Sharing Suriname’s African cultural heritage with the world
In Suriname Kwasibita is a herbal cure well known for it’s healing properties to cure fever and stomach ailments. In the West it is known as Quassia. This cure and the plant is named after the infamous healer and slave, Quassie.
The strength of this herbal medicine is in the wood. Traditionally it was made into a cup, which is filled with water and left to sit for a few days after which you simply drink it. It is very bitter and the local name literally means bitter Quassie. Continue reading
In this post I will attempt to bring awareness to the origins of slaves who came to the New World, Caribbean, Latin America & USA.
Instead of trying to pinpoint a certain country I will give you a general overview of the world these Africans left behind.
Let me first bring your awareness to an idea that has shaped western society since the beginning of the Trans Atlantic slave trade. Continue reading
Los cimarrones de Surinam lucharon por su libertad y ganaron en 1762 . Ellos se han mantenido en sus aldeas de 1762 hasta hoy en día.
Esta es la razón por la música , los ritmos y las danzas que traían de África aún se mantienen sin cambios .
Después de haber observado otras cimarrónes y culturas negras en las Américas Estoy sorprendido por las similitudes con los cimarrones Surimame especialmente en los ritmos que parecen muy similar al rumba de Cuba.
Te daré algunos ejemplos y sin duda que va a reconocer algunos de esos ritmos y bailes.
When it comes to traversing the rivers and rapids in the Amazon jungles there is no better or more robust mode of transportation than the dugout canoe.
For the maroons and the indians, the dugout has been the primary mode of transportation for centuries.
Here you can see the process of making a dugout canoe. Continue reading
Traveling to Suriname can be as luxurious as you want it to be or you can chose to go back to nature with one of the many available jungle tours. Moreover most people in Suriname can understand and speak English.
As a youth I had the opportunity to travel abroad every year, but my most memorable vacations were the visits to the interior of Suriname. There is something refreshing about it, regenerating, invigorating. I visited many maroon villages, went on many amazing river tours over rapids etc. Continue reading
This a rare film of a small group of Saamaka maroons from 1928, Suriname.
This was a silent film which was re-edited in 2010 by Doing. It is narrated by modern day Saamaka maroons.
This film provides a look into village life as it was then
While one cannot put an adequate value on a slave, because labor, pain & suffering are hard to quantify in real money, it is interesting and important to take a look at how the colonial governments valued the slaves.
