Charles Town Maroons colonel preaches education

After spending 15 years as an early childhood teacher, Marcia Douglas started yearning for a new challenge.

She felt that she was not reaching her full potential in the classroom, despite sharing the rich history of the Maroons, her ancestors who came from West Africa.

"Being a historian, in an early childhood setting, it felt as if I was being held back. Yes, I am telling the babies about their history, but it seems as if reaching the babies, it took a longer time than reaching the adults. So I decided to stop working in the classroom in 2005 and I started with the [Charles Town] Museum," Douglas shared. Through this transition, Douglas was able to actualise her purpose.

"I was just a mere tour guide or historian, just sitting in the library and helping children to read. Until one day, the colonel at the time, Frank Lumsden, called me and said 'I have a gig in Port Antonio and I have one in Kingston, you have to go to Port Antonio'. I did not write a speech, I was not prepared. You know when you're on a stage and you see all the eyes staring at you and your knees behind the podium, wobbling and knocking, that was me behind there," she joked.

But this was her first of many speeches on behalf of the now deceased colonel, who charged her to "Walk in the footsteps because you never know you will have to do it." Those words may have been Lumsden's premonition, and, in 2015, the mantle of head of the Charles Town Maroons was passed to Douglas, making her the first female colonel since the death of Jamaica's national heroine, Nanny of the Maroons.

"I had none of that in play. I wasn't really looking for a position of leadership. I was being prepared for a journey that I wasn't ready for. I knew I was being groomed in certain ways but not for a leadership position," she said. Etched in her memory is a day in August 2015, when she received the news that "it was time".

"He said, 'Listen to me and listen me good, it's now your time'. You have to take up the mantle and do it," Douglas said Lumsden told her.

Douglas, a mother of one, describes herself as a "true blue", as both of her parents are Maroons. From an early age at the Buff Bay Secondary School, she was taught about her heritage and to embrace her identity as a Maroon.

Now as leader, she prides herself in knowing that relics of their history still paint a picture of the peculiar people. She noted that Charles Town boasts having the 18th century coffee plantation hike, museum and the river park. But the chief said that it was the focus on education that set her tribe apart from the other Maroon groups across the island.

"I am all about uplifting and educating and encouraging them to be self-sufficient. My plan is see more educational venture in the community and more school systems, like high schools; that would be good. We used to have JAMAL, we can call back that standard to teach some adults to read," she told THE STAR.

For this year's staging of the annual conference, scheduled for June 20-23, Douglas stated that the focus will be on land usage. She is expecting to see a huge turnout of supporters and members of the electorate.

"I enjoy being the chief because I enjoy sitting down and talking with my people. Talking with them can ensure that stability within the community. It makes me feel as if I have a purpose; it is more than just a title, it is a way of life. We are recognised but we still have an aim to be recognised by other countries," she said.