"Queen-Nanny" (?-1733)

Known as Granny Nanny,Grandy Nanny,and Queen Nanny was a Maroon

leader and Obeah woman in Jamaica during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.Maroons were a cultural  mix of Africa slaves and the native Arawak Indian tribes that predated European colonization.Nanny herself was an escaped slave who had been shipped from Western Africa.It has been widely accepted that she came from the Ashanti tribe of the present-day Ghana.


Nanny and her four brothers (all of whom became Maroon leaders) were sold into slavery and later escaped from their plantations into the mountains and jungles that still make up a large proportion of  Jamaica.Nanny and one brother Quao,founded a village in the Blue Mountains,on the Eastern (or Windward) side of  Jamaica,which became known as Nanny Town.Nanny has been described as a practitioner of Obeah,a term in the Caribbean to describe folk magic and religion based on West Africa influences.


Nanny Town,placed as it was in the mountains away from European settlements and difficult to assault,thrived.Nanny limited her attacks on plantations and European and preferred instead to farm and trade peacefully with her neighbours.She did however make numerous and successful raids to free slaves and held on plantations and it has been widely accepted that her efforts contributed to escape of almost 1,000 slaves over lifetime.


While Nanny lived,Nanny town and the Windward Maroons thrived and multiplied.The British colonial administration became embarrassed and threatened by the successes of the Maroons.Plantation owners who were losing slaves and having equipment and crops burned by Maroons demanded that colonial authorities act.Hunting parties,made up of British regular army soldiers,militiamen,and mercenaries (many from the free black community),scoured the Jamaica jungles.


William Cuffee known known as Captain Sambo,is credited as having killed in Nanny in 1733 during one of many and bloody engagements of the war.The war itself lasted from 1720 until a truce was declared in 1739;Cudjoe,a leader during  a leader during the the Maroon War,was the driving force behind the treaty.After Nanny's death,mony of the Windward Maroons moved across the island to the more sparsely inhabited Western (or Leeward) side of  Jamaica.


Nanny's life and accomplishments have been recognised by the Government of Jamaica and she has been honoured as a National Hero and awarded the title of "Right Exellent".Currently,there are only seven such National Heroes and Nanny  is conspicuous as the only woman.A modern portrait of Nanny,based on her description,appears on the Jamaica $500 note,the largest banknote in circulation in Jamaica.