Patrimonialisation du marronnage : usages et pratiques au Suriname

Abstract

The aim of this paper is—on one hand—to give an understandable view of how the creole political elite of Surinam used the history of groups of Maroons to reinforce the construction of a sense of national identity as well as historical awereness.On another hand, this paper portrays how the political discourse of Paramaribo’s anticolonialist-nationalists of the 1950’s and the 1970’s has impacted – on both short and long-term scales – the life of descendants of Businenge maroons such as Saamaka, Dyuka, Kwinty, Matawai, Boni-Aluku and Pamaka.The analysis is mainly based on the inclusion of the memory of slavery and maroonage within Paramaribo’s urban web (monuments as well as streets and squares names).

Keywords

• anticolonialism
• Paramaribo
• monuments
• comparative memory
• Businenge