Maroon Exhibit

A cultural mainstay of Carriacou is the maroon. A bedrock of the culture, maroon continues to bind communities and unify the island’s citizenry. Annually held at the end of each dry season, it remains a wonderful celebration to share, give thanks for Carriacou’s bounty, and ritually invoke abundance for the year ahead. This Spring 2019, we were blessed with three highly successful maroons: the Six Roads Maroon and the Carriacou Maroon and String Band Music Festival on April 26th; and the Bogles Maroon on May 17th. The day of the maroon begins at six o’clock in the morning. The elders of the village “wet the ground” by blessing it with rum and water. Then the cooking begins in large black cauldrons which rest on three stones over a fire. All food is cooked by four o’clock in the afternoon. Before it is served to all a meal is put on a bluggoe leaf and left on the ground—or in the case of Bogles, a meal is placed on a sea-grape leaf and set in the lagoon—as a token of thanks for what has been achieved, and as a petition for rain, plentiful crops, and sufficient fish catches. Then the crowd of celebrants eat. At each maroon there was an abundance of Saraca: plates of delicious rolled rice (just like that in West Africa), smooth rolled corn, tasty stewed peas, and well-seasoned island pork, chicken, and beef.