Queen Nanny -- Ghana

The Arawaks named the island Xaymaca, "Land of Wood and Water” Christopher Columbus landed there in 1494 and claimed the Island for Spain.  The first Spanish settlement on the island, was named Sevilla, established in 1509, and "St. Jago de la Vega", around 1534.  The indigenous Arawak and Taino people, were enslaved by the Spaniards, and the population ultimately annihilated, during this time African slaves were brought to the island as replacements.

When the British captured Jamaica in 1655 the Spanish fled after freeing their slaves, these slaves fled into the mountains, joining those who had previously escaped from the Spanish to live with the Arawaks.  

More Africans were brought to the island, many of them also escaped and during the long years of slavery, fought the British and became known as Maroons, (from the Spanish word cimarrón).  The Maroons established free communities in the mountainous interior, maintaining their freedom and independence for generations, the Maroon name is still used for their modern day descendants.

The Maroons were mainly from the Akan region of West Africa they were skilled fighters and difficult to defeat.  The Ashante tribe, from which Nanny came, lived in Portland, although slaves from other regions of West Africa joined the Maroon communities.  For over 120 years, the Maroons helped to free slaves from the plantations.

Nanny was born around 1686 in Ghana, Western Africa, into the Ashanti tribe, and was brought to Jamaica along with several relatives.  With her brothers, Accompong, Cudjoe, Johnny and Quao they escaped from their plantation into the Blue Mountains area of northern Saint Thomas Parish.  They organised more Maroon communities, Cudjoe went to Saint James, Accompong settled in the Parish of Saint Elizabeth, in a community known as Accompong Town, Nanny and Quao founded communities in the Portland Parish.

By 1720, Nanny and Quao, founded a village in the Blue Mountains, on the Eastern (or Windward) side of Jamaica, which became known as Nanny Town. A strategic location as it overlooked Stony River via a 900 foot (270 m) ridge making a surprise attack by the British practically impossible.

Maroons in Nanny Town and similar communities survived by sending traders to the nearby market towns to exchange food for weapons and cloth.  The community raised animals, hunted, and grew crops, and was organised like a typical Ashanti tribe in Africa.  At times they would also raid plantations for weapons and food, burning the plantations, and leading slaves back to their communities.

Nanny was a brilliant military strategist, a shrewd tactician and the spiritual leader of the Windward Maroons, providing the group with military and religious stability.  She unified the Maroon alliance and directed a formidable resistance against a large and technologically superior enemy.

Maroon strategies included the use of camouflage, using bush wrapped around their bodies to blend in with the environment.  In addition, Asante retentions were utilised in developing communications systems based on the cadences of drums and abengs (horns), which were unintelligible to the enemy. The adherence to their spiritual beliefs presumably involved and invoked supernatural forces, bolstered by tales of their ferocity provided an element of psychological warfare

In addition to being a brilliant military strategist and fearless leader, Nanny played an important role psychologically, by not only instilling confidence and courage in her followers but preserving loyalty by administering oaths of secrecy.  It’s likely that Nanny's leadership skills resulted from the Ashanti, known for its strong resistance to Europeans in West Africa and the Americas.  It is also known that Nanny possessed a wide knowledge of herbs and other traditional healing methods, practiced by Africans and the Arawaks.  This allowed her to serve as a physical and spiritual healer to her community, which elevated her status and esteem.

For more than 30 years, Nanny freed over 800 slaves, and helped them to resettle in the Maroon community. 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. She struck terror in the hearts of the British to the extent that news of her death was joyously received, and the mercenary slave Cuffee, was handsomely rewarded when he declared that he had killed her.  This allegation was entirely false as Nanny outlived the First Maroon War, and subsequently received 500 acres of land for her and the Maroons, in a treaty with the British.

Nanny's spirituality is evidenced by her faith in her Creator God, Nyankypon (Yankypon), and her capacity to receive messages from him has contributed to the Nanny legend.  Although Nanny has become the source of many legends, her spirit lives on as she is revered by all present day Maroons. To the eastern Maroons and Moore Town in particular, she has been a constant source of pride and a living presence for the past two centuries.  The Maroons exist as a clan and, in keeping with the Akan concept of lineage and the matrilineal society, Nanny is regarded as the primordial ancestor of present day Maroons. 

Nanny's remains are buried at "Bump Grave" in Moore Town (New Nanny Town), one of the communities established by the Windward Maroons in Portland Parish.  Nanny's Monument is also located in Moore Town. 

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University uses Nanny's portrait in its logo.  

Nanny is known as one of the earliest leaders of slave resistance in the Americas, and one of very few women.  

The government of Jamaica declared Queen Nanny a National Heroine in 1976. Her portrait graces the $500 Jamaican note, the largest banknote in circulation in Jamaica and is sometimes referred to as a "Nanny".

Nannyville Gardens, a residential community located in Kingston, Jamaica was founded in 1977.