The idea and practice of maroonage is an intriguing part of the vast story of African world resistance; a story that has deep implications on the idea and practice of freedom for the 21st century; it provides alternative models of social organization that challenge the current model of the nation-state; and a lens through which an African world future can be brought into sharp view—a sort of lens through which the thoughts and actions of those who say they are for liberation, justice, and equality can be measured. It must be noted that freedom was difficult to maintain for many maroon communities. For example, a settlement of rebellious slaves was razed on Hispaniola in 1522. In Peru, Gonzalo Pizzaro sent a force to conquer 200 maroons who were living in a marshy area just north of Lima. In 1545, a bloody battle was fought in which every one of these “blacks” was killed. In 1795, a large band of Venezuelan slaves from the Serrania de Coro region rose in revolt and established a close-knit chain of mountain retreats. Expeditions sent out by the Spanish quickly subdued them. A group of local planters reduced a runaway community near Mobile, Alabama, in 1827. The fugitives had inhabited the site for "years" prior to its destruction. At least four cases exist of Cuban maroon settlements that negotiated permanent treaties with the island's Spanish colonizers. Carlos Rojas, in the province of Matanzas, and Palenque, near Havana, are two examples. A third is the settlement of Poblado del Cobre in Oriente province. The origins of this last community went far back to the beginning of the seventeenth century. For two hundred years its inhabitants thwarted Spanish attempts to destroy them. In 1800, the blacks signed a treaty of freedom with the whites. The town they established is still occupied today. There are three documented instances in which maroon groups in Mexico were parties to enduring treaties with white colonizers. The first recorded example is a treaty agreed to in 1609, between Spanish officials from the port of Veracruz and a group of blacks under the leadership of an African named Yanga. As in all the previously cases, the whites agreed to this type of accommodation only after repeated failures to reduce the blacks. The treaty declared the maroons free men, and gave them a royal license to found a town, which they named San Lorenzo, or Yanga. Nevertheless, the anti-black root of the current discourse surrounding U.S. anti-immigration policy and rhetoric must not be lost. Here today is Dr. Beau Gaitors. Dr. Gaitors is an Assistant Professor of History where he teaches courses on Afro Latin American History and Latin American History at Winston Salem State University. He received his PhD from Tulane University, in Latin American History. Dr. Gaitors holds a B.A. in International Relations and a B.A. in Africana Studies from Brown University (2008). He received his M.A. in Colonial Latin American History from Purdue University (2010). He has been a Fulbright scholar where he studied in Mexico. He just completed his book manuscript titled, Presence and Persistence in the Port: African Descendants in Early-Independence Veracruz, Mexico Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock, Venezuela, the Avalon Village in Detroit; Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, cooperation Jackson in Jackson Mississippi; Palestine, South Africa, and Ghana and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Enjoy the program