Afro-Surinamese
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Afro-Surinamese are the inhabitants of Suriname of mostly West African and Central African ancestry. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought to work on sugar plantations. Many of them escaped the plantations and formed independent settlements together, becoming known as Maroons. They maintained vestiges of African culture and language. They are usually split into two ethnic subgroups (Creoles and Maroons).
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9 sectionsContents
- Origins
- History
- Ethnicities
- Creoles
- Maroons
- Notable Afro-Surinamese people
- Other Notable Afro-Surinamese people
- References
- Bibliography
Afro-Surinamese are the inhabitants of Suriname of mostly West African and Central African ancestry. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought to work on sugar plantations. Many of them escaped the plantations and formed independent settlements together, becoming known as Maroons. They maintained vestiges of African culture and language. They are usually split into two ethnic subgroups (Creoles and Maroons).
== Origins == Most of the enslaved people imported to Suriname came from West Central Africa (circa 61,500 slaves, 27% of the total number), Gold Coast (Ghana) (circa 46,000, 21% of the total), Windward Coast (circa 45,000, 20%), and Bight of Benin (more than 32,000, 14% of the total). Thousands of enslaved people also arrived from Bight of Biafra (circa 11,000, 5.0% of the total) and Sierra Leone (circa 3,600, 1.6% of the total). The total number of enslaved people was estimated at 220,000.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Afro-Surinamese” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.