In 1975, Nanny was declared the first and, is to date, the only female National Hero in Jamaica. Using an ethnohistorical approach, anthropologist Werner Zips takes Nanny’s key role in the Maroon societies to probe into the African political, legal, social and religious experiences throughout the periods of slavery, colonial rule and postcolonial nation building.



In 1975, Nanny was declared the first and, is to date, the only female National Hero in Jamaica. Though revered as a leader of the Maroons – that group of runaway slaves who fought the British during the 18th century and established free communities in the mountainous interior of Jamaica, maintaining their freedom and independence – much of Nanny’s story and that of the Maroons has been from oral tradition which paints a different picture from the Eurocentric historiography of colonial sources. Using an ethnohistorical approach that combines political and legal anthropology with an African interpretive framework, Anthropologist Werner Zips takes Nanny’s key role in the Maroon societies to probe into the African political, legal, social and religious experiences throughout the periods of slavery, colonial rule and postcolonial nation building to provide a new perspective on the Maroons beyond the African cultural retentions in the New World.