Head of Maroon State Accompong Chief Richard Currie has seemingly responded to statements made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness about the sovereignty and financial responsibility of government.
Chief Currie in an Instagram post, shared a picture of an archived letter from former British MP Tom Driberg dated July 5, 1962.
The letter which was addressed to the colonial secretary of Jamaica, expressed concern and appeal for maroons in the state, in regards to the preservation and recognition of their rights and standing the newly independent nation.
The Maroon leader captioned the post with a series of points about Jamaica’s own sovereignty and its financial and legal connection to other countries directed at the Prime Minister.
“1) Jamaica is NOT a unitary sovereign state, Elizabeth II, of the House Windsor, is YOUR Queen and Sovereign. Jamaica is simply “fully responsible” in Elizabeth’s Commonwealth per the legal language in the Charter for Jamaica.
2) You are a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people. Please go read this, you are an intelligent man.
3) Jamaica has an EXTENSIVE external debt and is constantly begging, so you rely on other sovereign nations, in other words, you are receiving funding from others, so please consider human and indigenous rights before you end up de-funded as well.
4) Jamaica as a government entity, begged for “independence” whereas the Maroons waged war to maintain theirs.
Please be guided accordingly.”
Chief Currie also posted a video of former British High Commissioner Mr Asif Ahmad CMG, giving a speech in 2019 at the Accompong, reiterating recognition for the state and its role in the country’s history.
In a subsequent live on his page, the maroon leader doubled down on his post as he chastised the Prime Minister for what he called ignorant utterances.
“The government does not own its road or its air space which is why maroons will not subject themselves to a municipality because Mr Holness and his ‘cronies’ will try to take our ancestral estate the cockpit country and sell it to the highest bidder,” Currie said.
He then called on Jamaicans to learn about their history and the roles maroons played.
“If the Jamaican citizens choose not to understand their true history and stop blaming the maroons as traitors then the truth will able to surface for the multitude to see,” he added.
Prime Minister Holness during a press on Sunday morning, rubbished assertions of the government’s responsibility to fund any activity by the maroon state.
