Ancestor Quao Day Celebration 

The acknowledgement and celebration of those who have gone before is an integral part of what defines and speaks to ancestry and heritage in a present day maroon community.  As maroons there is the innate knowing that ancestors are not dead people but those members of community who lived a life of good character, passed through the door called death, to transition to the spirit realm.  

From there they continue to assist those of their lineage and the wider community.  The veneration of ancestors was and continues to be important and seen as beneficial to both the first and second groups of maroons in Yamayeka/Jamaica.   The Taínos and later the Africans who came,  who, under the pressure of enslavement, fled to the interior to establish communities, both shared a cosmology that facilitated the formation of friendships that allowed them to join forces to fight against the atrocities meted out to them.

In 2006, the Charles Town Maroon Community (CTMC) began celebrating a brilliant African maroon  military strategist known as Quao.  Their many stories told of the genius of Quao as a leader of men, his brilliance in outmanoeuvring the enemy in the  2nd Maroon War and of his dedication to the freedom of him and his people.  The date of June 23rd was chosen for the celebration as this was the date in 1739 on which the British, by signing a Peace Treaty with the Maroons, admitted their defeat and incapacity to dominate them.

Over time the Ancestor Quao Day Celebration has expanded to what is today, the Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference & Festival.  The Conference & Festival date is always navigated around June 23 with that date devoted to the celebration of Quao and all those who fought with him on and of the battlefield.  The day is celebrated as part of the history of the Charles Town Maroons and Maroons in general.  It is also a celebration of the strength, courage, other positive attributes and world view of the Taíno and African maroons. The annual celebration continues the ancestral practice, both Taíno and African, of  venerating our ancestors,  lauding their strength and fortitude and lionising their victory. 

The Ancestor Quao Day Celebration of the 12^th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference & Festival will again open in ceremonial fashion featuring Taíno, Akan and other African and indigenous influences.  The opening rituals will include ancestral practices such as the Taíno Call to the Sacred Directions, African Libations, egungun masquerade and more.   Family, friends and well wishers will join the Charles Town Maroons in paying tribute to ancestor Quao in drumming, dancing, singing, poetry and more. 

 The afternoon programme will revolve around participatory activities to expose and introduce participants to some of the ways of living of the maroons. Workshops in maroon drumming, maroon & Taíno songs and dance, spirituality of plants are a few of the opportunities that will be available for entertainment and education. Quao day will also feature a menu of ancestral foods such as bussu and crayfish soups, fish & bammy, roast yam and salt fish, rundung etc.

The day will close with Maroon drumming, dancing and singing to give thanks to the ancestors for their ongoing blessings and our many victories as we continue the struggle for a better Jamaica.