The Spirit of Marronage

‘The Spirit of Marronage: Expressions of Afrikan Indigenous Self-Determination’ chronicles the rise of the United Maroon Indigenous Peoples (UMIP), a global movement rooted in the spiritual and political legacies of Afrikan-descended Indigenous communities. Interweaving scholarly discussions, critical personal narrative, poetry, visual art, and Indigenous curricula, the book explores sovereignty through land-based relations, communal governance, and sacred practices. It documents pivotal Maroon gatherings and outlines UMIP’s six founding pillars: Kpaale (Diasporic Citizenship and Spirituality), Mbongi (Learning Together), Uhuru (Freedom and Reparations), Gayap (Working for Common Cause), Ujima (Collective Responsibility), and Livity (Living Maroon Values). Serving as both an archive for Maroons and a guide for Indigenous Peoples reclaiming culture, it calls for shifts in academic engagement toward authentic allyship—centering Indigenous knowledges to transform relationships from transactional to reciprocal, and analyses from removed to restorative. A vital resource for educators, researchers, and activists pursuing ecological and social justice.

Dedication
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Glossary
Author Bios
Foreword I: Maroon Indigeneity and Why it Matters
Kyle T. Mays
University of California, Los Angeles
Foreword II
Tina Dunkley
Visual artist, curator, cultural researcher/historian
we’ve been here before (The 1619 Project)
Liseli A. Fitzpatrick
Wellesley College
An Introduction in Two Parts: Overview
Introduction Part I: The Spirit of Marronage: A Brief Orientation
Diana J. Fox
Bridgewater State University
Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston
Introduction Part II: Learning, Working, and Writing with Indigenous Collaborators for Maroon Self-determination: A Deeper Dive from Activist Anthropology
Diana J. Fox
Bridgewater State University
Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston

Section 1. Kpaale: Afrikan Diasporic Spiritual Citizenship (Convergences of Traditional Afrikan Spirituality)
Diana J. Fox
Bridgewater State University
Chapter 1 Coming Full Circle: Ritualizing Indigeneity in Dominica and Conjuring Maroon-Kalinago Solidarity for the Twenty-first Century
Keith E. McNeal
University of Houston
Chapter 2 Rituals of Ancestral Healing: Towards a Maroon Spiritual Citizenship
N. Fadeke Castor
Northeastern University
Chapter 3 The Power in People and Places: Awakening our Ancestral Energies
Akilah Jaramogi
Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project, Merikin Heritage Foundation, United Maroon Indigenous Peoples
Chapter 4 Song to the Heroes
Bernard Wiltshire
12th of July Movement, Dominica

Section 2. Mbongi: “Town hall”/ Place of Learning; Storytelling
Diana J. Fox
Bridgewater State University
Chapter 5 From the Black Afrikan Holocaust (Maafa) to the United Nations: Routes, Roots, and Fruits: Maroon Women’s Journey to the 18th United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) April 22- 25th 2019
Gaa Mang Gloria “MaMa G” Simms
Paramount Queen/Chieftainess, Maroons of Jamaica and Diaspora
Chapter 6 “El derecho de mi plena libertad”: Politics of Memory of Afro-Ecuadorian Maroon Women in the Chota Valley (Ecuador)
María Barbarita Lara
Coordinator of Black Women–Carchi Chapter
Daniela Balanzátegui
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Chapter 7 Scavenging in the Diaspora for Maroon Stories: Practical Engagements via Historical, Cultural and Linguistic Connections
J. Amadu Massally
Founder, Return Table Press; Independent Scholar

Section 3. Uhuru! Freedom Sovereignty, Reparations, and Survivance of Peoples
Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston
Chapter 8 The Indigeneity of Maroons and Other Descendants of the African Diaspora
Andrew B. Reid
Ved Nanda Center for International and Comparative Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Chapter 9 Forgotten No Longer: Recovering the History of Florida’s Maroons in Partnership with the Merikins
Dawn Lawrence
US Forest Service, National Forests, Florida
Chapter 10 The Universal Declaration of Marronage
Attillah Springer
Writer and Cultural Worker

Section 4. Gayap: Working Together for Common Cause (Sovereignty of/through Food, Land, and Water)
Diana J. Fox
Bridgewater State University
Chapter 11 Gayap at the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project (FACRP): A Model of Community Engagement for Environmental Sustainability
Kemba Jaramogi
Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project
Chapter 12 “When Dirt Becomes a Dirty Word”: A Black Farmer’s Perspective on our Alienation from Soil
Leah Penniman
Co-Founder, Soul Fire Farm
Chapter 13 A Merikin Woman’s Story and HERstory: Keeping Memories and Traditions Alive
Marva Sandy
Merikin Heritage Foundation

Section 5. Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility. Challenges in the Community: Health, Education, Livelihoods and Healing the Wounds of the Maafa
Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston
Chapter 14 Shifting Worldviews: Maroon or AfroIndigenous Rights and the Environment
Caroline Mair-Toby
Institute for Small Islands; Mair and Company
with Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston
Chapter 15 The Pilgrimage of a Garifuna Grandmother: Nana Barouda Lubafu Isieni’s Story
Nana Barouda Lubafu Isieni (aka Cynthia Ellis-Topsey)
Ambassador at Large, Garifuna Nation
Rachel Brunot
Independent Consultant
with Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston
Chapter 16 A Proposal and Rationale for Maroon Curricula
Akilah Jaramogi
Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project, Merikin Heritage Foundation, United Maroon Indigenous Peoples
Gaa Mang Gloria “MaMa G” Simms
Paramount Queen/Chieftainess, Maroons of Jamaica and Diaspora
with Alethia Jones
City University of New York School of Labor and Urban Studies

Section 6. Livity: Living and Actualizing Marronage. Respecting the Forces of Life and Nature with Partnership, Allyship, and Kinship
Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston
Chapter 17 Reflections on Taino Peoples’ Survivance and Contemporary Governance System(s)
Erica Neeganagwedgin
Western University
Chapter 18 Poem and Personal Excavation: “Spirit Searching”
Danielle Carbon-Wilson
Writer and Cultural Worker
Chapter 19 Living with the Forces of Nature: Afrikan Pasts and Futures among Suriname’s Okanisi Maroons
Kenrich Cairo
Founder, Cai’s Digital Production (CDP) Suriname
with Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston

An “un-Conclusion” Toward Maroon Indigenous Futurity
Ping-Ann Addo
University of Massachusetts Boston
Diana J. Fox
Bridgewater State University
Appendix 1. Detailed Timeline of Global Maroon Organizing
Index

Ping-Ann Addo is a collaborative ethnographer and Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Massachusetts Boston. Her work focuses on material culture in Pacific and Caribbean communities, examines women’s agency, nation-building, and
(im)migrant identity, and supports Indigenous survivance and reclamation. She is the author of two books, a story consultant on a film, and a trained museum educator and researcher.

Diana J. Fox is Professor of Anthropology at Bridgewater State University. She is a cultural anthropologist, decolonial feminist scholar-activist, and documentary film producer. She works to develop collaborative partnerships with social movement actors globally around women’s and Indigenous rights and liberatory praxis. She is founding editor of the online, open-access ‘Journal of International Women’s Studies.’

Nana Barouda Lubafu Isieni (Cynthia Ellis-Topsey) is a Garifuna Indigenous global leader from Belize and Ambassador at Large of the Garifuna Nation. A spiritual guide and promoter of Afrikan tales, she is an activist for changing the language of economic decolonization and empowering Garifuna and other Indigenous women. Founder of the Garifuna Cassava Festival, she is a mother of 5 and grandmother of 17.

Indigeneity, Indigenous sovereignty, Maroons, Maroon unity, self-determination, social movements, spirituality, UMIP (United Maroon Indigenous Peoples), decoloniality, decolonial anthropology, social movements, Indigenous rights, women’s leadership, women-led social movements