Cudjoe

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Cudjo (e) (also Kojo , approx. 1680-1744) was a leader of the Maroons (escaped slaves) in Jamaica . His guerrilla war against the British colonial power was so successful that it was forced to conclude a peace agreement with the Maroons under his leadership in 1739, which granted the Maroons extensive rights of autonomy. Because of these successes, Cudjoe is considered by some to be one of the most successful fighters against slavery in the New World, and in Jamaica he became a symbol of the resistance to slavery and British supremacy.

The source situation for Cudjoe is difficult, since he is mostly caricatured in early English representations and on the Maroons side there is only an oral tradition geared towards hero worship. As a result, many details and descriptions are not really secured.

Oral tradition says that Cudjoe was the son of Naquan, a West African prince who was kidnapped by Spanish slave traders with about 600 followers in the 1640s and brought Jamaica to work on plantations. Naquan soon afterwards led a revolt and fled with many of his followers inland and established the first maroon settlement in Jamaica there. Especially after the British conquered Jamaica in 1655, many more slaves took the opportunity to flee from the Spanish plantations to the free Maroons. Cudjoe was born into this free maroon society around 1680. He had a sister nanny and three brothers Accompong, Johnny and Quacu, with whom he took over the management of the Maroons after the death of his father towards the end of the 17th century.

literature

  • Thomas W. Crisis: Cudjo . In: Junius P. Rodriguez (Ed.): The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery . ABC-CLIO, 1997, ISBN 9780874368857 , p. 203
  • Alonford James Robinson: Cudjoe . In: Anthony Appiah (Ed.), Henry Louis Gates (Jr.) (Ed.): Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 9780195170559 , p. 282
  • Barbara Klamon Kopytoff: The Early Political Development of Jamaican Maroon Societies . The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 2 (April 1978), pp. 287-307 ( JSTOR 1921836 )
  • Milton C. McFarlane: Cudjoe the Maroon . Allison and Busby, 1977, ISBN 9780850311716

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Thomas W. Crisis: Cudjo . In: Junius P. Rodriguez (Ed.): The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery . ABC-CLIO, 1997, ISBN 9780874368857 , p. 203
  2. ↑ a b Alonford James Robinson: Cudjoe . In: Anthony Appiah (Ed.), Henry Louis Gates (Jr.) (Ed.): Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 9780195170559 , p. 282
personal data
SURNAME Cudjoe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cudjo; Kojo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION slave
DATE OF BIRTH around 1680
DATE OF DEATH 1744