Johannes King (born: Adiri circa 1830 - 24 October 1898), was the first

Maroon Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown". Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...

missionary, and the first important writer in

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo, "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language from Suriname, in South America, where it is the first or second language for 519,600 Surinamese people (approximately 80% of the popu ...

. King belonged to the

Matawai Matawai can refer to: *Matawai people, an ethnic group of Suriname *Matawai language Saramaccan () is a creole language spoken by about 58,000 people of West African descent near the Saramacca and the upper Suriname River, as well as in Paramar ...

tribe, and performed his missionary activities for the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

Biography

Adiri was born as a son of

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) Kodjo of the Matawai, near the plantations of Haarlem and Maho in Suriname. Adiri was born and raised in a completely

illiterate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

society. In 1852, Adiri moved to Maripaston. During this period, he fell ill, and the illness lasted many years. In 1855, Adiri started to receive visions: a strange god pointed at an alien religion, told him to go to the city, and be

baptized Baptism (from ) is a Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by sprinkling or pouring water on the head, or by immersing in water either partially or completely, traditionally three ...

. Adiri went 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 ...

, where he met van Calker, who was the preacher at the Moravian Church. He didn't stay long, and returned to his village soon after. Adiri returned in 1860, and had taught himself to read by then. He had used an A.B.C. (

alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

) book, and '' Singiboekoe'', a book with

psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

from the Moravian Church in Sranan Tongo. Once again he didn't stay long, but when he returned home, he started to build a church in Maripaston. In 1861, he returned to the city, was baptized, and changed his name to Johannes King.

Missionary

King first started to preach under his own people for which King was paid by the mission. King was briefly granman when his brother died, but opted to be solely a preacher. In 1864, he was sent to the Ndyuka for a dual purpose: The Moravian Church had up to then been unable to reach the Ndyuka, and the Matawai wanted to make a

peace treaty A peace treaty is an treaty, agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually country, countries or governments, which formally ends a declaration of war, state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an ag ...

with the Ndyuka. In 1864, King published a book about the visit in

. The book is hard to read, because he uses an

autodidactic Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodid ...

spelling and often confuses ''a'' with ''h''. The original is archived by the Moravian Church in

Zeist Zeist () is the Capital city, capital and largest town of the Zeist (municipality), municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht (province), Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht. History The town of " ...

Author

During 1864 and 1865, King wrote and published over 1,000 pages on his visits to various tribes. His most important works are a 1868 book about the

religions Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, t ...

and customs of the Maroons, the 1886 ''Skrekiboekoe'' (book of horrors), which deals with his visions, and a 1886 history of the Maroons. King also wrote ''dresibuku'', a medical book, but decided to keep it secret. The vast majority of his writings are archived by the Moravian Church in Zeist or

Herrnhut Herrnhut (; ; ; Upper Lusatian: ''Harrnhutt'', ''Harrnutt'') is a town of around 6,000 inhabitants in Upper Lusatia, in the district of Görlitz, in eastern Saxony, Germany. The town is mainly known as the place of origin of the community of t ...

Legacy

On 29 May 1958, the Johannes King Hospital in

Stoelmanseiland Stoelmanseiland (or Stoelie) is an island, and a village in the Paramacca resort of the Sipaliwini District in Suriname. It is located at the confluence of the Tapanahony River with the Lawa River which forms the Marowijne River, and is also th ...

was named after Johannes King. In 1973, the dairies of Johannes King were published in Sranan Tongo as ''Life at Maripaston'' with summary in English by Henri Frans de Ziel.

Notes

References

External links

Johannes King at Digital Library for Dutch Literature
(mainly in Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Johannes 1830 births 1898 deaths Granman Matawai Moravian Church missionaries Surinamese male writers Writers in Sranan Tongo