Nu Maroone In The Room

One For All & All For One!

Before Toussaint L’Ouverture lead the Haitian Revolution to create the first independent black state in the New World there was….MACKANDAL who was born in West Africa and brought to St Domingue ( which is today HAITI) as a slave at the age of 12. He was well educated in Africa and and was well skilled in herbalism. As a slave he lost his left hand and part of his left arm in a sugar cane press. He escaped from his plantation and fled to the mountains where escaped Africans and surviving Taino Indians formed communities. They were known as Maroons. Mackandal became a guerrilla leader uniting these various communities in the mountains to strike back against the white colonists. He used enslaved Africans still working on the plantations as a intelligence network while his Maroon forces would raid and burn the plantations. Mackandal was a Voodo Houngan or priest and since being skilled with herbs he created poisons from the island plants. The poisons were given to the slaves on the plantations to put in the meals and refreshments they served the French plantation owners and planters. It is estimated that Mackandal’s forces killed well over 6,000 French colonists. This would spread panic and terror amongst the French colonists. Mackandal was well known to the French and attacked French troops recklessly and fearlessly with little regard for personal safety. He believed he was sent by God to free blacks from white rule and called himself “The Black Messiah.” He prophesied that St. Domingue (HAITI) would soon be ruled by Blacks and the French defeated. While he was able to unite all of the hidden maroon camps, he could not persuade the “free blacks,” with their money, to join his revolution. He gave rousing speeches in secret locations to convert the enslaved Africans to join his cause. Slaves would walk miles at night after a hard day’s labor to hear him speak and they reportedly served him on bended knee. He appointed Captains, Lieutenants and other ranks and enforced strict discipline and training. Its estimated he had over 20,000 or more maroons serving him. In 1757 he set upon a final “death-blow” strategy to take the island of St. Domingue. He planned a major assault using poison that would be joined by an attack from his forces in the hills. Distributing thousands of packets of poison, he instructed his followers to use it in every beverage and food consumed by whites in one big swoop on a planned day. He organized all of his soldiers and the other maroons to descend upon the French at the same time. However, before the attack was realized Mackandal was betrayed and captured. Mackandal was chained to a stake to be burned alive but somehow he broke his bonds. His death remains a mystery. The French say they threw him back into the fire, but the enslaved Blacks reported that he fled and was never seen again. Before his death he told his followers that he was immortal and would be reincarnated as a deadly mosquito to come back and do more damage than ever before. It is interesting to note that a massive plague of mosquitos carrying yellow fever arrived in swarms during the Haitian revolution around 1794 to bring death to over 30,000 British and French troops trying to take Haiti back from the Black revolutionaries.LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF MACKANDAL.Darrin BurgessTHE REUNION OF BLACK FAMILY WORLD WIDE

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