Nèg Mawon ou Nègre Marron

The "neg mawon" or "brown negro" was the name given to a runaway slave out of the owner's property in the colonial era. The term "brown" comes from the Spanish cimarrón: "living on the tops"; (cima = top) that appears at the conquest of Hispaniola, which is a word borrowed from the Arawaks and refers to domestic animals return to the wild as the pig. From 1540, the term refers to runaway slaves. This term will be initially applied to the fugitive Indians and eventually designate gradually wild, who returns to the state of nature. Today, the term used mainly by the former refers to a young man of poor attendance and reputation.