Port Antonio Jamaica Part 2

Left:  Star apple.  Right: Jackfruit

Monday 27 January began with a selection of the tropical fruits Nicky had purchased at the fruit and veg stalls the previous day, on our return from the Blue Mountains.  We’d not eaten either star-apple or jack fruit before so this was very much a new experience.  The former is very soft and squidgy, with quite a subtle flavour, the latter more like pineapple in texture but less sweet and juicy. 

We had decided to use our final day with the hire car to drive up to Moore Town, towards the eastern end of the Blue Mountains National Park, and had asked Jared if he wished to join us.  It was about a half hour drive on, mostly better roads than we had driven over the weekend, so we arrived rather sooner than we had expected.

The Maroons are descendants of slaves who escaped the plantations and disappeared into the relative safety of the John Crow and Blue Mountains.  By 1739, after about 80 years of warfare with the British (the First Maroon War), they controlled a sizeable portion of eastern Jamaica.  One of their leaders Cudjoe, signed a peace treaty recognising the independence of Cudjoe’s Town (now Trelawny Town) and Accompong, and allowing them numerous benefits, including tax-free lands throughout the island, which are still home to succeeding generations.

Nanny Bump (allegedly the location of Nanny’s grave), with its monument to Nanny of the Maroons

Moore Town was founded by Nanny, another of the Maroon Leaders and sister to Cudjoe.  She refused to sign the 1740 Peace Treaty but acquiesced in the truce that followed.  Nanny’s people split into 2 groups, one following another of her brothers, the remainder staying with her and relocating to New Nanny Town (now Moore Town).  By 1760, Nanny’s successors had lost control of Moore Town to the white superintendents, who were supposed to be diplomats, acting as liaison between the Maroons and the British authorities, and who commanded Maroon warriors in fighting other Maroon revolts.  In 1850 the British authorities abolished the role of the superintendents and the Maroon Towns were once again fully controlled by the Maroons.  Since Jamaica’s independence, the government has recognised the sovereignty of the Maroons and their right to self-government in local affairs.  Moore Town’s head of state is called the Colonel and the community is governed by him/her assisted by a 24-strong Maroon Council.

Monument to Colonel Harris the previous Colonel.
He was well-loved, well-respected and
an effective colonel of Moore Town

The system for electing the Colonel is unique in that an individual does not pursue the position; instead, they are approached by their public and elected through acclamation.  The current Colonel of Moore Town is Wallace Sterling, elected to the position in 1995.  Before him Colonel Harris served for the period 1964-1995. Colonel Harris was a well-respected figure, a teacher and a member of the Jamaican Senate.  So influential was he that he was buried on Nanny Bump, close to the alleged grave of the National Hero.  Which is rather appropriate, given that Colonel Harris was instrumental in the campaign to have her added to the register of National Heroes.

Jared, on Nanny Bump, next to the monument to Colonel Harris, surveying the sports pitch which the villagers of Moore Town are in the process of levelling

We were fortunate enough to meet Wallace Sterling, current leader of the Moore Town Maroons, during our visit.  He was clearly busy, on his way out to his fields, and his phones rang several times whilst we spoke with him.  We asked about Moore Town and his post and he explained that his main role was to try to ensure improvements for the people in the town.  His prime concern at the time was water.  He explained that the whilst all homes now have electricity, not all homes had running water.  He was working to have a new cistern built further up the hill which would provide an appropriate head of pressure and sufficient volume to enable this.  Amongst, his other ongoing, lower-level projects, was one to level the town’s playing field (previously on a crazy slope) to make it more suitable for its intended use.

Moore Town Primary and Junior High Schoo

Terrible out of focus picture of Nicky and
Jared with the current Colonel of
Moore Town, Wallace Sterling

He talked about schooling: after the age of about 12 the children go to schools in Port Antonio and Bluff Bay, but the town now has a Basic School (early years school) to feed the Primary and Junior High.  One thing that came out from our conversations with Colonel Sterling and, later, with Theodore Wallace who took us to Nanny Falls, was that the Maroons do not pay tax, either to the State government or to the town.  Nicky wondered where the money for projects comes from and this, it seems, is the main source of the Colonel’s work – fundraising.  There is a Jamaican Government fund for the Maroon Towns to which the Maroon leaders can apply for funding.  Similarly there are international programmes, including UN programmes, to which they can apply for funds.  It seemed rather as if the townspeople were entirely dependent on handouts to maintain their life in the town, with land for housing and agriculture being free and the only people allowed to live in the town being Maroons, but then it was also not clear to us how much work for monetary recompense there is in the area.

However, one person who definitely does work for monetary recompense is Theodore Wallace, who acts as a local guide (for a fee which, apparently goes to the community fund).  He also runs a farm.  He showed us around Nanny Bump and gave us a brief overview of her and Colonel Harris and then took us up to Nanny Falls, a popular waterfall close to the town.  Another of Colonel Sterling’s projects is to improve the access to Nanny Falls and he has a further project to build a walking trail in the hills around the town.  Both, doubtless, spurred by an increase in tourist numbers to see the town and to enjoy the surrounding mountain scenery.

We had a delightful short stroll through the forest, talking about the various trees and other plants we saw en route.  We saw akee, pears, breadfruit and jackfruit and also found a ripe nutmeg, complete with bright red mace.  The stony track ended at a locked gate blocking the entrance to the path onwards to the Falls.  But the padlock on the chain securing the gate had seized (most likely a year ago or more) so Theodore pushed on one of the gate posts to open up a hole large enough for us to scramble through.  Task one on the jobs list for one of Colonel Sterling’s minions:  buy a hacksaw, a new padlock and some WD40.

Nanny Falls

The Falls are delightful and, had we thought harder before setting off, we’d have packed swimsuits and towels.  But we hadn’t, so we hadn’t, so we just paddled instead.

The grounds of Likkle Porti

Theodore talked about a traditional Jamaican dish – run-down – essentially a stew based on coconut milk and took us to a local shack where they serve it.  But it was closed.  So we bade him good-bye and headed back to the coast.  With several hours still to run on the hire car, we decided to head out to Likkle Porti, a restaurant recommended by Birgid and Richard to Karl and Conner and by the latter 2 to us.

The kitchen at Likkle Porti

It’s a lovely place, right on the coast but with a fresh water river running through the grounds to the sea.  We arrived shortly after the restaurant had opened for the day and the smell of the kitchen’s wood fire was enough to get us salivating!

Left: Lunch – Fried fish, festival (a sort of fried dough in a sausage shape), fried yam, some salad and a local beer.  Right: the fresh nutmeg we found on the trail up to Nanny Falls.  The bright red is mace and the nutmeg is inside the brown nut

We had a delicious lunch, albeit with lots of fried foodstuffs, partly because we had been recommended by Conner to ask to try festival – a sort of fried dough. 

Views around the area at Likkle Porti

And then we enjoyed the surroundings for a while before, reluctantly, heading back to Port Antonio.  We made good use of the final couple of hours of our hire car by doing a beer run to one of the supermarkets before returning to BV for a well-earned quiet evening after a busy few days.

Port Antonio, Jamaica