Katawud is another name for the Cimarrones or Maroons or Jamaica - formerly enslaved indigenous and African people who escaped from Spanish and British slavery on the island’s coastal plantations hundreds of years ago. They carved out a new, independent life for themselves and their people in the rugged and remote mountains of the country and have lived there continuously from the 16th century until today. Over the centuries, the Maroon people also established their own economic system, and their most famous leader, the 18th century figure Queen Nanny, appears on a current Jamaican $500 bill.
The Black Money Exhibit
World Currencies Featuring African and African Diasporic History and Cultures
The Black Money Exhibit is an engaging “forest of money trees” laden with over 300 rare, obsolete, and currently circulating banknotes (paper money). The brainchild of Dr. Harcourt Fuller, this traveling exhibit includes currencies and related objects from more than 80 countries in Africa, Europe, and the Americas, and illustrates 10,000 years of Black history. Each note is beautifully designed – its own work of art.