“The next level of Maroon-age is not only do you win, but you get your adversaries to put it in writing through a treaty that you have won your freedom.”
Phil Fixico (fill fix-eh-koh), Founder Semiroon Historical Society
“The old people…would cook a little something and make sure that the neighbor or one of their cousins or somebody had some too.”
William Warrior (will-yum war-ree-yore), President Seminole Negro Indian Scouts
“All the women they would get together and take out the crops… We go from one field to another until we get it done.”
Alice Fay Lozano (ah-liss fay loh-zah-no), storyteller
“For more than 200 years we kept our double African and Indian heritage alive. Our language and our way of life, our songs and dancing… all remind us of our distinctive roots.”
Charles Emily Wilson (char-ells eh-mih-lee will-sun), leader Seminole Scout Association
“This is a creole culture and what it takes is a great ability to adapt and a willingness to do so, and still hold on.”
Natalie Daise (nah-tah-lee dayz), story-teller, artist
“If you can’t hold onto the land, you can’t hold onto the culture.”
Jabari Moketsi (jah-bahr-ee moh-ket-see), publisher Gullah Sentinel newspaper
“Mine is a living culture, not one of some 200 years ago. It's a culture that continues to shape our surroundings.”
Ron Daise (ron dayz), singer, culture preservationist
“We must tell our stories and govern our own community as our foreparents did. We know that 'empty sak cyan stan upright lone.’”
Marquetta L. Goodwine (Queen Quet) (mahr-ket-tah el good-wine kween kwet), preservationist
“The Gullah…had existed without the need for cash. Everything the Gullah people needed was done by them, among them, and you might say in coordination with the entire community.”
Emory Campbell (em-more-ee kam-bull), micro-biologist, activist
“With Gullah Geechee people we created and preserved our language under the threat of death for being literate.”
Sunn m'Cheaux (sun mih-show), Gullah language teacher
“Let us remember we descend from folks who…manifested freedom when everything else said otherwise.”
Sara Makeba Daise (sah-rah mah-kee-bah dayz), Cultural History Interpreter
“We are one, bound by the spirit of an island and Bilali the slave. Bound by high tide, fields, gossip, smoke mullet and our faith.”
Cornelia Bailey (kor-nee-lee-yah bay-lee), story-keeper, historian
“If you chop that branch, it’s filled with water that the Maroons would drink…This is why, when we cut a tree, we plant another one to replace it.”
Lloyd Wilks (loyd wilks), Jamaica's consul general at Toronto
“We make drums the same way our ancestors did 200-300 years ago. We play the same rhythms, the same songs that record the history of our ancestors.”
Wallace Sterling (wahl-lass stir-ling), Colonel Maroon Council
“Fight in the morning, fight in the day and fight in the night. There ain’t no giving in. In true maroon determination, doggedness and defiance, we will win.”
Nichole McIntosh (neh-kole mak-in-tosh), nurse, poet, blogger
“Africans who refused to be enslaved said, "Oh no. We insist to have the right to practice our African centered way of life as we see fit and we do not need a slave master over us.”
Nana Farika Berhane (fah-rick-ah beh-hahn), author and poet
“Vodou practitioners have the responsibility to look after the well-being of the population. They have received the powers and the knowledge to put (well-being) in practice.”
Ati Carl Henri Desmornes (kahl on-ree day-mahn), Supreme chief
“Do not forget Vodou is our culture and our religion at the same time. Don't forget we are descendants of Africans. We're born in Vodou.”
Ongan Michelet Alisma (meesh-lay al-smah), priest
“Gede (ancestral spirits) and all the others are always present anytime they are called upon. We feel as if they are with us always and they hear us whenever we call on them.”
Manbo Amelia Ingrid Llera (ah-mee-lee-yah een-grid yeh-rah), priestess
“Vodou comes from the enslaved people of Africa… They walked all over the world and came here to our land. This is the way we came to have the vodou spirit within us.”
Manbo Katy (mahn-bow kay-tee), healer & priestess