Moors and Maroons

Mrs Faux Pas' gem of the morning came at breakfast today. "This tour has been such a breeze, unlike other tours. All the signs here are in American."

Had breakfast 'off property' (as they put it) again today, and then left straight for our day's activities. It's our last move and our last hotel, so we moved from Kingston on the south coast to Ocho Rios on the north coast. Ocho Rios means 'eight rivers'. "You mean that there are eight rivers here in the one town. Wow! That's amazing. At home, we have three rivers in the whole state, and we think that's pretty special", came a familiar voice. Today it was 'Rod Stewart Sings Reggae' that graced our jaded eardrums in the bus, and it was 10:20 before 'Buffalo Soldier' made its first of many appearances.

To get from the south coast to the north coast we had to cross the mountain range that runs down the spine of Jamaica, and on the way we visited the Maroon Cultural Village in Charles Town, which is nestled well in to the mountains where the original Maroon inhabitants could largely remain undetected from both the ruling Spanish and English

Your last history lesson. About 711 AD, the muslim inhabitants of Northern Africa, known as Moors, successfully invaded the Iberian (Spanish) Peninsula. At their peak they controlled Spain, Portugal, Sicily and southern Italy, being the dominant power in the region for some 750 years. The Moors were a very advanced civilisation. While Christian Europe was largely illiterate, they had universal education, seventeen universities, and the most extensive libraries in the world. The Moors introduced paper to Europe, Arabic numerals which replaced the clumsy Roman system, and many new crops including the orange, lemon, peach, apricot, fig, sugar cane, dates, ginger and pomegranate as well as saffron, sugar cane, cotton, silk and rice which remain some of Spain's main products today. Their capital was in Granada, at the southern tip of Spain.

Differences in religion and culture led to a centuries-long conflict with the Christian kingdoms of Europe. In 1469 the marriage of two ambitious catholic rulers, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, united their two great kingdoms, and for the first time there came to be a power known as Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella set out to spread catholicism to the new world, commissioning Christopher Columbus in 1492 which resulted in the discovery of America, and conquering most of Mexico, central and southern America over the next 30 years, forcing all conquered countries to adopt catholicism. Their influence was extraordinary, and their conquests still shape much of today's world.

They expelled most muslims, who were mainly Moors, out of christian Europe and back into Africa, culminating in the final fall of Granada in 1492. However, many of them were enslaved to work in the fields of Spanish conquered lands like Cuba and Jamaica. With the signing of the Treaty of Madrid in 1670, Spain finally gave Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to the UK. After the official British occupation of the island, the Spanish colonists fled after freeing their slaves, and just leaving them behind. These slaves, who were scattered throughout the mountains, joined with slaves who had previously escaped from the Spanish, and together they came to be known as Maroons.

So, in summary, the Maroons were black African muslims who escaped from slavery and basically hid in the hills and lived in secret communities, harassing the authorities. It was their descendants we visited today. Their communities are still intact, though they now live freely in the surrounding villages. One Love, Man!

Today, the future of the Jamaican Maroon communities and their residents is somewhat in question. Job shortages have caused many Maroons to leave their home towns and search for employment elsewhere. In addition, bauxite mining threatens their traditional land.

We had some of their history explained to us, we visited their museum, and to no one's surprise had a performance of their drumming and dancing which we had to join in with. Strangely they weren't the least bit interested in seeing us perform Y.M.C.A. which we'd perfected at karaoke last night.

A typical vegetarian lunch followed, which was lovely, and then they took us all down to the river for a swim or paddle depending on your want.

Back in the bus, and we headed off to Ocho Rios. This is tourist capital of Jamaica. For example, the Sandals chain seems to have at least two all-inclusive resorts, two couples only resorts ('come as a couple, go home as a family'), and one couples nude resort. However, we are slumming it in a rather nice but older hotel right in the middle of the downtown area, with our own beach and pool, and joy of joys wi-fi in your room (no more slapping mosquitos while uploading blogs in the dark outside reception).

Had a lovely dinner by ourselves in an Indian restaurant overlooking the twinkling lights in the hills.