We started today amid the hustle and bustle of Saramacca road where we met Hugo Jabini our guide and host for the next few days. After a long hard days travelling, along dusty roads and then up the Upper Suriname river we have just arrived at Semoisie a small Saramaccan Village. We have been invited here by the Association of Saramaccaner Authorities. The trail for this part our trip starts in London, researching on the web and meeting with Fergus Mackay of the Forest People's Programme who was collaborating with the Rainforest Foundation and the Rainforest Movement. It is a complicated story of land-rights, mining concessions and tribal hierarchy that we will be trying to unravel over the next few days with the help Hogo Jabini of the ASA.

On the way here we stopped of at a small village along the river called Abenaston, where we were joined by Mr Paules, one of two Captains who represent the people of the "lo" or clan that live in the village. The structure of the Saramacca community is extremely complex but in basics there are a number of different "lo's" originating from the first group of runaway slaves who fled into the forest in the period from the late 1600s.

The Saramaccas are a Maroon people of African origin won their freedom from the Dutch colonial planters when they signed a treaty in 1762. The tribe is divided into twelve "Lo's". Each Lo controls a part of the Upper Suriname River with a significant degree of local autonomy, under the Supreme Chieftanship of the Granman. Nowadays he represents the whole people to the government with local captains having authority within each village.

What was amazing this evening was the warmth of our reception when we arrived at dusk on the rivers edge. Very special ....

Max

 
No 7 Bus

Meeting Hugo Jabini

Saramacca Scene