ACCOMPONG, St Elizabeth — Prime Minister Simpson Miller has called on Jamaicans to draw inspiration from the resilient characteristics of the Maroons to pull through the current economic hardships which, in some cases, have been worsened by the recent passage of Hurricane Sandy.

“You (Maroons) are the true example of our resilience and determination, of our capacity to overcome all odds and reap success,” Simpson Miller told the closing session of a recent conference hosted by the Trelawny (Leeward) Maroons at Accompong Town, in the Cockpit Country of northern St Elizabeth.

“As we pick up the pieces left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, I am happy to see that you at Accompong survived, just as you have done natural and man-made disasters for centuries.

“I pray today that the Creator will give all Jamaicans that strength as we pick up the pieces and continue to address the pressing issues in our beautiful country,” Simpson Miller said.

The prime minister said she was assured we have what it takes to “put our shoulders to the wheel and increase our productivity” in the face of what she described as serious economic challenges “because it is that which will save our lives and that of future generations”.

Noting that “our ancestors suffered greater hardships and triumphed”, the prime minister charged this generation “to do the same in our own way”.

“It means greater productivity among those of us who work in the public and private sectors,” Simpson Miller charged.

“There is still work to be done to ensure that we pass on the best of the past to the next and successive generations,” she said.

Simpson Miller was the last of a long list of speakers, including Dr Kwame Boafo, director of UNESCO; Professor Verene Shepherd of the University of the West Indies, and past and current Maroon colonels.

The Maroons are a mixture of descendants of slaves left by fleeing Spanish colonisers on the arrival of the British in 1655 and runaway slaves from British plantations. They fought the British for decades from their hideouts in the Blue Mountains in eastern Jamaica and the Cockpit Country of the west until peace treaties were signed in 1738-40.