Dr. Iyelli Ichile visited the Molefi Kete Asante Institute to speak about African culture in the African diaspora. She spoke a lot about contact with her ancestors and feeling the roots of her people. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to fully understand what she was saying. I never think about my ancestors because they are very scattered and come from many different nationalities. So instead of trying to understand what she was saying, I decided to try to understand what she was talking about. She mentioned the brown people often during the talk, so I wanted to reflect on her speech by learning more about these people and why she used them so often for comparison. The Maroon people began as early as the 16th century. Many slaves fled Spanish slave traders and sought residence primarily in South America. By the mid-17th century, escaped slaves developed communities throughout interior Jamaica. One of the first recorded and largest settlements was founded at the turn of the 18th century, Nanny Town. Nanny Town was founded by Queen Nanny, or Granny Nanny, with a few recorded characters. Nanny was born into the Ashanti tribe of Ghana, but she was sold into slavery. It was believed that part of his family was involved in conflicts within his tribe, which led to the capture of their tribe. When Nanny was sold to a sugar plantation in Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica, she met many other slaves who would later help her become the ruler of a very influential town. She escaped from the plantation with Accompong, Cudjoe and Quao. Accompong founded a settlement in the parish of Saint Elizabeth named Accompong Town. Cudjoe found a settlement in Saint James Parish named Cudjoe Town. Nanny and Quao went to Portland Parish...... middle of paper...... or resistant communities. The reason Dr. Ichile said we should look to our ancestors and be more like the Maroon people is because they stood up for their rights. They escaped slavery and formed colonies that fought against the empire that enslaved them. I believe that the specific brown community that we should be looking to, according to her, is the brown people of Jamaica. Even though the Maroon people of Jamaica signed treaties that required them to turn away runaway slaves, they nonetheless defied the British Empire and helped the slaves. The British Empire feared Cudjoe and his people because of Cudjoe's excellent battle tactics. The British Empire even recognized them as excellent fighters by making them agree to be the protectors of the island. Cudjoe burned and attacked most of Britain's sugar plantations and helped cripple their control over Jamaica..