Getting to Know Queen Nanny
Winning poster of the 2023 International Reggae Poster Contest by Vasilis Grivas, titled “Queen of the Maroons” at the National Gallery of Jamaica. Interview with the artist→
It is important to recognize the incredible resilience and impact of women throughout Jamaican history. One such woman is Queen Nanny, Grandy Nanny, or Nanny of the Maroons, a Jamaican national hero who played a crucial role in the resistance against British colonization in the 18th century.
Origins
According to Maroon legend, Nanny was born into the Akan people in 1686 in what is now Ghana, West Africa. There are several versions of her story that begin with her arriving as a free woman or coming from a royal family, but according to the Jamaica Information Service, she was brought to Jamaica as an enslaved person. After escaping from her plantation, she found refuge in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, where she joined the Maroons, a community of those formerly enslaved who had established independent settlements in the mountains. While she has been described as a small, wiry woman with piercing eyes, Queen Nanny quickly rose to prominence within the Maroon community due to her strategic military tactics and her ability to lead her people to victory against the British. While the title, Nanny, has been used for various leaders of the Maroons, they maintain that there was only one, “Queen Nanny.”
The Maroons
After being brought to Jamaica in the course of the Transatlantic slave trade, many enslaved Africans fled from the oppressive conditions of Spanish plantations and formed communities of free Black people in the rugged, hilly interior of the island. People who escaped from joined these communities in the mountains of eastern Jamaica, or the Cockpit Country in the west, and some blended with the native islanders, the Taíno or Arawak, in their communities in the Blue Mountains, located in Portland Parish and Saint Thomas Parish. The communities of formerly enslaved people persisted when the British took over colonization of Jamaica from Spain in 1655, and they became known as the Maroons.
By 1720, Nanny and Quao settled and controlled an area in the Blue Mountains that later became known as Nanny Town. Nanny Town and similar Maroon communities were self-sufficient, raising animals, hunting, growing crops, and trading in nearby market towns to exchange food for weapons and cloth, much like a typical Asante society in Africa.
Resistance Against Colonization
From 1655 until they signed peace treaties in 1739 and 1740, the Maroons led most of the slave rebellions in Jamaica, freeing enslaved people from plantations, raiding them for weapons and food, and even burning plantations down before leading the newly freed people to join their communities. Queen Nanny is said to have aided more than 1000 people in escaping slavery over the 30 years that the Maroons resisted British colonization.
Queen Nanny's leadership was crucial in the First Maroon War from 1728 to 1739. During the years of warfare, the British suffered significant losses in their encounters with the Windward Maroons of eastern Jamaica. Maroons attributed their success against the British to the successful use of supernatural powers by Nanny, and historians argue that their mastery of guerrilla warfare played a significant role in their success.
One legend goes that during a battle, Queen Nanny and her warriors were greatly outnumbered by the British. However, because she knew the terrain well and used it to her advantage, the Maroons hid in the dense foliage of the Blue Mountains and launched surprise attacks on the British. The British were so confused by the guerrilla tactics that they eventually retreated and, having failed to defeat them on the battle field, decided to propose a treaty with the Maroons in 1740.
It is said that her conviction was so strong that when Quao signed the second Treaty (the first was signed bv Cudjoe of the Leeward Maroons months earlier) with the British, Nanny was in disagreement with the principle of peace with the British, which she interpreted as another form of subjugation. While the peace treaty granted the Maroons autonomy and the right to self-governance, the New Nanny Town Maroons were to participate in the capture of enslaved people who have run away. This was in direct contrast to previous practices of leading enslaved people out of slavery and providing safe haven, and various accounts have suggested that some form of slavery may have existed within Maroon communities.
The Moore Town Maroon Cultural Centre, Moore Town, 2019. Captured by Paul Clammer
A Supernatural Figure
Queen Nanny’s influence over the Maroons is described as, “so strong, that it seemed to be supernatural and was said to be connected to her powers of obeah.” (JIS) Obeah is a spiritual practice. It is known in both a supernatural and medicinal context, and draws on elements of African, Indigenous, and other cultures imported to the Caribbean. Many attribute Queen Nanny’s success and power to her supernatural abilities and divine insight.
Oral history is central to the preservation of Queen Nanny’s legacy, and it passes on legends of her power. Grandy Nanny herself was also a chieftainess, or a wise elder woman, of the village who practiced oral storytelling. Through this practice, she passed on ancestral legends, lessons, music, and traditions to preserve the African heritage of her people. Obeah and oral tradition serve as a key elements of Queen Nanny and Jamaican peoples’ rebellion to colonial oppression.
An Immortal Legacy
Bump Grave, Moore Town, 2019. Captured by Paul Clammer
Queen Nanny's legacy continues to inspire people around the world. The legendary retellings and re-imaginings of Queen Nanny as a figure of mythology embody Afrofuturist themes of reclamation, Black liberation, revisioning the past, and predictions of the future through a cultural lens at the intersection of science, technology, and the African diaspora. As a Black woman leader who used her connection to the land as a spiritual guide to protect and liberate her people, she is a testament to the power of Afro-Caribbean innovation and knowledge. Contemporary projects, such as Reimagining Queen Nanny of the Maroons, by Professor Leo Douglas explores Queen Nanny in the spirit of eco-spirituality and Afro-indigenous musings.
Just as her life was shrouded in a mystical mystery, details of Queen Nanny’s death are uncertain. Some claim that she lived to be an old woman, dying of natural causes in the 1760s. Despite there being no evidence that the Maroons historically built extravagant gravesites, Queen Nanny is exceptionally honored with Maroon oral tradition reporting that her remains are buried at "Bump Grave" in Moore Town, which remains from the village built on the land granted from the treaty.
Monument to the Right Excellence Nanny of the Maroons, Moore Town, 2019. Captured by Paul Clammer
In Jamaica, she was declared a National Hero in 1975, and remains the only woman National Hero to this day. She is also, “the only one who is a Maroon; and the only among the six other national heroes to emerge from this period of 1660-1740, classified as the first period in the history of Jamaica.” (Karla Gottlieb) Her legacy also lives on through the Maroons, who continue to protect their cultural heritage and maintain their traditional way of life. Her life is a reminder of the strength and resilience and an exemplary story of resistance to oppression.
Queen Nanny on the Jamaican 500 dollar bill.
Conclusion
The continued captivation by Queen Nanny's legacy is portrayed in song, books and stories that have imagined her as a figure of resilience, power, and resistance. It is an example of how Afro-Futurism can serve as a tool for celebrating and uplifting communities that continue to heal from the impact of colonialism. By imagining a future where Jamaican culture and history are valued and celebrated, the lens of Afrofuturism offers an avenue for imagining the possibilities for Black people around the world. On this International Women's Day, let us celebrate the bravery and leadership of Queen Nanny of the Maroons, and consider what other women in Jamaican history we should be celebrating alongside her.
Statue of Nanny of the Maroons at Emancipation Park
Learn more about Queen Nanny of the Maroons:
Book: The Mother of Us All by Karla Gottlieb
Interview with the Artist of “Nanny of the Maroons”
Trailer of a one-hour documentary, directed by directed by Roy T. Anderson, charts the story of Nanny