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JUNE 23, 2023 QUAO DAY

Friday, June 23, 2023

Ancestor Quao Day Celebration

Spanish River, Portland and Asafu Yard, Charles Town

The year has gone around and come to meet us again. Very simply the place of reconciliation is our state of
th
The 15 Annual International Charles Town Maroon balance. With everything in balance we are in
Conference & Festival is back, yet again presenting Harmony. Wisdom and understanding are key
us the opportunity to move into ceremony with our elements in any and every journey towards
ancestors, ourselves and each other as we seek to be reconciliation where we are in balance.
informed by our past, live in the present and send
messages to the future to inform it as to how we wish So as the third day of the 15 Annual International
th
it to be and what we are doing to manifest it. This year Charles Town Maroon Conference & Festival,
the Ancestor Quao Day Celebration falls on the third Ancestor Quao Day Celebration will feature its usual
day of the Conference & Festival. array of ceremonies and activities to give respect and
honour to those who paved the way for us to continue
For the Akan people, the forbears of Ancestor Quao, to be in memory and practice of their ways of being.
three is a very special, even sacred number. They The morning ceremony will again take place by the
knock three times to request entry into a space, cook Spanish River, an important location in the First
on three stones and ask the same question three times Maroon War as it was here that the British faced their
to commit you to your answer. The symbolism of the most severe defeat at the hands of our victorious
number three has not been lost on us, as we talk about ancestors.
things happening in three’s, frameworks like birth,
life, death and mind body spirit all founded on a base With the hosting of the Ancestor Quao Day
of the number three. Celebration, the Charles Town Maroons, their guests,
partners and collaborators pay tribute to Ancestor
One of the powerful associations with the number Quao, the ‘invisible hunter’, who brilliantly led his
three among Quao’s people is its association with people in the first Maroon War, (1655 – 1739).
balance. As one of the most sought after states of Fighting along with his sister, other maroon leaders
being and space of operation, balance is courted in all and peoples, he engaged in 84 years of war to insist
areas of our lives. For some it is said that three is the on our inalienable right to be recognised as human
perfect number. So how is this relevant to Ancestor beings with a mandate for our own self-determination.
Quao Day happening on day number three of the Ancestor Quao Day remembers and celebrates Quao,
Conference & Festival? male child of the Akan people...born on a Thursday…
brilliant warrior… military strategist… Invisible
Under the Conference & Festival theme of Hunter…spiritual and historical axis…testament to
Reconciliation, the third day, by virtue of the energies the strong African cultural heritage of the Charles
associated with the number three, brings with it Town Maroons. May his name live on and on for
principles of understanding, wisdom and harmony. years and generations to come.

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