasts their
community’s founder, Grandy Nanny, who was willing to fight for her freedom,
with her sister Shanti, who was too afraid to do so and remained in
slavery (Zips 1999, 110–11). The Ndjuka people (descendants of former
Maroons) of present-day Suriname remember three definitive periods in
their history: katibo ten, the period of enslavement; lowe ten, the years of
escape into the forests and organization of Maroon settlements; and a fi, the
post-treaty period. They still celebrate their freedom today and ritualistically
remember it in their visits to each other. The host inquires, according to the
old sentry challenge, “Wada, wadaa . . . ooo” (“Who is there”). The visitor
replies, “Friman” (“Freeman”) (Thoden van Velzen 1995, 116–17).
Katia Mattoso (1979, 139) states that “[t]he larger quilombos created whole
new social organizations, with their own hierarchies and economic and political
authorities”, and that the quilombos generally became “truly independent
centers of production”. In the same paragraph, however, she expresses the
view that Maroons lived “on the very fringes of society”. Of course, from the
standpoint of the Maroons it was not a question of living on the fringes of
any society but rather of creating a new kind of society, where political, social
and other distinctions were not based on ascriptive race and colour criteria.
Maroon communities had their own distinctive, rich and variegated life. Still,
Mattoso’s remark is interesting, coming from a person who claims to have
written a study from the perspective of the enslaved persons (1979, 1–3), and
whose work indeed has a lot of merit. In this instance, however, she falls into
the common trap of viewing mainstream society as that to which the
enslavers and other upper-class Whites belonged. Her (perhaps inadvertent)
statement reflects the orientation of colonial and imperial history for most of