Guerilla Warfare: Queen Nanny of the Maroons

Born sometime in 1680 in Ghana Photo source: CreativeDevs https://creativedevs.com/

Queen Nanny of the Maroons is such an essential piece of history. Upon reading her story, I can pick up on the erasure through deification, and the simultaneous demonization of this incredible woman. Some people deny that this is real woman, but rather refer to her as a legend or a folktale hero.

This is a form of erasure; the denial of her real existence. Others acknowledge Queen Nanny as a human being, but speak of her dishonorably. As an example, when her people uplift her, even claiming that she could catch bullets with her hands, oppressors twist that by claiming she could catch bullets with her butt and fart them out. I refer to this as oral grave desecration. This post aims to uplift Queen Nanny in truth.

The Maroons are a community of people that escaped slavery in the 18th century and they were led by Queen Nanny.

They originally sought refuge high in the mountains. Mountains served as excellent geographic defense mechanisms against enemies. Their community had an additional defense due to the narrow pathway which led to their land. This made it impossible for large armies to access them.

Queen Nanny used geographic defense to their advantage to resist against British soldiers between 1725-1740.

One strategy that soldiers was covered with branches and leaves to camouflage with their environment. The labor of covering the soldiers was a role that Queen Nanny personally performed, along with instructing them to remain still so as to avoid detection.

Due to their vantage point high in the mountains and the narrow pathway, the were able to see oncoming British soldiers marching single file. The Maroons, while blending in with their environment, were able to ambush and neutralize the threat one British soldier at a time; a tactic referred to as guerrilla warfare. It’s important to note that the British armies outnumbered the Maroon community. Despite numbers, strategy allowed the Maroons to successfully resist British soldiers for 15 years.

Queen Nanny was not only a brilliant war strategist, but she is known as herbalist who communed with ancestors. This was essential to saving her people from starving during the war. The second source listed below which was written by Deborah Gabriel, highlights this moment. During 1737, they were starving, and nearly surrended. This is a common feat of war that isn’t commonly discussed, the violence and victories of war is not merely about bloodshed. It’s also the lack of resources, which can lead to people dying of starving or surrending due to starvation.

“Queen Nanny and her people were near starvation and she was on the brink of surrender, when she heard voices from her ancestors telling her not to give up. When she awoke she found pumpkins seeds in her pocket which she planted on the hillside. Within a week the seeds grew into large plants laden with pumpkins that provided much needed food for the starving community. To this day, one of the hills near Nanny Town is known as ‘Pumpkin Hill’.”

Three years later, Britian gave in to the resistance efforts of the Maroons and signed a peace treaty.

This is a woman of leadership, faith, and strategy. We honor you, Queen Nanny.

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