Pikin Slee (also Pikienslee) is a village on the

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 ...

in the resort

Boven Suriname Boven Suriname (also Upper Suriname) is a resort in Suriname, located in the Sipaliwini District. Its population at the 2012 census was 17,954. Almost its entire population consists of Maroons The resort is home to many small tribal villages. The ...

of 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 ...

. It is home to about 3,000 people, and the second largest village of the

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-Ameri ...

Maroons Maroons are descendants of 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, eventually evolving into ...

, after

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

Overview

Pikin Slee has a school, clinic, and the Saamaka Marron Museum. Pikin Slee adheres to the Afro-Surinamese

Winti Winti is an Afro-Surinamese traditional religion that originated in Suriname. It is a syncretization of the different African religious beliefs and practices brought in mainly by enslaved Akan, Fon and Kongo people during the Dutch slave tra ...

religion. The majority of the population make their living from agriculture. Pikin Slee is home to a group of

Rastafari Rastafari is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion. There is no central authori ...

wood carving Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculpture, ...

artists, whose work is on display in the museum. A holiday eco-resort is located near the village. On 14 November 2011, the Saamaka Marron Museum was founded. The museum is dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Saramaccans with a special emphasis on art. The current

chieftain A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is a leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies There is no definition for "tribe". The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of weste ...

of the village is Wanze Eduards. During the 1990s logging companies encroached on the village of Pikin Santi. Extensive

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civi ...

caused by faulty bridging resulted in the loss of large plots of agricultural land. Eduards was awarded the

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists. History Awardees are named from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, an ...

in 2009, jointly with Hugo Jabini, for their efforts to protect their traditional land against logging companies, by bringing the case to the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des ...

, and further to the Inter-American Court. In late 2019,

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

panels were installed in the village to provide 24 hours of electricity. Pikin Slee can be reached by boat from

Pokigron Pokigron is a town in Suriname located on the Upper Suriname River near the Brokopondo Reservoir. It is located in the Boven Suriname municipality (resort) in the Sipaliwini District. It has a population of approximately 400 people in 2018. Pokigr ...

which is the end of the road. Villages to the south of Pokigron can only be accessed by boat. An unpaved road leads to the Botopasi Airstrip.

References

External links

Saamaka Marron Museum
(in Dutch) {{Surinamese District Sipaliwini Populated places in Sipaliwini District Saramaka settlements