Living with Jamaican Maroons
Gretchen Wilbur explores eight years living in Jamaica’s Maroon community of Accompong Town, reflecting on culture, identity, privilege and belonging while navigating the space between outsider and insider with curiosity, humility and humour.
Publication Date
What does it mean to move from being an outsider to becoming part of a community without losing sight of the differences that shape belonging?
After eight years living in Jamaica, primarily in the Maroon community of Accompong Town, Gretchen Wilbur offers a deeply personal account of life between cultures. Founded as a sovereign state by formerly enslaved Africans who defeated the British in 1738, Accompong continues to sustain traditions of Maroon self-governance and community life. Having built a home and business with her partner, a respected Maroon elder, Wilbur has become deeply woven into the rhythms of the community. Through stories shared by community members and reflections on everyday experiences, Gretchen Wilbur explores how relationships are formed in a culture that places community, respect and collective life at the heart of belonging. Moving along the fluid boundary between outsider and insider, she examines her own assumptions about privilege, identity and cultural difference with curiosity, humility and humour. Drawing on the ideas of philosopher María Lugones and author Lewis Ravin Wallace, and comparing her experiences with those of Zora Neale Hurston, who documented life in Accompong in the 1930s, Gretchen Wilbur considers what can happen when we cross cultural boundaries with openness and a willingness to question what we think we know. Her journey offers insights into contrasting understandings of community, time, money, nature and ancestral spirits, while reflecting on the possibilities and complexities of intercultural belonging.
This book will appeal to readers interested in Jamaican Maroon history and culture, anthropology, cultural studies, travel writing, postcolonial studies and intercultural relationships, as well as anyone curious about the experience of living between cultures and rethinking assumptions about belonging.
What does it mean to move from being an outsider to becoming part of a community without losing sight of the differences that shape belonging?
After eight years living in Jamaica, primarily in the Maroon community of Accompong Town, Gretchen Wilbur offers a deeply personal account of life between cultures. Founded as a sovereign state by formerly enslaved Africans who defeated the British in 1738, Accompong continues to sustain traditions of Maroon self-governance and community life. Having built a home and business with her partner, a respected Maroon elder, Wilbur has become deeply woven into the rhythms of the community. Through stories shared by community members and reflections on everyday experiences, Gretchen Wilbur explores how relationships are formed in a culture that places community, respect and collective life at the heart of belonging. Moving along the fluid boundary between outsider and insider, she examines her own assumptions about privilege, identity and cultural difference with curiosity, humility and humour. Drawing on the ideas of philosopher María Lugones and author Lewis Ravin Wallace, and comparing her experiences with those of Zora Neale Hurston, who documented life in Accompong in the 1930s, Gretchen Wilbur considers what can happen when we cross cultural boundaries with openness and a willingness to question what we think we know. Her journey offers insights into contrasting understandings of community, time, money, nature and ancestral spirits, while reflecting on the possibilities and complexities of intercultural belonging.
This book will appeal to readers interested in Jamaican Maroon history and culture, anthropology, cultural studies, travel writing, postcolonial studies and intercultural relationships, as well as anyone curious about the experience of living between cultures and rethinking assumptions about belonging.
Gretchen Wilbur is a retired professor, equity education specialist and US Fulbright Scholar whose work explores cultural identity, educational equity and the role of cultural arts in learning; she now lives and works in Accompong Maroon Town, Jamaica.
