From Resistance to Identity: The Legacy of Maroon Revolts in the Caribbean (Suriname, Guyana, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)

This presentation examines the historical and contemporary legacies of maroon resistance in the Caribbean, with a comparative focus on Suriname, Guyana, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Maroonage is approached not merely as a form of social escape from slavery, but as a political practice that generated autonomous communities, alternative governance structures, and enduring forms of collective identity within and against colonial plantation economies.By analyzing different configurations of maroon societies—from the highly institutionalized maroon polities of Suriname to more fragmented or alliance-based forms of resistance in Guyana and the Eastern Caribbean—the presentation highlights how maroonage emerged from the structural instabilities of plantation systems rather than from their margins alone. Particular attention is paid to alliances between maroons and Indigenous peoples, such as the Kalinago in Dominica and the Garifuna (Black Caribs) in Saint Vincent, as well as to major uprisings like the Berbice revolt (1763–1764).The presentation further explores how maroon heritage has been reactivated in postcolonial contexts through legal struggles, memory politics, international recognition (notably via UNESCO and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights), and contemporary political participation, especially in Suriname. It argues that maroon histories continue to shape debates on sovereignty, cultural rights, reparations, and state legitimacy in the Caribbean today.Overall, the presentation offers a historically grounded framework for understanding maroon communities as key political actors whose legacies remain central to regional identity formation and contemporary governance challenges in the Caribbean. The presentation was developed within the framework of a commissioned course resulting from a collaboration between the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Stockholm University, aimed at providing historically grounded perspectives on the political and cultural dynamics of selected Caribbean states.