For more than four centuries, communities of maroons (men and women who
escaped slavery) dotted the fringes of plantation America, from Brazil
through the Caribbean to the United States. Today their descendants
still form semi-independent enclaves--in Jamaica, Brazil, Colombia,
Belize, Suriname, Guyane, and elsewhere--remaining proud of their maroon
origins and, in some cases, faithful to unique cultural traditions
forged during the earliest days of Afro-American history.
In 1986, expelled by the military regime of Suriname, anthropologists
Richard and Sally Price turned to neighboring Guyane (French Guiana),
where thousands of Maroons were taking refuge from the Suriname civil
war. Over the next fifteen years, their conversations with local people
convinced them of the need to replace the pervasive stereotypes about
Maroons in Guyane with accurate information. In 2003, Les Marrons
became a local best seller. In 2020, after a series of further visits,
the Prices wrote a new edition taking into account the many rapid
changes.
Available for the first time in English, Maroons in Guyane reviews the
history of Maroon peoples in Guyane, explains how these groups differ
from one another, and analyzes their current situations in the bustling,
multicultural world of this far-flung outpost of the French Republic. A
gallery of the magnificent arts of the Maroons completes the volume.
