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L.A. Lewis Responds After Newly-Elected Maroon Leader Richard Currie Dismissed His Citizenship Claims

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Currie, Lewis

The chief has spoken. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Newly-elected Maroon chief of Accompong Richard Currie has rejected all claims of citizenship and authority by entertainer L.A. Lewis.

In a pair of tweets this morning, Currie said “Horace Lewis a.k.a L.A. Lewis is NOT a government official of #Accompong nor is he recognized via our records as a citizen of #Accompong. This individual has no delegation of authority to transact business for the State nor bestow titles of nobility.”

He continued, “Furthermore Mr. Lewis’s self proclaimed title and tribe are NOT recognized by the Sovereign State of #Accompong. Mr. Lewis should cease and desist his confusion in #maroon territory or find himself being escorted under heavy restriction.”

The Accompong Maroons and popular entertainment personality Horace ‘L.A.’ Lewis have had a bit of public verbal spat in recent months and the former chief Colonel Ferron Williams had suggested that Lewis could be in for a beating in keeping with local Maroon traditions should he show up in Accompong Town, St Elizabeth, ever again.

What was L.A Lewis’ transgression which could have led to the aforementioned beating? Lewis had dared to ascribe to himself Maroon heritage and had shown up in Maroon enclaves of Accompong, Moore Town and Charles Town attempting to drum up support.

These overtures were summarily rejected. After the warning of a thrashing, Lewis had threatened to file a J$35-million lawsuit against former Accompong Maroon head, Colonel Ferron Williams, for “tarnishing his character”.

The 43-year-old Currie, who is reportedly the youngest person to become colonel, ousted the incumbent Williams when he polled 681 votes to attain victory over his closest rival who amassed 400 votes.

Now that he is the new chief installed for the next five years, Currie apparently intends to end the argument, once and for all. Currie enjoys support among the Rastafarian segment of the entertainment industry as Protoje, Buju Banton, and Spragga Benz all endorsed his bid to become chief.

Currie is Protoje’s friend and his Munro College schoolmate and was mentioned in the song Like Royalty featuring Popcaan. “Me used to sleep pon Currie couch, dem man deh never leff me out.”

Lewis Responds

However, the charismatic Lewis, who was born in Trench Town, Kingston, dismissed Currie’s authority as illegitimate. His “all of us are Maroons” is harder to rebut.

Lewis said that there was no maroon flag, no identification card, no currency, no birth certificates until he and his team formulated a drive that recognized over “one million Maroons worldwide” to reactivate Maroon heritage and identity.

“Currie is a hypocrite. He doesn’t know the history of Maroons, else he wouldn’t say what he said. He is just there for money,” Lewis told DancehallMag.

“I assisted him to win. There were better candidates, Lawrence Rowe, great great great grandson of Nanny, but never had the financial backing, Daniel aka Sadie Boy Buzzrock is the realest man, they should have put him in, and Kani who lives in the village. Currie doesn’t live there, he just got some entertainer from Kingston to assist him like a stage show. Richard is a carpetbagger, him just go up there go squat recently. He came there from town under the Kingston corporation banner, so automatically, him himself is null and void.”

A ‘carpetbagger’ is a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections, or a person perceived as an unscrupulous opportunist.

Lewis said that the former chief Colonel Ferron Williams lost because he “got bright and threatened to ‘cat-o-nine me”. Cat o Nine is a rope whip with nine knotted cords, formerly used (especially at sea) to flog offenders.

“I no longer have to sue Williams, I took him out of power. Currie won the election, I assisted him to win. I got people of the maroon village in Trinell, the head maroon village of Accompong where some people rate me, and the people of White Hall and Gabadeen to support Currie. Ah pure Lewis come from Scotts Hall, Trinell, ah pure Lewis down de. He is wrong to say I have no Maroon heritage, it would be very detrimental of him to say that… I am the paramount chief high priest emperor for the Nyan Ko Pong Maroon tribal territorial government,” he said.

The word maroon, first recorded in English in 1666, is by varying accounts taken from the French word marron, which translates to “runaway black slave,” or the American/Spanish cimarrón, which means “wild runaway slave”.

It is important to note that most Africans did not refer to themselves as “maroons.” Lewis sect, the Nyan Ko Pong maroons is a reference to liberatory, powerful name maroons used to describe themselves such as “Nyankipong Pickibu,” which means “Children of the Almighty” in Twi, a language widely spoken in Ghana, West Africa.