| The Maroons of Moore Town, located in the Blue Mountains
and John Crow Mountains of Eastern Jamaica, are descendants
of communities of former runaway African slaves who fled
the sugar plantations of Jamaica from the 17th century
onwards. Within this isolated community, at least one
West African language, Kromanti, survived. Kromanti is
an Akan language closely related to languages of the Akan
dialect/language cluster, notably Twi and Fante, important
languages in modern day Ghana. According to reports,
Kromanti survived
as a language of normal everyday communication amongst
the Maroons up until the early decades of the 20th century.
Since then, its use has receded and it is known mainly by elderly
members of the community. It is mainly restricted to religious and ceremonial life of the community.
A critical feature of Maroon heritage is the Kromanti
language, used in a ritual ceremony known as Kromanti
Play. This is a ceremony used to invoke ancestral spirits,
involving dances, songs and special styles of drumming,
in which the language is used to address the ancestors.
Kromanti Play, inclusive of the linguistic aspects,
is the easily the most distinctive feature which marks
off the Maroons of Moore Town from non-Maroon Jamaicans.
However, its survival is under threat. Because of traditions
of secrecy, fewer and fewer of the young Maroons have
much knowledge of the language and as a consequence
the accompanying cultural heritage associated with it.
It is against this background that UNESCO, in 2003,
named the Maroon Heritage of Moore Town (Jamaica), as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage
of Humanity. |
