Different mixtures of kaolin (white clay) and herbs have different healing or protective properties. This particular blend is used to wash the body to protect it against gunshots and other harm.

Calabash with herbs and kaolin (white clay), 1997.
Courtesy of Thomas Polimé

Bag containing powdered grass and kaolin (white clay), which are used for protection from ghosts, Suriname, 1997.
Courtesy of Thomas Polimé

The special achievements of Maroon healers are widely recognized by outsiders. Jamaica’s Windward and Leeward Maroons regularly receive visitors seeking Maroon medicinal roots and tonic.

Wood and root tonic made from a recipe attributed to the Maroons.
Courtesy of Health at Sunrise Production Co., Bronx, New York

"The plants have spirits, or souls. When you work with the plant you have to know how to call the spirit of the plant. You have a particular song you have to use to call it."

— Kabiten Marcel Doye, Aluku healer, French Guiana, 1992

"In the years of the Maroon wars, the Maroons turned to the herbs of the earth . . . God gave us the healing knowledge of using different herbs."

— Major Charles Aarons, Windward Maroon elder, Council member, and healer, Moore Town, Jamaica, 1992

Drawing on African and Native American traditions, healing in Jamaican and Surinamese Maroon communities is linked to bodies of ritual knowledge and practice, which include divination, spiritual intervention, and the use of organic substances.