In celebration of Black History Month, the Portland State Black Studies Department is sponsoring a lecture event that examines the forerunners of civil rights. Titled “Freedom Fighters in the Americas,” the event will be from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.,Feb. 21, in the Smith Memorial Student Union, room 228.
In celebration of Black History Month, the Portland State Black Studies Department is sponsoring a lecture event that examines the forerunners of civil rights. Titled “Freedom Fighters in the Americas,” the event will be from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.,Feb. 21, in the Smith Memorial Student Union, room 228.
The event’s speaker, Black Studies Department Chair E. Kofi Agorsah, will talk about the pioneers of civil rights—groups and communities called “Maroons.” Agorsah, who has been conducting research on these groups since 1990, will examine the struggles of Africans and their descendants who fought to gain freedom from slavery.
The presentation addresses the story and the material evidence of the enslaved Africans and their descendants, who fled from the bondage of the plantations and ranches into inaccessible mountains and parts of their colonies, and openly fought a series of long wars to maintain their freedom,” Agorsah said.
Groups of Maroons banded together as far back as 1492 and struggled against colonialism and imperialism. Like those who would follow them in their struggle centuries later, they strove for independence and believed strongly in the idea of freedom.
Agorsah explained that these early freedom fighters created their own cultures and civilizations, and conducted many battles with the early European settlers and slave owners. Inspired by the Maroons’ bravery, other groups of like-minded civil rights advocates began to follow their lead and develop similar communities.
These communities developed in areas with rugged landscapes, such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and even parts of modern-day Oklahoma and Texas. From the late 1600s through the end of the Civil War 200 years later, Maroon communities existed and thrived; according to Agorsah, over 50 such settlements formed in that time.
It was in these inaccessible areas that the Maroons fought colonial slavery to a military stalemate, secured their freedom and forged new cultures, setting the pace for the wave of freedom fighting that would follow centuries later all over in the Western hemisphere,” Agorsah said. “Research to date indicates the complexity of interactions that resulted in survivals within the larger context of oppressive societies that employed plantation slavery.”
A revolutionary guerrilla lifestyle, sustainable survival strategies and position as a central figure of the post-16th century Atlantic world all factored into the level of success of Maroons and helped establish the idea that New World societies were challenged by smaller groups.
“Evidence from Americas such as Brazil, Florida, Jamaica and Suriname confirm fighting partnerships of enslaved Africans and indigenous peoples,” Agorsah said. “The evidence presented challenges the myth that all the indigenous or native people had been exterminated in many parts of the new world.”
Agorsah’s knowledge of the Maroons is due in part to his studies on the groups that hailed from Jamaica, as well as Suriname in South America. He finds it disappointing that, the Maroons are not remembered as well as they should be today, and hopes through this lecture to heighten awareness of their great accomplishments.
“Like other small-scale historical communities, they are scarcely remembered as ancestral freedom-fighters,” Agorsah said. “This neglect is compounded by the fact that much of the documentary evidence about the Maroons comes down from the very colonial people against whom they fought and whose intention it was to create divisive relationships among the enslaved.”
Agorsah explained there are other underlying concerns regarding the importance of Maroon communities, including the misrepresentation of the groups in education. “Another serious issue is the erroneous and misleading notion created by some early scholars that our educational system has ignored the great deeds of these freedom fighters that could be models for our military expertise to emulate,” Agorsah said.
While Maroon groups may have an understated importance in history, they are still making an impact on contemporary culture. Many cultural equality groups still use them as an example in their arguments for equal rights. For instance, the nonprofit organization Cultural Survival fights to end discrimination of indigenous and oppressed peoples; its magazine, the Cultural Survival Quarterly, spent an entire 2001 issue describing “modern” American Maroon groups.
Additionally, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife recognizes descendants of the original Maroon communities and works to raise awareness of what the Maroons did and their impact.
Presented by the Multicultural Center, this lecture is the seventh out of 13 events for Black History Month. The events include lectures, film viewings, festivals and brunches, with the series culminating in an Open Mic Night March 2. The next event is Feb. 22 in SMSU room 228 and will feature the Spike Lee film Malcolm X. A complete list of events can be found at the Multicultural Center’s website at pdx.edu/mcc/black-history-month.
