Protoje, Buju & Spragga Throw Support Behind Richard Currie For Accompong Maroon Chief
Protoje, Buju Banton, and Spragga Benz are among the Jamaicans waiting with bated breath, as Accompong Town Maroons in the hills of St. Elizabeth go to the polls today, to elect, possibly, a new chief to represent them for the next five years.
The three Rastafarians have thrown their full support behind apparent front-runner Richard Currie, Protoje’s friend and Munroe College schoolmate, in a political race which, from all indications, sees the University of Technology graduate on the verge of ousting current leader Colonel Ferron Williams.
Williams is vying for a third term, but it appears young and not so young Maroons have decided against returning Williams as colonel, according to Accompong News. Others in contention for the post of leader are, former colonel Meridie Rowe, Sheldon Wallace and Robert Cawley.
Several weeks ago, Protoje visited the community in his Range Rover, to show his support to Richard, escorted by a throng of bike riders from the community. Currie also posted pictures of himself and Protoje greeting each other as well as posing community members.
Unlike his stance last year about not voicing dubplates for politicians, Protoje, who grew up in St. Elizabeth, also voiced a campaign dubplate for Currie, who describes himself using lyrics from his Royalty track and Blood Money, a track which laid on criticism of corrupt politicians and businessmen in Jamaica.
Currie and his contenders have contended that the current chief is politically compromised as he had got too close to the Jamaican Government and had departed from cultural traditions, according to a Gleaner newspaper article. In the dub plate seemingly aimed at Williams’, which was used on Currie’s campaign trial and in his social media advertisements, Protoje sings in his intro:
“In life Currie a royalty
Currie seh wi meck it in life…
An a we seh Currie fi colonel”
He then belts out lyrics interpolated from Blood Money:
“Mi naw watch no face naw meck no pardin
A Currie fi colonel pon Thursday morning
Some likkle people weh yuh si dem applaudin’
Yuh can ask anybaddy weh dem get dem startin
a nuff a dem waan some altercation
Fi win election an wi nuh guh no station
Wi neva si no cell, wi nuh guh no court house
An a Thursday evening wi a vote some bwoy out”
Buju Banton, who has declared himself a Maroon descendant of freedom fighters of Moore Town in Jamaica’s east, also provided video clips endorsing Currie to be leader.
“I want to say over the years Maroons have suffered…the elders have failed so we call upon the youths…vote and vote Richie curry for Maroon Colonel,” Buju said.
On Ash Wednesday, Spragga Benz posted a copy of Currie’s manifesto on his Instagram page and urged Maroons to throw their full support behind him.
“Richard Currie the new Maroon Colonel… It is the beginning of a new day…We will it into being. #moor #mooroon #maroon sovereign bornfree rasta,” spragga wrote.
Spragga also added in a subsequent post:
“To each and every single registered voter in the #Maroon election 🔊…. do not cast away your vote for mere hand outs and false promises. Do not lose your potential to grow as a unified people. #maroons do not need hand-outs! We are a wealthy people! All we need is a leader with competence for the job! #voterichardcurrie,” Spragga said.
Among the plans outlined by Currie for Accompong, are the defence of the Cockpit country from encroachers who want to mine the area for bauxite and the creation of a smart city in the landlocked Maroon state. The young Maroon, who says he is confident of victory, said that he was committed to preserving the freedoms wrested by his Maroon ancestors in the 1738 peace treaty inked with the British more than 280 years ago.
“We have a colonel who is caught in a Jamaica Labour Party Area Four Council meeting in his green shirt. That is an embarrassment to the Maroon culture and to the Maroon sovereignty,” Curry told The Gleaner.
According to the Gleaner newspaper article, whilst Williams’ challengers, have branded the chief a failure, he has insisted that Accompong Town has undergone modernisation, with investments in housing, water, transport, roads, and Internet service and said he had no doubt that he would be elected.
Accompong Town is a landlocked expanse in Jamaica’s Cockpit Country. It is named after its founder Accompong, brother of Quao, Cuffy, Cudjoe, and Nanny, the leader and founder of Nanny Town, who were well trained soldiers from the Ashanti area of West Africa.
They had the British militia and slave masters in Jamaica their mercy in a guerilla warfare, for centuries until 1738, when, after being beaten into submission, the British soldiers yielded and made their way to the hills of Accompong where the Maroons had settled, to beg their chief Colonel Cudjoe for peace.
Hostilities were formally ended via a treaty between the two groups in 1739, signed under British Governor Edward Trelawny. It granted Cudjoe’s Maroons 1500 acres of land between their strongholds of Cudjoe’s Town (Trelawny Town) and Accompong in the Cockpits.