Maroons and their indigenous lineage
Dear Editor,
In the letter ‘Enough talk, show us proof!’ ( Jamaica Observer, January 25, 2022) Duane Harris asked, among many questions: “What is the evidence of the actual interbreeding between Tainos and Africans? …Did Maroons interbreed with other races who settled in Jamaica and to what extent could Maroons also claim these ancestries? …How much of the genetic make-up of current Maroons is Taino?”
It was originally believed that the Tainos were extinct, and we knew that some Tainos migrated from Suriname to St Elizabeth in the 18th century; however, their survival instincts enabled them to merge into Jamaican society, and were often overlooked as members of the Miskito Indian community.
A Jamaican Taino who attended the Hampton School in St Elizabeth is Dr Erica Neeganagwedgin nee Dennis, whose mother was Taino and her father a black Jamaican. She is the lead coordinator, master of professional education programme, aboriginal educational leadership at Western University in Canada.
Apart from Dr Neeganagwedgin, people from across Maroon communities, along with regular Jamaicans who have done DNA testing, have proven genetic connections to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, in particular the Tainos. In June 2019 Robert Pairman “was enstooled in an elaborate ritualistic ceremony as kasike (cacique) of the Taino tribe, Jamaican Hummingbird (YukayekeYamayeGuani), inside the Asafu Yard at Charles Town Maroon village in Portland”. ( The Gleaner, June 19, 2019)
In regard to the claims of indigenous ancestry by the Accompong Maroons, it should be noted that Harcourt Fuller and Jada Benn Torres (2018) did a genetic (DNA) case study using samples from members of this community. The results were published in the February 2018 Canadian journal of Latin American and Caribbean studies entitled Investigating the “Taíno” ancestry of the Jamaican Maroons: A new genetic (DNA), historical, and multidisciplinary analysis and case study of the Accompong Town Maroons. The article is available online and can be downloaded.
Among the findings was “the dominance of African ancestry within the Accompong Town Maroon community, though ancestry beyond Africa was also apparent. Based upon the data from 13 autosomal loci, the average admixture estimate indicates that, while Accompong Town Maroon ancestry principally derives from Africa, both European and East Asian populations provided some genetic influx to the community…
“The admixture estimates from European and East Asian populations were 13 per cent and nine per cent, respectively, and were derived using the gene identity approach… The East Asian admixture among the Accompong sample, however, is higher than the six per cent East Asian admixture observed in the general population… This is especially notable considering that the sample size in the study, based on the general populace, was over four times as large as the sample size from Accompong – 111 versus 26 participants, respectively. The East Asian ancestry among the Accompong Town Maroon sample may reflect the post-Emancipation influx of East Asian peoples into Jamaica and, by extension, into this Maroon community… However, given that indigenous ancestry was found along the maternal genetic lineages and that there is an East Asian origin of indigenous American populations, it is plausible that what is termed East Asian ancestry may also include partial ancestry from indigenous American peoples.”
The study concludes with the following: “The findings of this study reinforce the notion that some [not all] Accompong Town Maroon genetic ancestry extends beyond Africa, to include European, East Asian, and indigenous American ancestors…”
Dudley C McLean II
Mandeville, Manchester
dm15094@gmail.com
