KINGSTON, Jamaica- Maroon Chief Richard Currie has categorically refuted Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ pronouncement that Jamaica is a unitary sovereign state. 

“A statement that was made today [Sunday] by the prime minister regarding the Maroons and sovereignty and it’s an issue that has been of contention for sometime and an argument that has been discussed all across the media and the airways. And we really have not had the opportunity to properly address the issue at hand but the outburst, which I would call it, has demanded we now really tackle and deal with this elephant in the room once and for all,” said Currie at a press briefing late Sunday. 

Holness, responding to a question at a media briefing earlier regarding funding projects in the Maroon community fervently declared that “Jamaica is a unitary sovereign state [and] there is no other sovereign authority, other than the Government of Jamaica.”

However, claiming to be reading a letter written by British Parliamentarian Tom Driberg, which was entered in the House of Commons on July 6, 1962, Currie outlined the tension between Jamaica’s first Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante and the Maroons. 

Currie said, “ …one month before Bustamante would have received the Charter to have a responsible Government from the Monarch within the Commonwealth. Nowhere in the Charter for Jamaica does it say Jamaica is a unitary sovereign state.”

Urging the public to read the letters that he posted to his Instagram account, Currie stated, “I implore Jamaican citizens to do a bit of research with me, go over the information. The Charter and Constitution of Jamaica came after the British Monarch signed an agreement with the Maroon Government.”

The maroon chief also argued that the Jamaican Government is a “professional at begging the world,” and they continue to “sell out our natural resources.” This, he said, is the reason why the Maroons will not become a part of the country’s municipality. 

“These are regular day-to-day conversations that permeate the island, as the Government does not own its roads nor its airspace, amongst many other things…if the Jamaican citizens choose not to understand their true history and stop blaming the Maroons as traitors, then the truth will be able to surface for the multitude to see,” Currie argued. 

 “Therefore, Mr Holness I say this to you, we the Maroons of Cockpit Country, descendants of the first people of the Archipelago now called Jamaica, like to remind of a few things. Jamaica is not a unitary sovereign state. Elizabeth II of House of Windsor is your Queen and sovereign, Jamaica is simply fully responsible in Elizabeth’s Commonwealth. Two, you are a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the indigenous people, please go read this, you are an intelligent man. 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 consider human and indigenous rights before you end up de-funded as well,” Currie continued. 

In closing, he also argued that the island has two kinds of people, “Those who are willing to be righteous at all cost and defend their estate from theft and those who remain as house slaves and gatekeepers for the corruption of leaving the Maroons out in 1962.”

“Each person on this island must decide who they are. The world is watching, our ancestors are watching, the Most High is watching. Jamaica as a Government entity begged for its independence, whereas the Maroons waged war for 83 years. The war is now over, the right to remit was passed to the Government of Jamaica, as the British High Commission explained in his speech, not once, but twice while you were sitting right in front of him. I say this, please let good sense prevail. Do the right thing and please be guided accordingly,” Currie concluded.

 – Candice Haughton