Visitors view imported products on display during the 270th Accompong Maroon Celebrations in St Elizabeth on Tuesday. - photo by Claudia Gardner

WESTERN BUREAU:

As Accompong Maroons in St Elizabeth celebrated the 270th anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty between their ancestors and the British on Tuesday, some of their members renewed complaints about the continued commercialisation of the celebrations.

Accompong Maroon, Dolphy Rowe told The Gleaner that despite complaints to the Maroon leadership over the years, the 2008 celebrations still saw the streets of Accompong being saturated with imported trinkets, toys and other mass-produced products.

"Flea market has no place in Maroon culture but these new colonels are encouraging these things," Rowe, 65, argued. "We are no different from Santa Cruz market and that is something that bothers me a lot and people in my age bracket see it the same way too."

Money making

Rowe added: "It is so bad, and it is all in the name of money-making, which is not going towards development and enlightenment of the Maroon people. They charge people at the gate and they can carry in any and everything. I know the ancestors are turning in their graves now to see how the place bring down. I don't think my grandchildren will understand the relevance of the celebrations [in the] years to come."

Another Maroon, Harris Cawley, said the essence of the Maroon celebrations was being eroded because of a lack of enforcement of the rules.

"The people are not taking up the challenge to come and sell authentic Jamaican things. Even Maroons themselves are not taking up the challenge. But it boils down to leadership," he said.

Head of the Accompong Maroons, Colonel Sydney Peddie told The Gleaner that the vendors had disobeyed the rules of engagement.

"We didn't enforce the rules as such at the gate, but I came on the radio telling them that we did not want that flea market thing. No Maroon is involved there; it is outsiders, but it can be implemented, for instance, if we keep on telling them and we start to turn them back at the gate."

However, former Colonel, Meredie Rowe, said the Accompong hierarchy ought to inform the vendors long before the celebration date, via the media.

CULTURE IGNORED

"The commercialisation of the celebrations has multiplied tenfold this year. The things that our foreparents did; indigenous foods, cultural items and speech were ignored and as a consequence the average person who comes in the community observes that," Rowe said.

"The colonel needs to send the information to all media houses way in advance, in the form of a public announcement or paid advertisement to let the vendors know that these wares will not be admitted and then there would be time to take that strong action he spoke about. He can't just go on one talk show and say that he informed them."