MORE than one year after he moved a motion in Parliament for African Chief Takyi (Tacky as it is spelt by the English) to be named a national hero, Member of Parliament for St Mary Western Robert Montague is set to put the matter back on the agenda of the House.

Montague is slated to make his contribution to the 2024/25 State of Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday and he has signalled that the issue of hero status for Chief Takyi will be raised.

“I will be lobbying for Chief Takyi to be recognised as a national hero when I speak in Parliament on October 29,” declared Montague during a National Heroes’ Day celebration last Monday at St Mary Anglican Church hall.

In his motion, filed in May 2023, Montague called for a broad-based commission to be established to examine the records and facts against the established standards for awarding national hero status and make a recommendation whether Chief Takyi should be awarded and declared and added to the current list of seven.

Chief Takyi led one of the largest military revolts of the 18th-century British Empire and Montague is adamant that he should be conferred a national hero in Jamaica.

The uprising, which took place on Easter Monday, April 7, 1760, and which has come to be called the ‘Takyi War’, or the ‘1760 Easter Rebellion’, started in St Mary with the aim of freeing all enslaved people in Jamaica and establishing a black-led government that would govern the country in their interest.

Montague… the spirit of the ideals of Chief Takyi of freedom, equity, self-determination, and development can be seen in the self-reliance movement of National Hero Marcus Garvey.

In his motion Montague sought to justify his call as he argued that the Takyi revolt influenced a series of uprisings in a number of parishes including Westmoreland, Hanover, St James, St Ann, St Elizabeth, Portland, St Catherine, and Clarendon, ultimately leading to the involvement of more than 1,000 enslaved people fighting for their freedom over 18 months.

Montague further argued in his motion that, “Chief Takyi’s war posed the greatest threat to British dominance in the region and inspired enslaved Africans to dream of a new day, when they could be masters of their own destiny, thus laying the foundation of the abolishment of the trade in enslaved Africans and the ultimate abolishment of slavery, in Jamaica.”

He contended that the Chief Takyi war influenced the Morant Bay Rebellion while Chief Takyi’s spirit of the ideals of freedom, equity, self-determination and development can be seen in the self-reliance movement of National Hero Marcus Garvey, and the self-government and independence movements of national heroes Sir Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley.

According to Montague, “The fight for national recognition of the work and worth of Chief Takyi to national development has been led by Derrick ‘Black X’ Robinson of St Mary, in his many walks across Jamaica, forcing a greater examination of the contribution to nation building by this great enslaved African Chief, who mobilised a diverse band of enslaved Africans from across Jamaica to challenge the greatest army and navy of the time to ensure freedom, pride, self-determination and black governance of the resources of the richest colony that was built out of the blood, sweat, tears, cruelty and humiliation of the enslaved.”

He acknowledged that Black X’s walks have resulted in the St Mary Parish Awards being renamed the Chief Takyi Awards, Rectory Street being renamed Chief Takyi Street, the governor general proclaiming the eighth day of April as National Chief Takyi Day with many people now recognising the value, impact and worth of Chief Takyi’s sacrifice, work, ideals and principles.

Chief Takyi who led the Caribbean’s first slave uprising in St Mary, Jamaica.