Positioning Grandy Nanny as a Proponent of Black Power

Positioning Grandy Nanny as a Proponent of Black Power

By Chantel DaCosta

Black Power, according to Theodore G. Vincent, operates on a continuum. This continuum has at its centre the integrationists’ and at the polar extremes: accommodationists and separatists (Vincent 2006: 37)[1]. Members of what Vincent identified as separatist can be more accurately understood to be Pro-Autonomists. Within this group is the idea that white enforced segregation is unacceptable, yet they strive to build a society of their own, an independent Black Power to match the white power that seeks to oppress them. In order to maintain their independence, this Black Power sect will combat white brutality with violence. The person known in Jamaican traditional histories as Grandy Nanny, Queen Mother Nanny or Nanny of the Maroons was one of the earliest proponents of Pro-Autonomist Black Power in Jamaica.

Nanny is the most prominent female character in Jamaican resistance to British enslavement and imperialism. The Jamaican Government has bestowed upon Nanny, the most senior order in the country’s National Honours and Awards, the Order of National Hero. Despite this great tribute, little mention of Nanny is in the British colonial documents/records of the period. Her exclusion from written record has led scholars and historians to be skeptical of her existence. Yet this exclusion of Africans from the colonial records is not unique to the person of Nanny or even to the Maroons of Jamaica. It is part of the white imperialist and racist notions that characterized colonialism. It was held that persons of African descent, enslaved or free, were not even people, let alone, agents of history. As a result elemental persons in the building of a Jamaican cultural identity, such as Nanny, appear to be conjured up from the minds of Maroons rather than an eighteenth century military strategists and proponent of Black Power.    In the structuring of post-independence national histories, countries like Jamaica, there is a need to re-excavate and re-examine the written ‘primary sources’ and absorb the oral traditions that record history (through music, song, dance, poetry, storytelling and drama).

It is in the history of oral traditions that Nanny is recorded as a Maroon Spiritual Leader and Military Strategist as well as a main actor in the First Maroon War (1731-1739). Her stance against white power was underscored by the fact that she was purportedly the only Maroon leader that did not sign the 1739 Treaty that ended the First Maroon War. Nanny was part of the tradition of African Queen Mothers who possessed spiritual and military powers.  Therefore, in revisiting this Jamaican national history it will be argued that Nanny as a Maroon leader fiercely advanced an anti-imperialist movement against British colonists in an attempt to liberate the enslaved Black people in Jamaica. By extension, Nanny’s movement is Black Nationalistic in the sense that solidarity is based on race and not political status (enslaved or free). The construction of Nanny Town was one of the earliest Black independent communities’ which illustrated Nanny’s commitment to Pro-Autonomist Black Power. This research is also central in presenting the role of women in the early liberation movement.  

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[1] Theodore G. Vincent, 2006. Black Power and the Garvey Movement. Black Classic Press. Baltimore MD., USA. First Published 1970.