(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Imagine no palenques. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion, too. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-22 Cimarrones y Palenques en el Siglo XVII María Cristina Navarrete Introducción Palenques, cumbes, quilombos son términos que sin tener explícito el conceoto de libertad están íntimamente relacionados con ella. Fueron una de las formas más importantes de resistencia activa en contra de la esclavitud. Es posible afirmar que las primeras reacciones de los esclavos contra su estado de sometimiento en el Nuevo Mundo fueran tan tempranas como los viajes iniciales de exploración y colonización. Los palenques y cumbes en los reinos españoles de América y los Quilombos en Brasil eran reductos de cimarrones, vale decir, de esclavos fugitivos que huían de las haciendas, las minas y las poblaciones, para constituir poblados en donde llavaban una vida quasi independiente. Fueron motivo de preocupación desde el comienzo de la vida colonial; los españoles de la época se expresaban con consternación frente a este problema. Es estas comunidades se desarrollaron tradiciones sincréticas que fusionaron elementos africanos, euroamericanos e indígenas, predominando una sobre otras, de acuerdo con la época y el tipo de conglomerado que se constituía. Sostuvieron constantes guerras y resistieron asedios de las autoridades a través de milicias organizadas para devastarlas. Cuando las comunidades cimarrones se hicieron muy peligrosas y difíciles de destruir, las sociedades colonials no tuvieron más remedio que negociar treguas y tratados de paz con ellas. Sin embargo, la formación de palenques continuó siendo una problema permanente pata los autoridades, a lo largo del siglo XVII. snip---— * Según Richard Price, el término cimarrón, tal como se usó en el Nuevo Mundo, se refirió originalmente al ganado domésticas que se escapaba a las montañas, después se aplicó a los esclavos indios que huían de los españoles, posteriomente, hasta 1530, se empezó a utilizar con los esclavos negros fugitives. Richard Price, Sociedades Cimarrones. México: Siglo XXI Editores. 1981. p. 12. Cimarrones and Palenques in the 17th Century María Cristina Navarrete Introduction Palenques, cumbes, quilombos are terms that, without having an explicit concept of freedom, are intimately related to it. They were one of the most important forms of active resistance against slavery. It is possible to affirm that the first reactions of the slaves against their state of subjugation in the New World were as early as the initial voyages of exploration and colonization. The palenques and cumbes in the Spanish kingdoms of America and the Quilombos in Brazil were strongholds of cimarrones, that is, fugitive slaves who fled from the haciendas, mines and towns to form villages where they led a quasi-independent life. They were a cause for concern from the beginning of colonial life; the Spaniards of the time expressed their dismay at this problem. In these communities, syncretic traditions developed, fusing African, Euro-American and indigenous elements, with one predominating over the other, according to the time and the type of conglomerate that was formed. They maintained constant wars and resisted sieges by the authorities through militias organized to devastate them. When the cimarrón communities became very dangerous and difficult to destroy, the colonial societies had no choice but to negotiate truces and peace treaties with them. However, the formation of palenques remained a permanent problem for the authorities throughout the 17th century. snip------ * According to Richard Price, the term cimarrón, as it was used in the New World, originally referred to domestic cattle escaping to the mountains, later it was applied to Indian slaves fleeing from the Spanish, and then, by 1530, it began to be used for fugitive black slaves. Richard Price, Cimarrón Societies. Mexico: Siglo XXI Editores. 1981. p. 12. Maroons In The Americas: Heroic Pasts, Ambiguous Presents, Uncertain Futures April 6, 2010 Author: Richard Price Maroons -- descendants of escaped slaves -- still form distinct peoples ( sometimes, "states within a state" ) in several parts of the western hemisphere. Their situations as minorities within nation-states varies but is everywhere severely threatened -- by multinational logging and mining operations and by other assaults on their territories and cultural identities. This special issue brings together international specialists writing about the situation of Maroons in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Jamaica, and Suriname -- their legal battles, their collective demands, their political and economic struggles, and their hopes for the future. The English word "Maroon" derives from the Spanish cimarrón -- itself based on an Arawakan (Taino) Indian root. Cimarrón originally referred to domestic cattle that had taken to the hills in Hispaniola, and soon after, to American Indian slaves who had escaped from the Spaniards on that Caribbean island. By the end of the 1530s, the word was being used primarily to refer to Afro-American runaways and already had strong connotations of "fierceness" -- of being "wild" and "unbroken." Historically, communities formed by Maroons dotted the fringes of plantation America from Brazil to Florida, from Texas to Peru. Usually called palenques in the Spanish colonies and mocambos or quilombos in Brazil, they ranged from tiny bands that survived less than a year to powerful states encompassing thousands of members and enduring for generations or even centuries. snip----------— (more at link) https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/maroons-americas-heroic-pasts-ambiguous-presents-uncertain Maroons and their Communities in the Americas 1. Today, Maroons – self-liberated slaves and their descendants – still form semi-independent communities in several parts of the Americas, for example, in Suriname, French Guiana, Jamaica, Belize, Colombia, and Brazil. As the most isolated of Afro-Americans, they have since the 1920s been an important focus of scientific research, contributing to theoretical debates about slave resistance, the heritage of Africa in the Americas, the process of creolization, and the nature of historical knowledge among nonliterate peoples [1]. 2. Communities formed by Maroons dotted the fringes of plantation America, from Brazil to Florida, from Peru to Texas. The English word “Maroon”, like the French marron derives from Spanish cimarrón, itself based on an Arawakan [Taino] Indian root2. Cimarrón originally referred to domestic cattle that had taken to the hills in Hispaniola, and soon after it was applied to American Indian slaves who had escaped from the Spaniards. By the end of the 1530s, the word was being used primarily to refer to Afro-American runaways and had strong connotations of “fierceness”, of being “wild” and “unbroken” [3]. Marronage: a transatlantic history 3. Maroon communities, called palenques in the Spanish colonies and mocambos or quilombos in Brazil, ranged from tiny bands that survived less than a year to powerful states encompassing thousands of members that lasted for generations or in some cases centuries. Maroons and their communities can be seen to hold a special significance for the study of Afro-American societies. While they were, from one perspective, the antithesis of all that slavery stood for, they were also a widespread and embarrassingly visible part of these systems. Just as the very nature of plantation slavery implied violence and resistance, the wilderness setting of early New World plantations made marronage and the existence of organized Maroon communities a ubiquitous reality. 4. Marronage was also a response to enslavement in Africa in the wake of the internecine wars fostered by the Atlantic slave trade4. Fugitives from the chaos and violence that dominated much of West Central Africa, including runaways from slave coffles during the seventeenth- and eighteenth- century expansion of the trade, frequently founded Maroon settlements in marginal areas. Some had populations of several hundreds, lived by raiding more settled groups, or even fought against their former masters. But all remained sufficiently caught up in the political ebb and flow of the era that they did not maintain separate Maroon identities for more than a generation or two. During the eighteenth century, fugitives from the trade along the Upper Guinea coast also formed Maroon communities, sometimes on islands just offshore, but mass recapture after months or years was the norm. snip------— (More at link) www.politika.io/... The Rights of Maroons In International Human Rights Law April 28, 2010 Author: Fergus MacKay The vast majority of American states have ratified international human rights treaties that obligate them to respect the rights of individuals and certain groups. Some have also ratified International Labor Organization Convention No. 169 (ILO 169), which deals exclusively with the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples. The rights of Maroon individuals and collectivities are also protected under these instruments. This article provides an overview of the nature and content of those rights, with an emphasis on collective rights. Prior to turning to the substance of Maroon rights, I should point out that states have an obligation to give effect to ratified human rights treaties in their domestic law, as without these measures international guarantees for the most part cannot be enforced or enjoyed by the intended beneficiaries. By virtue of both general principles of international law and specific provisions found in human rights treaties,(1) states are obligated, first, to give effect without discrimination to human rights in their domestic law by constitutional amendment, adopting new legislation and/or modifying existing legislation; and second, to ensure that effective remedies are in place permitting rights to be enforced in domestic courts and other tribunals. While the underlying rationale for protecting the collective rights of Maroons -- the right to cultural integrity, the right to self-determination, the right to equality before the law and freedom from discrimination -- holds true in all cases, the manner in which Maroons are classified under international law -- as minorities, as tribal peoples, or as some other entity -- is important. Without engaging in a (contentious) discussion of how to classify Maroons, I will simply state that under international definitions, imperfect as they are, Maroons can be described as both "minorities" and as "tribal peoples," the latter being most relevant in terms of collective rights.(2) And while they are not indigenous peoples, Maroons enjoy largely the same rights as indigenous peoples under international law -- the main distinction being that Maroons cannot claim aboriginality and the rights that attach to that status. For this reason, but also due to a lack of international jurisprudence on Maroon rights, I will make frequent reference here to indigenous peoples' rights Maroon Rights Under International Instruments Minority rights are encapsulated in Article 27 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides that "[in] those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of the group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language." These rights are held by individuals but exercised "in community with other members of the group," thereby providing some measure of collectivity. Similar language is found in Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; the points made here are therefore also relevant to the rights of Maroon children, and by implication, the larger community, under that instrument. The UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) has interpreted Article 27 to include the "rights of persons, in community with others, to engage in economic and social activities which are part of the culture of the community to which they belong." In reaching this conclusion, the HRC recognized that indigenous peoples' subsistence and other traditional economic activities are an integral part of their culture, and that interference with those activities can be detrimental to their cultural integrity and survival. By implication, the land, resource base, and the surrounding environment also require protection if subsistence activities are to be safeguarded. snip-------- Maroons can also be classified as tribal peoples. Tribal peoples enjoy essentially the same rights as indigenous peoples under international law. ILO 169 defines tribal peoples as "peoples in independent countries whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations." The IACHR used the same language when describing non-indigenous "tribal peoples" in Article 1 of its proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, thereby according Maroons the same rights as indigenous peoples under that instrument. This proposed declaration is presently under review by a working group of the OAS Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs prior to submission to the OAS General Assembly for adoption at some point in the future. Together with its predecessor ILO No. 107, ILO 169 is the only binding international treaty to deal exclusively with indigenous and tribal peoples' rights. It is based on the principle that indigenous and tribal peoples should "enjoy as much control as possible over their own economic, social and cultural development." It recognizes that indigenous and tribal peoples "have the right to decide their own priorities for the process of development as it affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual wellbeing and the lands they occupy or otherwise use, and to exercise control, to the extent possible, over their own economic, social and cultural development." It also contains six articles on indigenous and tribal land and resource rights, basing these rights on traditional occupation and use of land and resources rather than on grants from the state, and a number of provisions relating to consultation and participation in decision-making. To date, of the states in which Maroons live, only Ecuador and Colombia have ratified ILO 169. In both countries, ILO 169 provided the basis for constitutional and legislative changes recognizing some of the rights of Maroons in domestic law.(10) Brazil is in the process of ratification, and Maroons in Suriname are lobbying the state (with little response) to ratify it. snip------ (more at link) https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/rights-maroons-international-human-rights-law Cultural Survival: “Our Cultures, Our Rights” LA TIERRA PROMETIDA, CARLOS VIVES, CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, COLOMBIA, TURISMO [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/22/2154472/-Imagine-no-palenques-It-isn-t-hard-to-do-Nothing-to-kill-or-die-for-And-no-religion-too Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/