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The Forgotten Ancients: Jamaica’s Ciboney Legacy
By Fabian Stennett
Long before Columbus, before the Tainos, before the Spanish and British invasions, Jamaica was home to an ancient people—the Ciboney (Siboney). These early inhabitants, often overlooked in mainstream history, were spiritually rooted Troglodyte Hebrew Ashantis, descendants of Alkebulan (African) peoples, who lived in caves and thrived in Jamaica’s rugged, mountainous terrain.
Their traditions—herbal healing, unyeasted cassava baking, dreadlocks, and spiritual rituals—live on today through Maroon, Kumina, Revivalist, and Rastafarian practices. Language, too, tells the tale: Jamaican Patois is laced with Twi, Amharic, and Swahili, echoing the tongues of their ancestors.
Far from extinct, the Ciboney spirit is alive, woven into Jamaica’s music, faith, agriculture, and names—from Jericho to Samaria. As oral tradition meets historical record, one truth becomes clear: Jamaica’s roots run deeper than colonial timelines.
We are the children of the sun, the earth, and the ancients.
Sunshiny a time it is in Jamaica, when truth steps into the light
There was a time in our sunshiny island jamaica long before the arrival of Columbus there was a people much more older,indegenous and much more endemic to the region once known as Xamaicana now known as 'Yard' or Jamaica. Historical data as proven that these people occupied, resided in, owns, developed and lived in Jamaica long long before Columbus and the Spanish and British insurgence, occupation and genocide of these people. They lived here before the Taino People who Speaks the native indegenous Awaraki language. These people were known as the Siboney(Ciboney) people.There lineage traced back to the original Alkiboulite Ethiopic Hebrew Ashanti people.Hence the terms Ashanti Maumau and Ashanti Baba .Our oral Traditional griot preserved a much more indegenous original,authentic, and truthful history preserved in the museum of truth. These Troglodyte Hebrew Ashanti people were also known as the rockdwellers. As they used to live in natural and man made caves.In the rugged outback of the most,hilly,fertile, moutainous parts of the islands of Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba. The practices of these missed called Jamaican maroon people suggested that the people they referred to as the so called maroon people are these people. Sunshiny a time in Jamaica it was, as these people were more indegenous and spiritually connected to that part of the earth they resides in. The practices of the maroon people,the revival people,The Kumina people and plot 60 now called Rastafarians reflected the tenets, practices and customs of these original Troglodyte Hebrew Ashantis as I pointed out in my Videodocuaudio Book Series Maroon Book Of Eulogies .. Anthropological studies of Jamaica and it's original maroon people reveals that the rastafarian movements reflect the sum total of the roots and cultural livity of these four groups of people mentioned earlier in this article. But it also suggested that there religious practices ,cultural customs,dressings attirements and apparels, there nutrional intakes, medicinal practices,Spices, habitual day to day customs,dreadlocks hairstyle among other clear evidences, reveals that the Ciboney People Are still alive and well in jamaica . Clinton v. Black in is book History of Jamaica made mention of these people . Both our oral traditional and documented history clearly reveals that it is not only the Rastafarian group in Jamaica,who can traced there lineage to these Ciboney (Siboney) people but a lion sum of the populace of Jamaica and the Caribbean islands of Haiti and cuba actually has blood connection to these people. The cultural practices of the modern population of these three islands clearly reflects their ancient practices and customs in many ways. From there religious, Agricultural, musical practices to the baking of the cassava bammy without yeast, reminiscent of the Ancient Hebrew Ashanti Kushite's unleven bread. The Jamaican society ,accept it or not, practice marrying to their distant relatives,this is clearly another one of the principle we adopted from these ancient Hebrew Ashanti Israelites. Our patois language as a strong dose of Twi,Swahili,and Amahric.For example the Jamaican colloquial term dibi-dibi,is from the Amahric word debe which means to tear down or destroy. Several of our names of people and places also identifies with this ancient rootical people. Names like Jericho ,Samaria ,Salem and Johannes are but few other clear evidence that our lineage traced back to these original people. Our folklore such as Breda Anasi and breda Tacuma, our musics,dances,ways of worship and herbal medicinal reglious practices are some other clear cut and outstanding evidences of Hebrew Ashanti cultural Renaissance and retention. The practices of kumina ,Myalism, revivalism, Harvest celebrations and maroon celebration of Ethiopian Christmas on January 06 set the icing on the cake.Sunshiny a time it is in Jamaica when this truth ,preserved so long is revealed
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Sunshiny a Time in Jamaica: The Untold Story of the Ciboney People
By Fabian Stennett
There was a time in our sunshiny island of Jamaica, long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus and long before the recorded history taught in textbooks, when a people older, more indigenous, and more spiritually connected to the land lived and thrived here. Long before Jamaica was "Jamaica," it was Xaymaca—land of wood and water. But even before the Tainos, who spoke the Arawakan language, there were the Ciboney (or Siboney) people.
These were not just early inhabitants—they were ancestral pillars, deeply rooted in the spiritual and geological fabric of the region. Historical and oral records alike indicate that the Ciboney people were the first known settlers of the Greater Antilles, particularly Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba. Their legacy, culture, and bloodline still live on today, though many have forgotten—or been misled—about their true origins.
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Ciboney: The Forgotten Ancients
The Ciboney were often called “rock dwellers” or troglodytes, not in a derogatory sense, but because they inhabited and transformed natural caves across the rugged, fertile, mountainous interiors of these islands. In Jamaica, their presence was most noted in areas now known as Maroon territories—Accompong, Moore Town, and beyond.
What few understand is that these ancient people trace their lineage not just to native Caribbean roots, but to the original Alkebulan (African) peoples—specifically the Ethiopic Hebrew Ashanti lineage. This is the heritage behind titles such as “Ashanti Maumau” and “Ashanti Baba,” still used in some communities and spiritual circles. Their spiritual practices, dietary customs, and connection to the land echo loudly in today’s Kumina, Myal, Rastafarian, and Revivalist traditions.
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The Museum of Truth and the Griot Tradition
While many Western historical texts have neglected or erased the Ciboney, our oral Griot tradition—passed down through generations—has preserved a more authentic history, stored symbolically in what I call “The Museum of Truth.” These ancestral stories have not only survived but have become embedded in our language, culture, and spiritual life.
As I’ve outlined in my Videodocuaudio Book Series The Maroon Book of Eulogies, these traditions have carried forward the true indigenous identity of the Jamaican people. What colonial historians called "Maroon culture" is, in many cases, a continuation of Ciboney-Hebrew-Ashanti practices that were never lost—only hidden in plain sight.
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The Cultural DNA of Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba
Anthropological and cultural studies increasingly support what oral historians have long known: the spiritual, agricultural, and musical practices of Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba bear striking resemblance to ancient Hebrew and Ashanti customs.
Consider:
Cassava bammy, still baked today without yeast, resembles the unleavened bread of the Hebrews.
The harvest celebrations, Ethiopian Christmas on January 6, and rituals of Kumina and Revival all reflect African-Israelite connections.
Our herbal medicine, natural dietary laws, and even our day-to-day greetings and gestures harken back to ancient spiritual codes.
Even more, our naming of towns and places—Jericho, Salem, Samaria, and Johannes—reflects a cultural memory of an ancient world not foreign, but ancestral. These aren’t coincidences—they are cultural continuities.
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Linguistic Links and African Tongues
Our beloved Jamaican Patois (Patwa) is not just broken English—it is a rich, coded language, infused with Twi, Swahili, Amharic, and other African languages. For instance:
The term “dibi-dibi” used to describe someone weak or insignificant, stems from the Amharic word “debe,” meaning to destroy or tear down.
Our idioms, proverbs, and storytelling techniques echo Ghanaian and Ethiopian speech traditions, crafted for oral survival under colonial oppression.
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Rastafari: The Cultural Sum Total
It must be said that the Rastafarian movement, though a modern expression, reflects the sum total of the roots and cultural livity of the Ciboney, Maroons, Revivalists, and Kumina people. From dreadlocks to ital food, Nyabinghi chants to groundation ceremonies, Rastafari draws directly from the ancient knowledge base of the Troglodyte Hebrew Ashantis—the original rock dwellers.
This is not accidental. This is ancestral memory in motion.
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The Time Is Now: Sunshiny a Time in Jamaica
We are in a sunshiny time in Jamaica—a time when long-buried truths are rising to the surface. When our people begin to reclaim ancestral knowledge and reconnect with the rootical vibrations of the land and spirit. The truth that was kept in the shadows is stepping into the light.
As Clinton V. Black noted in his History of Jamaica, the presence of the Ciboney people was real and foundational—not myth. And our oral traditions, passed down from griots, healers, elders, and spiritual leaders, confirm what the colonizers tried to erase: we are descendants of greatness.
So let the world know: the Ciboney people still live—not only in our blood but in our music, language, rituals, resistance, and creativity. The spiritual thread of the Troglodyte Hebrew Ashanti people is alive and well in the streets of Kingston, the hills of Accompong, the fields of St. Thomas, the caves of Portland, and the voices of a rising generation.
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**Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba—**we are more than what they wrote in their books.
We are living legacies of the first people.
We are sunshiny time children, waking up in the age of truth.
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