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Grandy Nanny

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The Resume

    (circa 1686-circa 1733)
    Born in Ghana
    Also known as Queen Nanny, or Nanny of the Maroons
    Jamaican National Hero
    Led the Jamaican Maroons (escaped slaves) during Colonial resistance in Caribbean

Why she might be annoying:

    That name......
    Nanny Town is named for her.
    Most of her biography emerges less from official archives (in which she appears only four times), than from oral history and legend.
    The most famous legend concerns her stopping a silver cannonball between her teeth and hurling it back at the English army (unlikely).
    Legends also detail her teaching the Maroons to do flips in battle so they would be moving targets during gunfire, but she likely never saw actual combat.
    She was frequently accused of using voodoo witchcraft to make gains against the English.
    Her name has been used to stereotype black women as short-fused 'sapphires.'
    She was subject of an offensive caricatured episode of the Nickelodeon game show, 'Legends of the Hidden Temple,' called 'The Silver Cannonball of Grandy Nanny' ('NO man kill Grandy Nanny, mon!')

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was colonial Jamaica's Harriet Tubman.
    She was sold into slavery from Ghana in the 18th Century before escaping into the mountains to join the Maroon community.
    She was a master strategist whose tactics frequently surprised and confused the English.
    She was the Maroons' Chieftaness, who passed down Ghanese legend/custom to her younger generations.
    Her village was invaded and destroyed by English troops after being led there by an informant (1734).
    It took years for the English to actually locate the Maroons' hideaway.
    She reluctantly agreed to a one-sided peace treaty between the English and the Maroons.
    She subsequently led a faction of the Maroons to form what is now known as 'Moore Town.'
    She was named a National Heroine of Jamaica (1976), and appears on the Jamaican $500 bill.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 85 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying