In this week’s episode of Spirit & Liberation, host Jeanette Charles-Márquez is joined by Iya Akilah Jaramogi—Paramount Chief of the Merikin Maroons of Trinidad & Tobago, cultural activist, reforestation pioneer, fire-fighter, and longtime Ifá practitioner. The Merikin Maroons are descendants of formerly enslaved Africans who gained freedom by serving alongside the British during the War of 1812 against the United States in the South. After their service, the Merikin Maroons were resettled in southern Trinidad between 1815 and 1816, where they established self-governing communities known as the “Company Villages.” Ever since, their maroon villages have become centers of over two centuries’ long spiritual practice and land stewardship. Building upon her ancestors’ journey, for over four decades, Iya Akilah has led visionary work at the intersection of environmental justice, ancestral memory, and spiritual practice. As founder and CEO of the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project, she has cultivated a globally recognized model of community forestry grounded in balance, reciprocity, and the intersection of ancestral veneration and land sovereignty. This episode Iya Akilah elaborates on: Reforestation as a spiritual and ancestral practice, The legacy of Merikin Maroon resistance in Trinidad, And, how community-based land forestry challenges climate change, colonialism, and capitalism. This episode is an offering for everyone working to restore what colonization tried to erase—land and legacy.