Maroons ban visits to Accompong to keep out virus

April 14, 2020
Colonel of the Accompong Town Maroons  Fearon Williams (right) has the ear of Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
Colonel of the Accompong Town Maroons Fearon Williams (right) has the ear of Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Visitors have been prohibited from visiting the Maroon village of Accompong in St Elizabeth, and non-resident Maroons have been discouraged from trying to enter the community.

Fearon Williams, colonel of the Accompong Maroons, said the moves are necessary to help keep the village COVID-19-free.

"We are not looking to have COVID-19 in Accompong as it is a closely knit community, with quite a few elderly persons. We ask Maroons living outside of Accompong not to come to the community until the Ministry of Health advises us that it is safe," he told THE STAR during an interview last week.

Williams said that he is prepared to administer punishment to whoever breaches the rules that are in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Jamaica has recorded more than 70 cases of the dangerous respiratory illness, four of which are from St Elizabeth, the parish in which Accompong is situated.

There have been no reported cases in the Maroon community, and Williams intends for it to remain that way.

"Irrespective of what people might think, we try to operate under the laws of Jamaica, especially under my regime," Williams told T HE STAR. "If anyone violate, they will be asked to do community work. The cemetery in Accompong is a huge area, so they have to work there or in the school gardens, or they will the punished through the course of the land, which is more rigid," he said.

The Maroon chief said that community members are required to adhere to every type of restriction that is given out by the Government with regard to the COVID-19.

"We have been following the social-gathering rules because our funerals now only carry 10 persons," said Williams. "Persons still go to their fields, but you don't find more than three persons in any area, (and) socialising is on hold."

He said that the St Elizabeth health department has been allowed to enter the village to do checks.

And what about bush remedies? Colonel Williams said that "the Maroons are usually taking bush medicine, not knowing whether or not it can cure the virus. We continue to drink a lot of lemon, ginger, fever grass, and the usual bush remedies to keep ourselves strong".

Oral Chambers, a resident of Accompong, told THE STAR that persons are taking precautions.

"The village shut off, the shops them a close up early, all the bars are closed. Everybody is scared, so they stay in," Chambers told THE STAR.

Mark Right, who is a village tour guide, said the COVID-19 outbreak has also affected his way of survival because tours have been banned.

"We don't allow any visitors in. People just scared enough, and we don't want the virus come on the mountaintop here," he said. "We are adhering to all the rules because it is not that you catch a fever and can recover. It's serious more than anything else. So everybody has to just keep in line with all the measures in order for all of us to survive," he said.

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