Page 14 - The Maroon- Patricia Reid

However, ever since their signing, the treaties have been respected and relied upon continuously by the
Maroons and their descendants as a basis for the definition of the relationship between Maroons and the

Government of Jamaica, and the apportioning of mutual rights and responsibilities between the respective

parties.

“We also need the Jamaican Government to ratify the treaty. It has been signed by the British, and

Maroons are still fighting for their sovereignty,” Pink said to loud cheers from the gathering of Maroons

who had come from their settlements across Jamaica and from Suriname to celebrate Captain Kojo’s
birthday.

Pink said the lengthy delays and failure of the Jamaican Government to ratify the Maroon Treaty has left

them exposed to the mercy of the Jamaican security forces to arrest Maroons in their villages at will and

rule against their freedom.

“Last month, I went to court in Kingston and a [parish] judge look at me and tell me that they have rights
to arrest Maroons from the Maroon villages. Nothing should go like that, we need to rectify every single

thing of the Maroons,” he said.

Speaking with The Gleaner in Accompong Town on Monday, Olivia Grange, the minister of culture,
gender, entertainment and sport, laid blame for the delays in ratifying the historic and important Maroon

Treaty at the feet of the political administrations of both the Jamaica Labour Party and Peoples’ National

Party since Independence in 1962.

“We are looking at all the important dates, all the important treaties, all the important and significant

occurrences to ensure that they are commemorated in a big way and to also ensure that whatever needed

to have been done [and] that where administrations over the years have been tardy in doing, we will
ensure that those things are corrected,” Grange said.