Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything - Radio WIFM

Episode Date: March 2, 2015

Decades before the first shot was fired in the American revolution a band of runaway slaves known as the Maroons living in the mountains in Colonial Jamaica took on the British Empire and won.  I’ve long been obsessed with the Maroons and so last summer I jumped at the opportunity to visit their compound in Charlestown for the annual celebration of their 1739 victory. I learned the Maroons hope to play a leading role today as Jamaica moves down the path of Marijuana decriminalization and legalization, but some of the folks I met claim the Maroons are still listening to Radio What’s Innit Fo Me?  

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Episodes every other week at neverpo.st and wherever you find pods. You are listening to Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything. This installment is called Radio WIFM. Now if you look closely on the door of the museum, you will see the Sankofa bird. The bird takes oil from its tail feather to maintain the rest of the body to preserve the future. That is what we do here. We go back, we build the museum, put it forward, put artifacts inside so our children can learn more about the maroons. I've long been obsessed with the Maroons of Jamaica. So last summer, I jumped at the opportunity to visit

their compound in Charlestown for the annual celebration of their 1739 victory over the British. Welcome to the museum. When I noticed the busload of Norwegian retirees queuing up for a tour of the museum, I joined them.

Who are the maroons? They are people whose spirit could not be broken, living in the wilderness and was dangerous to encounter. Decades before the first shot was fired in the American Revolution, a band of runaway slaves living in the mountains in colonial Jamaica took on the British Empire and won. The Maroons, led by Captain Cujo and a woman called Nanny, were just too skilled at hiding and raiding and killing.

We have here cutlass, machete, Maroon language, afana. So today, if you hear somebody say afana, they are simply calling for the machete. Now what would you do? That would be the worst thing to do. After the colonial government conceded defeat, they gave the Maroons a treaty and some land, and then the Maroons built settlements in the hills. I assume that many of the enslaved persons would look to the hills of Acompong, where the Maroons are on that side of the island.

It must have been a guiding light, almost a beacon on the hill, listening to the abing, listening to the sounds of their drums, which would have wafted down the hills on the breeze, to know that one day, just like the maroons were a symbol of freedom, that their freedom would have finally been earned. That's Raymond Price, a Jamaican Minister of Parliament, who I met in the museum.

He says the story of the Maroons can help us understand why the Jamaican people have played such a large role in the global fight for liberation and freedom. It is almost incongruous that a small island, a small population, can have over so many centuries and decades impacted the change in the tide of global affairs. And I believe that a lot of that would have had to do with this knowledge that right here in Jamaica, a group of people, in one case led by a woman, as in Nanny of the Maroons, were able to say to the mightiest military force of the day, we've had enough of you.

The Maroons were given name by the British plantation owner. Names such as Anderson. On the tour, Raymond Price and his companion were amazed to discover that Price is actually a Maroon name. So he's a Price. So he is actually a Maroon name. So he's a Price? So he's possibly a Maroon? Possibly, we don't know for sure. I didn't know of that connection until today. And of course, there are much, much more.

But the Maroons themselves, well, they actually consider themselves as being very separate from the Jamaican people. The Maroons didn't experience slavery much because they left as soon as they could. They took to the bush and they fought for 85 years. 85 years of armed conflict in which I posit that DNA tracing has already started to making them a separate people. That's Frank Lundstrom. He's a colonel of the Charlestown Maroons. As you just heard him say, he believes that 85 years in the mountains changed the DNA of the Maroons, making them different. But crackpot theories like this one aside, there is something that happened that did separate the Maroons from the other blacks on the

island. The treaty 80,000 slaves. The colonial government's greatest fear was that the Maroons, who numbered only around 2,000, would inspire an island-wide revolt. This is why the most important articles of the treaty were six and nine. Article six required the Maroons to assist the authorities in the putting down of any future slave rebellion. And almost immediately after the signing of the treaty, a rebellion broke out. The circumstances were extraordinary. You see, during the Maroon War, there were many slaves who fought for their masters,

often on the front lines. You can only imagine their distress once the fighting ended. Their enemies were rewarded with freedom and land, while they received nothing for their bravery and loyalty. So a group of these slaves decided to rebel themselves and set up camp in the hills. Citing Article 6 of the treaty, the plantation owners called on the Maroons for assistance.

Captain Cujo and his Maroon warriors raided the new camp and killed everyone. According to the historical record, the Jamaican authorities had an even easier time getting the maroons to fulfill the obligations that came with Article No. 9 of the treaty. This was because Article 9 promised the maroons financial compensation for the capture

of every runaway slave, alive or dead. And this is why I find the story of the Maroon so important, because it asks the fundamental question about our struggle with liberation. Are we fighting for universal freedom, or are we simply looking out for our own interests? When the Maroons encountered a runaway slave shivering in the bushes, they did not recognize him as kin. They identified with his oppressor. So these are the negativities that surround the history of the Maroons. That's Ross Ivey, a Rastafarian I met at the Maroon celebration.

Pointing to the Maroons lighting up with impunity at their compound, he told me that today the Maroons still enjoy more freedoms than everyone else. These people are somewhat more free. They are freer than we are in the sense that, for example, if you are here with herb, you can plant your herb, you can grow your herb, you can smoke your herb, you can eat your herb, you can drink your herb. You can do things that even the Jamaican law would not allow you to.

But as much as the history troubles him, there are things, serious things, he says, to be learned from the Maroons. If these people can enjoy certain rights that we as the average Jamaican do not enjoy, then there is something special about them. There is something inspiring to the point that we would want to emulate them. So, the reason I'm in Jamaica visiting the maroon compound in Charlestown is because the maroons are announcing a new marijuana venture. This is the 275th anniversary of the signing of the treaty.

That's Frank Lundstam again, the colonel of the Charlestown Maroons. Interesting that it's on this day that they told me to make this announcement. And by they, I mean Luan's past. Now, it was actually unclear exactly what Frank was announcing, because the treaty already allows the Maroons to grow and smoke marijuana on their own lands, but they can't sell marijuana in Jamaica, and they definitely can't export it to, say, the United States. But if the Jamaican government is going to move down the path to decriminalization

and the licensing of medical marijuana, well then, the maroons, Frank Lundstrom was announcing, are ready and willing to get in on the action. It is not the maroons getting the first license. It's the Maroons taking the steps to be the first. Yeah, he took issue with my question as to why the Maroons should get the first licenses. In fact, most of the folks I met at the celebration said the same thing. The Maroons, they insisted, should be the ones on the front lines. Yes, Maroons, strong, powerful people. We are leaders. We can lead the way.

Natalie Burton is a member of the Scotts Hall Maroon Council. No one, she told me, understands marijuana's potential better than a maroon. This is part of maroons' ritual. Whenever we have a ritual, we have to have ganja. Without this, we cannot survive. Like the colonel, Natalie believes that if the Jamaican government starts handing out licenses, then it must recognize that the Maroons, according to their treaties,

will be entitled to these same rights and privileges. Not until we turn in that treaty, anything that was signed on that treaty still exists today, and privileges. die for my people, then if everybody's going to go ganja, we won't benefit from ganja. Well, if I was the judge of all things herb, then I'm not. I actually can't really even handle smoking even a little bit. But if I was, then I would gavel my objection to this kind of rhetoric. And let's face it, if we're going to make a case that a group of people deserve to get a license to sell marijuana in Jamaica, well, obviously, that would be the Rastafarians. There's nobody who have gone through the brutality, who have gone through the pain, who have gone through what I and I have gone through the brutality, who have gone through the pain, who have gone through what I and I have gone through. Nobody, no community have gone through what Rastafari has gone through.

That's Ross Ivey, the Rastafarian we heard from earlier. And yeah, I think he makes a strong case as to why the Rastas should get a license for the growing and selling of marijuana. And he's actually formed a farmers' collective in Westmoreland, the area made famous by Bob Marley. If we don't put ourselves in a formidable position, it is obvious that there are people with money potential, people who have their money, who want to invest in herb and hence deprive those who have paid the price who have made a sacrifice to keep this herb thing alive so i'm not saying

that we should be the only people who benefits because once we benefit jamaica as a whole will benefit but i think we should be given some rights, some privileges where the usages, the management of herb is concerned to develop Jamaica economically. Many lawmakers and business people in this world listen to one radio station, WIFM. What in it for me? Perhaps Ross Ivey's right to be worried, though. As this guy puts it, a nutritionist I met named Theo Chambers, there's lots of folks in Jamaica who are going to want to benefit first from marijuana legalization.

If you legalize ganja today without any proper law and support, the Rasta guy up in the hill is going to become a multimillionaire and not the person who went to college for six years and got a doctorate degree. So there has to be a way to implement laws with their benefit, government benefit, and certain people who claim that they are the elite also benefit. You know, we're not going to end on such a cynical note because as I was putting this episode together, Jamaica actually moved forward on the decriminalization of marijuana.

Last week, in fact. And while it is a small step, it is a giant step forward. And guess who was instrumental in making it happen? Raymond Price, the Member of Parliament that I met in the Maroon Museum last summer. To me, the main legacy which continues to be relevant from the stories of the Maroons is a close relationship with our indigenous and our organic natural history, plants and animals, the use of sustainable development in terms of how we pursue agriculture. Among communities, the Maroons have the smallest

carbon footprint of any society anywhere in the Caribbean. And I think that that is a new blueprint. I mean, we had it from the 1700s, but we now can utilize it. You have been listening to Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything. This installment is called Radio WIFM. This episode was produced by myself with help from Bill Bowen. Special thanks to Nils Cohen and Charlie Nessen and the Jamaica Project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society for support in bringing me to Jamaica last summer. The Theory of Everything is a founding member of Radiotopia from PRX, the public radio exchange. All the information you need about this show is at toe.prx.org. Radiotopia from PRX.