In Suriname the Afro-Surinamese make up around 37% percent in Suriname. Even though this term is used in Suriname, the words Creoles and Maroons are much more used and preferred by many people within the Surinamese society. Who are the Maroons and Creoles?

In this post I will explain about the culture of the Maroons of Suriname. Be sure to check out my other post about the Creoles.

Maroons make up 21.7% of Surinamese society. Who are they? According to Wikipedia, and my own knowledge: “Descendants of enslaved Africans who managed to escape and set up a living in the forest of Suriname.” There are six tribes that make up the Maroon community. They speak Samaka, Okanisi or a dialect of either of these two languages. Samaka is said to both a English and Portugese based creole language. Okanisi is a English based creole. The tribes are as followed:

• Saramaccans
• Aukans
• Paramaccans
• Kwiti
• Aluku or Boni
• Matawai

Though there are a lot of similarities between the tribes, there also are some differences. These are mostly prominent in the clothing, dance, music and art of the respective tribes. I’ll try to focus on the Aukans and Saramaccans as these are the two biggest tribes of all 6. The Paramaccans, Kwinti and Aluku tribe are greatly influenced by the Aukan tribe and the Matawai by the Saramaccans.

Clothing:

For the maroons in general, their husbands want to appear as well dressed as their wives. Below I’ll link some pictures, however to look at more styles of Maroon clothing you can visit this link:

• Kamisa:
• The elongated cloth that they wear between the legs and hanging over the front and back over a cord made of fabric is called the kamisa.

• Dyimba:
• the Saramaccan men wear a long cloth around the shoulder, in which they can wrap themselves completely, which sometimes gives them the impressive appearance of African Romans.

• Pangi (Aukan name) or Koosu (Saramaccan name):
• The Pangi traditional shawl for women, originally worn mainly as a loincloth and now usually as a wrap skirt around the hips, with or without another piece of clothing

• Hangisa:
• The Hangisa is worn by Saramaccan women to differentiate themselves from Aukan women. It is a triangular shaped cloth worn around the hips, usually over a Pangi. In the picture below it is the blue triangular piece of cloth.

Dance and Music:

I won’t talk about their modern dance and music influenced by the western world. Here I will focus on the traditional dance and music. My reasoning for grouping dance and music together is because within the Maroon culture they are strongly connected with each other. At the first glance the dances might look a lot alike. Especially when comparing the tribes. However I’d like you to pay close attention to the footwork and body movements; you’ll notice a lot of differences.

Aukans:

• Awasa:
• Awasa is a dance in which the men court the women; its lyrics are unchanging. What is most striking at first glance are the movements that are made with the feet, bent slightly forward and lowered by the knees. During the dance, women portray the beauty with hand, hip movements. The men demonstrate their strength and skill through acrobatic movements. This dance spectacle is performed on the tones of live drums. In the following video however they don’t have drums.

• Aleke:
• Aleke songs are about love, events and social problems in the community. In one of the latest aleke hits, young people are warned about the danger of AIDS.
• A song is started by a cantor and a choir. The instruments are three drums about a meter high, a djas, a large timpani-like drum, and lids, the bengel-bengele, named after the sound they produce. Aleke is electronically amplified. The most striking is the vocals. Good singers should have a beautiful voice color and be able to vibrate well with their voice. Aleke parties are usually held in large public halls and are frequented by young people. Below I will link Aleke music:

I know, I said no modern music, however this one is worth mentioning.

• Songe:
• In songe or agaankoi, the women mimic the fish of the same name that defends her calf, while the men represent the fisherman with bow and arrow.

Mato dance:

• Tuka:
• The tuka are the lamentations and dances that are sung and danced, for example after death, until the funeral. Other dances are danced at set times in the mourning process, such as on the evening before the towe nyanyan (offering a food offering on the third day after the funeral) and the puu-baaka (the ceremony at the mourning ceremony). The soungs are also used to summon winti.
• Winti: an Afro American religion, within which the belief in personified supernatural beings occupies a central position. These personified supernatural beings can take possession of a human person, switch off their consciousness, as it were, and thereby reveal things concerning the past, present and future as well as cause and/or heal illnesses of a supernatural nature.
• Tuka are pre-eminently community songs, aimed at saying goodbye to the dead, expressing the powerlessness of man and comfortably supporting the next of kin. The comforting and uplifting tuka are part of a whole of ceremonies with dances and social and religious music. Tuka are extremely concise and difficult to interpret outside the historical and cultural context.

Saramaccans:

• Sëkëti:
• Sëkëti are songs that sing about what is topical in the community: quarrels, love affairs, exploits, but also transmigration. The reason is often even less than an anecdote: someone goes to the city and has greeted someone else. The pleasure of a phrase is sometimes enough to sing a new sëkëti, but they can also contain poisonous commentary. They are continuously recreated and are often extremely short, sometimes in the form of a dialogue; the longer ones are sung on special occasions, such as the installation of a new gaama (great chief). This has been the case for centuries.

• Banya (origins in the Matawai tribe, but the Saramaccans took it over too):
• One distinguishes the sëkëti-ku-maun, dancing to songs accompanied by clapping and performed by women, and the sëkëti-ku futu or sëkëti ku dôn, dancing to songs accompanied by drums and performed by men. Tjëkë dance is popular for saamaka at major festivities and ceremonies. It is danced by both men and women, with graceful movements of wrists, fingers and feet, accompanied by sëkëti songs and clapping of the hands. Light and lightning-fast footwork is alternated with a sudden freezing of the movement in certain positions. Forefoot balancing is valued as the ultimate demonstration of agility and grace.

• Alesingo:
• Alesingo is a dance of a person who balances on two sticks carried by two other dancers. The songs that are sung are not specifically linked to the dance and can be derived from other genres.

• Bandammba:
• Bandammba is a kind of belly dance of the women in which erotic movements are made with the lower abdomen. The band ammba was created during the slave era, after a battle with colonial troops, to appease the men. They can be danced on different occasions and are both magically-religious and non-religiously charged.

• Kromanti and Adonke
• Komanti are the oldest winticultural songs that are often written in Komanti. Komanti is both the term for the songs of war, as well as for the gods of war, of which the Tiger is considered to be the one charged with the most powerful obiya (spiritual power). All gods have their own dance (bajá) and drums (dôn). Besides the songs for the gods, there are also songs for the yooka, the ancestor spirits. As already stipulated in the ndyuka, ancestor worship occupies a special place in the religious awareness of the bush negroes.
• Adonke are the oldest non-religious songs dating from the time of marronage and slavery and expressing the feelings of the bush negroes; because of their age they have a sacral character. They are not sung lightly and invariably evoke strong emotions among the listeners. Originally they functioned as a symbolic exchange of information by maroons who met in the forest.
• Kawina:
• These songs are not related to a specific event, but are sung at every big party, such as Emancipation Day or New Year. The Kawina comes from the plantations in the Commewijne district and was brought inland through contact with the townspeople.

• Work songs. Bai a matjau (lit .: calling at the ax):
• In the Instagram link below you can view one of these work songs.

• Anasitoli: Anasitoli are also sung and danced at ritualized moments, although this has happened very sporadically since Christianization and Western music have made their appearance inland.
• Susa: Susa is a dance in which two men try to outdo each other in agility.

ART:

The Marron are known as skilled woodcarvers. Utensils are decorated with incised motifs that are usually abstract but have a defined meaning. The motifs are decorative and subtly woven together, carefully preserving the symmetry. The meaning of the motifs relates to dealing with women, to everyday life or the animal world. There are motifs called geebi lobi (love to the death) and kujaki mofu (toucan's beak). The Saramaccans and Matawai in the central part of Suriname are masters in the art of wood carving. The Maroon in the eastern part of Suriname (Aukans, Aluku, Paramaccans) are more adept at painting that is used in fronts of houses and paddles. Aukan wood carving is cut flat.

• Central Surinamese Maroon art:

• Eastern Surinamese Maroon art:

• Central Surinamese Maroon homes:

• Eastern Surinamese Maroon: