Unique culture reflects unique history

If it weren’t for Suriname, New Yorkers today would likely still be calling themselves New Amsterdamers and Manhattan would be known as the Big Tulip. Around 1670, in a deal still being questioned in The Netherlands, the Dutch swapped their bakeries on Broadway and the rest of present-day New York for the British sugar and tobacco plantations that were flourishing at the time along the Suriname River around a settlement that is now the capital Paramaribo.

Eager to expand their plantations, the Dutch began importing West African slaves in the first half of the eighteenth century. And as the agriculture industry there began to take off, the previous deal with the English seemed a stroke of genius.

But the Dutch had a knack for treating their slaves poorly, so many of the forced laborers fled to the jungle and became known as Maroons. They formed settlements in the interior and retained their West African customs. They often returned to attack the European plantations.

In 1863, the Dutch became the last Europeans to abolish slavery. To fill the labor shortage, the Dutch began importing indentured workers from the Dutch East Indies, currently Indonesia, as well as from India, China, Portugal and Lebanon. Most of these workers, however, left the large plantations at the end of their contract and returned home or started their own small farms in Suriname. Along with the country’s indigenous Indians, the former slaves and indentured servants form part of the country’s present-day diverse ethnic mix and unique culture.

As a result, Suriname’s list of national holidays and culinary delights are as diverse as its population. Meanwhile, the capital seems to be in a constant state of celebration, with dragon floats at the Chinese New Year, the Hindu spring festival of Phagwa and the Muslim holiday Aïd el-Fitr, to name just a few.