Queen Nanny of the Maroons, the only woman among Jamaica’s seven national heroes, had opposed the signing of the centuries-old British treaties agreeing to take down slave rebellions and return runaway slaves to oppressive conditions on sugar plantations.

Known among Maroons as “Queen NaaNii, the Yaa Ashantewaa of Jamaica”, the national heroine was largely assumed to have supported the two treaties signed in 1738 and 1739, in exchange for peace with the colonial forces whom they had fiercely resisted for decades.

But in the wake of an apology by Nanny’s current successor, Paramount Chieftainess Gaamang Gloria “Mama G” Simms, for the Maroons’ role in defeating slave uprisings, many Jamaicans on social media argued she should not have been named a national hero.

Among the more scathing comments was that posted by an individual using the handle ‘darmic3’ who said: “Chief Takyi (Tacky as I’ve known it), Apongo, Three Finger Jack Mansong, and other freedom fighters are not national heroes, but the sell-out Maroon called Nanny is.

“The Maroons should’ve long ago been shamed, instead of being allowed to feel ‘sovereign’ in their ‘gift’ of Accompong, and celebrate their traitorous collusions with the slavers, every January 6… It’s strange how in Jamaica we honour a sell-out as a national hero…”

The most painful of the rebellions put down by the British with the key support of the Maroons were led by Sam Sharpe of St James in 1831; Chief Takyi of St Mary in 1760, whose war is said to have inspired the Haitian Revolution that gave the world its first black republic; and, after slavery, Baptist Deacon Paul Bogle of St Thomas in 1865.

Messrs Sharpe and Bogle were captured by Maroons. Both men were hanged but subsequently made national heroes for their exploits which contributed to Jamaica eventually becoming independent in 1962.

However, according to Maroon history, as related by Queen Gloria, Nanny did not agree with the terms of the treaty and made efforts to dissuade other Maroon leaders in both the Windward and Leeward villages from signing it.

Gaamang Simms’ account seems to have been corroborated by other Maroon researchers, including Professor Harcourt Fuller, himself a Maroon descendant and one of the foremost researchers on African history.

Said Simms: “Nanny and some of her braves walked from Portland to St James to see Kojo at Kojo’s Town to tell him not to sign, as we Maroons were winning the resistance and that was why the British wanted to sign the peace treaty with us.

“She wanted to tell them that they should continue to fight and free up the enslaved still on the island. They travelled for a long time from the East (Windward) to the West (Leeward) of the island. When she finally arrived at Kojo Town, he had already signed the Leeward Treaty on March 1, 1738.

“Feeling disappointed and downhearted, Nanny set out through the mountains back to Portland. It took her months to reach and when she finally reached the East, Captain Quaco had signed the Windward Maroon Treaty on June 23, 1739.

“So she was in-between the signing of the two treaties. Give thanks, no she did not sign. It was her Captain Quaco who signed, but she did get a land grant,” Queen Gloria said, adding that Nanny “is a historical legendary powerful source in our everyday lives.”

“She operates through her mediums, communicating with her spirit. And the same way how, within Christianity, the ‘Holy Ghost’ is the source of power to give strength, it is the same role that NaaNii plays traditionally.

“In Christianity the Holy Ghost is not seen, but is felt, in a way that all who experiences it do not see it as myth. It is the same way we, the children of Yenkunkun Pikibo, know that NaaNii is far from being a myth.

“Today, many African women here in Jamaica and the Western Hemisphere embrace Nanny as the Great Mother, and the Windward Maroons of Moore Town, Charles Town and Scott’s Hall — these three towns of which Nanny was the general — continue to live this story as the children of NaaNii.”

Nanny was made a national hero in 1975 under the then Michael Manley Government and her image is on Jamaica’s $500 note, which is popularly referred to as “a Nanny”.

Dr Fuller has undertaken international research, funded by a research initiation grant from Georgia State University, on the Maroons in Ghana where Nanny was born.

An excerpt from his work on Queen Nanny, legendary Maroon Chieftainess, states: “She was a queen, captured in her homeland of the Gold Coast/Ghana. As a slave she was forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean in the belly of a slave ship. In the New World she would eventually rise up to become the leader of a new nation.

“However, not many people outside of Jamaica know of the legendary ‘Nanny’, warrior chieftainess of the Jamaican Maroons, one of the most celebrated, but least recognised figures in the resistance history of the New World.”

But Professor Fuller noted that an exhibition at the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in the French city of Nantes celebrates Queen Nanny of the Maroons as one of “Ten Powerful Women” in its 2013 ‘Portraits of Women Fighting against Colonial Slavery’.

Queen Gloria, who was installed or enstooled in 2014 as Gaamang — a step above chief — by the Surinamese Maroons in Charles Town Maroon Village, under Colonel Frank Lumsden, made her apology for Maroon wrongs on April 15, 2022.

“We regret the hurt and sufferings caused from such actions. We take total responsibility on behalf of our ancestors. “…We realise that we cannot undo the past, but we can remedy the situation through reconciliatory actions, that will repair the damage and rebuild trust, so that these behaviours will not be repeated,” she told the Jamaica Observer last month.