Page 13 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine
action if mining was to encroach on their lands and
anticipating the government declaring a boundary. On
July 21, 2015 with the support of communities across
Cockpit Country and Jamaica, the St. Ann commu-
nities organized a very joyous, democratic and
successful day-long protest against Noranda and
bauxite mining.
On September 23, 2015 a delegation of over 60
community members came together from across
Cockpit Country under the banner Cockpit
Communities for Conservation as follow up to the St.
Ann protests. They travelled to Kingston with copies
of a letter demanding that Special Exclusive
Prospecting License 145 be rescinded and no further
expansion of mining in western St. Ann and Cockpit
Country be allowed.
The letters were to be delivered to all the governmental Mining and other government agencies.
agencies with purview over mining and environmental
protection. The first stop was the National
Environment Planning Agency where the group met
with Peter Knight, NEPA’s CEO. Various members of
the group were very articulate about their concerns
over mining in Cockpit Country.
Accompong Maroon youth leader Tyshan Wright was
especially powerful. In response to Peter Knight’s
assurances that cabinet was very close to making a
decision on the boundary that would be pleasing to the launched an online portal which allowed Jamaicans
delegation, he said:
I would love to know who comes up with this
boundary which you said you think we could
be satisfied with. Was there a representative on
the behalf of the Maroon communities?
There are some of us that believe that
slavery is a thousand years ago. Slavery is like
yesterday for me! Our blood of our ancestors
still wet the soil. Me still smell it right now.
So me want dem fi know seh di whole
Cockpit land is sacred to the Maroon people.
It sacred to the Maroon people ita nah just
trees. Di blood of wi brother, wi sister, we uncle finally declare the Cockpit Country a protected Area.
- it wet it.
12
June 2018
We forget the foundations which our
ancestors have laid down for us. And I can tell
you this as a Maroon, and I speak on behalf of
the Maroon people, I tell you this: We will fight
with every last breath in our body to ensure seh
we preserve and keep it. We will chant the
drum day and night and root the ancestors dem
from down ina di abyss until we mek sure
seh di Cockpit stay fi di born and di unborn!
After NEPA, the delegation went to the Mines and
Geology division to deliver their letter to the
Commissioner of Mines but he was absent. There was
great tension as the personnel at Mines and Geology
refused to dialogue with the group, but eventually
allowed two of their representatives to present the
letter to an administrator. Copies of the letters were
dropped off with security guards at the Ministry of
Though the attempt at meeting with government
officials had become more and more frustrating, the
day ended with a well-attended press conference,
where members of the delegation talked about the
threats to their particular areas, and closed with envig-
orating Maroon drumming, singing and dancing by
members of the Accompong Maroon youth group.
On July 24, 2017, the Office of the Prime Minister
to petition the government on any topic. At first peti-
tioners were required to amass 30,000 online
signatures in 30 days to get a response from the Prime
Minister, but this was reduced to 15,000 online
signatures in 40 days. Jamaicans are not normally
comfortable signing petitions, many have inadequate
literacy, and the requirements of the portal such as
internet access and an email address further excluded
many Jamaicans. Therefore no petition on the site had
garnered anywhere near 15,000 signatures. But all of
this changed when Jamaica Environment Trust
decided to test the portal and press the government to