SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth – The Accompong maroons in northern St Elizabeth will today begin a week of celebrations marking the anniversary of a peace treaty with British colonisers in 1738 with a church service in the village.

The service starting at 10:00 am will be held at the Presbyterian Church which is said to be the oldest building in Accompong and will be presided over by Rev Dahlia Picard.

The 267th annual celebrations climaxes, as usual, on January 6 with ritualistic Maroon ceremonies, a civic ceremony and a cultural extravaganza in the village located high up in the Cockpit Country, close to the St Elizabeth/Trelawny border.

Accompong is one of several communities formed by run-away slaves in Jamaica’s mountainous interior over 300 years ago.

They fought the British in sporadic fashion using classic guerilla tactics for close to 150 years – in the case of some communities. In the end, the Maroons signed peace treaties which required them to cooperate with the British in return for being left alone.

Accompong apart, surviving and actively recognized Maroon communities in Jamaica are Charles Town and Moore Town in Portland and Scott’s Hall in St Mary. Representatives of the other Maroon communities have been invited to participate in the Accompong celebrations.

This time around the celebrations carry the theme ‘Celebrating our African ancestry – the Ghana Connection’. Ghana in West Africa was one of the main sources of the people brought by force to the Americas by Europeans, during the 400 years of the slave trade.

Traditionally thousands of people including scores of vendors flock into the town for the January 6th celebrations.

Sydney Peddie, Colonel of the Accompong Maroons told the Sunday Observer yesterday that “all is in place” for the various activities for the upcoming week.