Shaw hails peaceful Accompong Maroons
A SENIOR government member has hailed the Accompong Town Maroons for being a beacon of hope and a shining example of peace.
Audley Shaw, the country’s finance minister, noted that Accompong Town, which is located in St Elizabeth, has registered only two murders in 280 years.
Shaw, addressing the 280th anniversary celebrations to mark the signing of the peace treaty between the Accompong Town Maroons and the British in 1738, said that the Maroon experience is a prime example that there is hope for redemption and rebuilding of the nation.
“After 280 years of your own story of courage and hard work, we have had too much of the wrong things that have held us down as a people, but I believe in restoration,” he said.
“The Maroons tell us there can be restoration, and the Bible tells us that, too. We need to restore and repair the breach of love and respect for human life. We need to restore the breach of productivity, and we need to restore the breach of protecting and caring, and nurturing our children, understanding that they are our future,” the minister added.
The minister’s comments about respect for human life were made against the backdrop of Jamaica recording a super-high 1,616 murders in 2016. St Elizabeth was responsible for 25 of those murders, the second-lowest behind Hanover (21) in western Jamaica. St James recorded 335 murders, Westmoreland (147), and Hanover (61).