Saramaka
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Saramaka
The Saramaka, Saamaka or Saramacca are one of six Maroon (people), Maroon peoples (formerly called "Bush Negroes") in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in French Guiana. In 2007, the Saramaka won a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court for Human Rights supporting their land rights in Suriname for lands they have historically occupied, over national government claims. It was a landmark decision for Maroon and Indigenous peoples in the world. They have received compensation for damages and control this fund for their own development goals. The word "Maroon" comes from the Spanish ''cimarrón'', which was derived from an Arawakan languages, Arawakan root. Since 1990 especially, some of the Saramaka have migrated to French Guiana due to a Surinamese Interior War, civil war in Suriname. By the early 16th century, the term "maroon" (''cimarron'') was used throughout the Americas to designate slaves who had escaped from slavery an ...
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Saramaccan Language
Saramaccan () is a creole language spoken by about 58,000 people of West African descent near the Saramacca River, Saramacca and the upper Suriname River, as well as in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname (formerly also known as Surinam (Dutch colony), Dutch Guiana). The language also has 25,000 speakers in French Guiana and 8,000 in the Netherlands. It has three main dialects. The speakers are mostly descendants of fugitive Atlantic slave trade, slaves who were native to West Africa, West and Central Africa; they form a group called Saamacca, also spelled Saramaka. Linguists consider Saramaccan notable because its vocabulary is based on two European source languages, English language, English (30%) and Portuguese language, Portuguese (20%), and various West and Central African languages (50%), but it diverges considerably from all of them. The African component accounts for about 50% once ritual use is taken into account, the highest percentage in the Americas. When ritual use is exc ...
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List Of Saramaka Granman
Granman (Ndyuka language: ''gaanman'') is the title of the paramount chief of a Maroon nation in Suriname and French Guiana. The Ndyuka, Saramaka, Matawai, Aluku, Paramaka and Kwinti nations all have a granman. The paramount chiefs of Amerindian peoples in Suriname are nowadays also often called “''granman”.'' The word comes from the Sranan Tongo language, a creole spoken in Suriname, and is derived from ''grand'' + ''man'' meaning "most important man." Granman was also used for the governors of Suriname. The word can be used in combination with other words: ''granman-oso'' (big man house) is the Presidential Palace. Government The paramount chief of a tribe is the granman. Below the granman are the ''kabitens'' (captains) followed by the ''basiyas'' (aldermen). The ''stam lanti'' consists of all the ''kabitens'' and ''basiyas'' who meet at least once a year under the authority of the granman and decide the policy for the entire tribe. A village has a ''lo lanti'' (coun ...
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Matawai People
The Matawai (also ''Matuariërs'') are a tribe of Surinamese Maroons. The Matawai were originally part of the Saramaka, and signed a peace agreement with the Dutch colonists in 1762. The tribe split from the Saramaka, and in 1769, they were recognized as a separate tribe. History The origin of the Matawai people is unclear, but oral accounts often mention the plantations Hamburg and Uitkijk. The plantations at the Jodensavanne are a possible source as well. During the 18th century, slaves escaped from the plantations and settled in the interior. According to oral accounts, a group of escaped slaves settled near the Tafelberg in the 1730s. In 1762, a full century before the general emancipation of slaves in Suriname, a group known as the Saramaka signed a peace treaty with the Dutch colonists to acknowledge their territorial rights and trading privileges. After the death of captain Abini, the relationships within the tribe became tense which ultimately resulted in captains Beku ...
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Maroon (people)
Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas and islands of the Indian Ocean who escaped from slavery, through flight or manumission, and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesis, evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos. Etymology ''Maroon'' entered English around the 1590s, from the French adjective , meaning 'feral' or 'fugitive', itself possibly from the American Spanish word , meaning 'wild, unruly' or 'runaway slave'. In the early 1570s, Sir Francis Drake's Francis Drake's expedition of 1572–1573, raids on the Spanish in Panama were aided by "''Symerons''", a likely misspelling of '. The linguist Leo Spitzer, writing in the journal ''Language (journal), Language'', says, "If there is a connection between Eng. ''maroon'', Fr. ', and Sp. ', Spain (or Spanish America) probably gave the word directly to E ...
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Kwinti
The Kwinti are a Maroon people, descendants of runaway African slaves, living in the forested interior of Suriname on the bank of the Coppename River, and the eponymous term for their language, which has fewer than 300 speakers. Their language is an English-based creole with Dutch, Portuguese and other influences. It is similar to the languages spoken by the Aluku and Paramaccan Maroons, and split from Sranan Tongo in the middle 18th century. The Kwinti had a population of about 300 in 2014 and adhere to the Moravian Church. History There are two possible origins of the Kwinti people. One oral account mentions the Berbice slave uprising of 1763 in Guyana, the other mentions a plantation in the Para District. The tribe was initially led by Boku who died in 1765. Boku was succeeded by Kofi, who is claimed to be a brother of Boni. The tribe was known from the early 18th century, and there had been several raids on plantations conducted by the Kwinti. On 19 September 1762, t ...
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Surinamese Interior War
The Surinamese Interior War () was a civil war fought in eastern Suriname between 1986 and 1992. The conflict primarily involved the Jungle Commando, a rebel group composed largely of Saramaka (Maroon) fighters and led by former soldier Ronnie Brunswijk, and the Surinamese National Army, commanded by then-army chief and ''de facto'' head of state Dési Bouterse. Background Suriname has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in South America. Its people include those of South Asian (Indian), Javanese, Chinese, European, Indigenous (Amerindian), African (Creole and Maroon), and multiracial descent. The ancestors of the Maroons were enslaved Africans who escaped from coastal plantations between the mid-17th and late 18th centuries and established autonomous communities in the interior. These groups successfully resisted Dutch colonial forces and secured their independence through peace treaties signed with the Dutch in the 1760s. The Dutch, unable to subdue them mili ...
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French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west and Brazil to the east and south, French Guiana covers a total area of and a land area of . As of January 2025, it is home to 292,354 people. French Guiana is the second-largest Regions of France, region in France, being approximately one-seventh the size of metropolitan France, European France, and the largest Special member state territories and the European Union, outermost region within the European Union. It has a very low population density, with only . About half of its residents live in its capital, Cayenne. Approximately 98.9% of French Guiana is covered by forests, much of it Old-growth forest, primeval Tropical rainforest, rainforest. Guiana Amazonian Park, the largest national park in the European Union covers 41% of French ...
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Asindoopo
Asidonhopo is a Saramaka village on the Pikin Rio, shortly before the confluence at the Upper Suriname River in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. Asidonhopo is the residence of the paramount chief or gaanman of the Saramaca. The succession of gaanman Belfon Aboikoni, who died in June 2014, has not been decided as of 2018. There are three candidates, but no agreement between the clans. The decision was forwarded to President Dési Bouterse Desiré Delano Bouterse (; 13 October 1945 – 23 December 2024De Ware Tijd‘Bouterse maandagavond overleden’ 27 december 2024 StarnieuwsAmbassades tekenen condoleanceregister in Ocer 27 december 2024 ) was a Surinamese military officer, poli ..., however he decided that the clans have to reach a compromise themselves. References Populated places in Sipaliwini District Saramaka settlements {{Suriname-geo-stub ...
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Suriname
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; its economy of Suriname, economy is heavily dependent on its abundant Natural resource, natural resources, namely bauxite, gold, petroleum, and Agriculture, agricultural products. Suriname is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization of American States. Situated Tropics, slightly north of the equator, over 90% of its territory is covered by rainforest, List of countries by forest area (percentage), the highest proportion of forest cover in the world. Borders of Suriname, Suriname is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, and Brazil to the south. It is List of South American countries by area, the smalles ...
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Upper Suriname River
The Upper Suriname River is the upper reach of the Suriname River. Shortly behind the beginning to the Lower Suriname River, there is the Brokopondo Reservoir. From there, the access by road ends at the jetty of Atjoni, near Pokigron. The Suriname River begins at the confluence of the Gran Rio and Pikin Rio near the village of Goddo, Suriname, Goddo with the Tapawatrasula rapids. Brokopondo Reservoir Just before the transition of the Upper to the Lower Suriname River is the Brokopondo Reservoir, which was constructed by the closure of the Afobaka Dam on February 1, 1964, for energy generation for the production of aluminium and aluminium oxide.Polygoonjournaal, c:Nieuws uit Suriname, stuwmeer achter Brokopondodam Weeknummer 64-18 - Open Beelden - 58574.ogv, Nieuws uit Suriname, stuwmeer achter Brokopondodam, week number 64-18, 1 May 1964 Watershed The Upper Suriname River starts at the confluence of the Gran Rio and Pikin Rio near the village of Goddo, Suriname, Goddo. The vil ...
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Slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person (see ). Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, suffering a military defeat, or exploitation for cheaper labor; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as race or sex. Slaves would be kept in bondage for life, or for a fixed period of time after which they would be granted freedom. Although slavery is usually involuntary and involves coercion, there are also cases where people voluntarily enter into slavery to pay a debt or earn money due to poverty. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civilization, and existed in most socie ...
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Aluku
The Aluku are a Bushinengue ethnic group living mainly on the riverbank in Maripasoula in southwest French Guiana. The group are sometimes called Boni, referring to the 18th-century leader, Boni (guerrilla leader), Bokilifu Boni. History The Aluku are an ethnic group in French Guiana whose people are descended from African slaves who escaped in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries from the Dutch plantations in what is now known as Suriname. Intermarrying with Native Americans, toward the end of the eighteenth century, they initially settled east of the Cottica River in what is nowadays the Marowijne District in Suriname. They were initially called Cottica-Maroons. Boni Wars In 1760, the Ndyuka people who lived nearby, signed a peace treaty with the colonists offering them territorial autonomy. The Aluku also desired a peace treaty, however the Society of Suriname, started a war against them In 1768, the first village was discovered and destroyed. In 1770, two ...
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