Chik-V & Jamaican Indigeneity: Reflections of the Accompong Maroons

ABSTRACT: The pursuit of this study was to establish how members of the Accompong maroon settlement in Jamaica survived the Chikungunya virus(Chik-v) with fewer reported cases as opposed to the rest of the country. The results of this research create heightened awareness on the Maroon culture in contemporary Jamaica, as well as how the virus was controlled from a disaster management cycle perspective. The disaster risk reduction strategies employed by the Maroons show that critical to their disaster epidemiology is indigenous knowledge forms, as it helps to address the prevention and spreading of vector-borne diseases, as well as situational awareness to generate information and construct mitigation strategies. This study showed that while indigenous knowledge forms do exist in this space, it is not purely indigenous, as residents had to depend on
scientific resources to inform how they plan the various cycles involved in disaster management. However, the study shows that despite this mix of indigineity and scientific knowledge, is that in some ways, there is cultural retention within the Maroon community. The findings suggest that while persons may depend on ancestral knowledge to treat problems on a day to day basis, they may be inclined to utilize science in times of crisis. The study recommends more studies that look at the role of religion in either the endorsement of, or, the exacerbation of the disaster management cycle in indigenous spaces.
KEYWORDS: Indigenous Knowledge , Maroon Culture, Chik V, Scientfic Knowledge & Disaster
Management