Amatopo or Amotopo is a Tiriyó village on the Courentyne River in the

Sipaliwini District Sipaliwini is the largest Districts of Suriname, district of Suriname, located in the south. Sipaliwini is the only district that does not have a regional capital, as it is directly administered by the national government in Paramaribo. Sipaliwini ...

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; i ...

. The village lies next to the Amatopo Airstrip.The Frederik Willem IV Falls and Arapahu Island are located 6.5 miles upstream from the village.

Overview

The residents of the village consider themselves Okomoyana, which means "wasp people". The Okomoyana category can be seen as a subdivision of the Tiriyó people, and the Okomoyana indeed speak the Tiriyó language. The villagers who settled in the village came from Kwamalasamutu. The airstrip was constructed during Operation Grasshopper. In the West Suriname Plan, Amatopo was to play an important role in the mining of

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

in the area. Even a road was constructed from Amatopo to

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

, but this road was deserted after the

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 ...

. The first two settlers moved into the unused buildings near the airstrip. Later a pilot chased them away. Asongo Alalaparu, the

granman Granman (Ndyuka language: ''gaanman'') is the title of the paramount chief of a Maroon (people), Maroon nation in Suriname and French Guiana. The Ndyuka people, Ndyuka, Saramaka, Matawai people, Matawai, Aluku, Paramaccan people, Paramaka and Kwin ...

(paramount chief) told them to return, and built their houses next to the facilities which were already present. The settlement started in 2001.

Frederik Willem IV Falls

The Frederik Willem IV Falls also Anora Falls are located in the Courentyne River near Amatopo. In 1871, Charles Barrington Brown discovered that the river above the waterfalls splits into two rivers. Arapahu Island is a river island located below the waterfalls.

Tourism

A
eco-lodge
is situated on the waterfront next to the village of Amatopo. The visitors of the eco-lodge make use of Amatopo Airstrip to reach their destination.

Notes

References

* * * * {{Surinamese District Sipaliwini Indigenous villages in Suriname Populated places in Sipaliwini District Squatting in Suriname