Kidnapped and shipped from the Ashanti Kingdom (present day Ghana), Nanny has shined by her resistance to slavery in the 18th century, based on the African traditional values. Sentenced to forced labour with her four brothers, she escaped with them from the plantations to settle in the mountains, taking other men, women and children along. She founded there an autonomous and free community, the Maroons and built up a locality, Nanny Town of which she became the Chief.
As in Brazil with Zumbi and Haiti with Bookman Duty Zamba, the resistance movement of Nanny stood on the African Spirituality. By virtue of the matriarchal system of the continent, she was the leader of her community and the chief priestess of Obeah, the local spiritual movement. Having sworn an oath to Nanny, empowered by the vital energy of Onyankopong (Creator in Twi, ashanti language) and protected by the mountainous relief, the Maroons set an efficient Army that led raids in the plantations in order to free the enslaved.
They camouflaged themselves with tree branches and leaves to be invisible in the nature, shared informations with the help of abengs (horns) in order not to be understood by the enemy, burned down plantations. Hence, they succeeded in freeing almost 1000 enslaved Africans and spread terror among slavers.
Whilst Nanny and her soldiers during a mission were deprived from supplying and faced hunger, she invoked God for help. According to the legend, the primordial Ancestor appeared and instructed her to sow pumpkin seeds she had in her pockets. The following morning, food was there and Nanny could provide for her troops.
The slavers called on the English colonial administration to retaliate. It sent its soldiers to the Jamaican jungle. The events that followed are controversial because the assassination of Nanny was announced and it is said that the news was welcomed with joy in 1733, Nanny Town was then destroyed. Some other accounts said she survived since some acres of lands were granted to the Maroons after the war.
Through her heroic resistance, Nanny was recognized as a national hero of Jamaica in 1977. The 500 Jamaican dollars note, the most used one, bears her image. The Maroons have perpetuated the Akan tradition (of which Ashanti are part) with a matrilineal community. They consider Nanny as their great ancestor.
Source: en.lisapoyakama.org
