Maroon village from the air	Map of Suriname. Sources: Suriname Plan Atlas; Price and Price 1999:18; SIL Languages of Suriname; Association of Saramaka Authorities "Wanhati" undated.

Traditional Maroon livelihood activities are hunting, fishing, gathering, and subsistence agriculture. The largest share of food comes from shifting or slash-and-burn agriculture. The main staple foods are cassava (manioc) and rice. In addition, forest gardens contain a wide variety of tubers, vegetables, and fruits, including: maize, sweet potatoes, yams, squashes, taro, arrowroot, peppers, beans, peanuts, bananas, plantains, and sugar cane. Game animals include a variety of birds, monkeys, deer, tapir, sloth, peccaries, armadillos, anteaters, rodents, and agoutis. Aquatic foods include fish, turtles, and caiman, though many Maroons have a taboo against eating the latter. They collect fruits and nuts in the forest but do not -as the Amerindians do- gather insects for consumption. Today, a significant share of particularly Ndyuka Maroon men is working in small-scale gold mining.

Ndyuka woman farming	Burning the field	Hunter cleaning a deer	Roasting iguana

Customary law rules define access to land and natural resources management in Maroon societies. Access to land is arranged at the clan (lo) level. Clan land is parceled out to its constituent bee or family groups, who allocate pieces to their various members. Though the village captain regulates land use, individual members have rights to its resources including game, fish, and forest products. These rights are temporary and land returns to the bee upon the death or departure of the user. Decisions about larger-scale mining and logging, either by tribal members or by outsiders, require more extensive krutus (meetings) at the village or even tribal level. Customary law rules are well-known and generally respected by the members of the various Marooon groups. Suriname’s constitution and the national legal system, however, do not explicitely recognize or adequately protect Maroon customary rights to land and natural resources.

Ndyuka woman with radio

Changing lifestyles, clustered settlement pattern, and rising life expectancies are affecting the sustainability of traditional subsistence strategies. Maroons complain that they now have to travel longer distances from their home villages to find land that is suitable for agriculture. Those who cannot travel far tend to shorten the fallow periods of abandoned fields closer to home, which is exhausting soils permanently. Most Maroons families from the interior have come to rely to a greater or lesser extent on goods and services from the coast. Where possible Maroon children attend public schools; the ill visit Western clinics; families eat canned fish, sugar, salt, and other processed foods; and people rely on shotguns, tools, plastic ware, and other manufactured assets. On the other hand, the kin-ordered societies in the interior have maintained a large degree of cultural, socio-economic, and political autonomy from the nation state. Children take part in traditional livelihood activities from a young age; forest medicine plays an important role in curing natural and spiritual diseases; families continue to produce, hunt, and fish a large share of their food; and many products continue to be fabricated from materials found in nature. Moreover, traditional political leaders and decision-making structures remain central to regulating society. Despite closer integration into the national society, the interior remains deprived of essential public services. There is no electricity, public transport, running water, telecommunication network, postal service, and access to national television and radio in the grand majority of forest communities.

River transport: dragging the canoe across the rapids

Maroon political organization is organized around the lo (matri-clan), which is made up of various bee (lit.: belly), a group of descendants of one living mother or grandmother. Traditional leaders are locally appointed, usually after spiritual consultation and according to traditional descend-rules. The paramount chief is called granman (gaanman). Each lo is headed by a head-captain (Edekabiten), and each village is headed by one or more Kapiteins (Kabiten), representing the village lo’s. The Granman and Kapiteins are assisted by Basias who take care of administrative matters. Traditional authorities receive a public salary and are accountable to the district commissioner. Even though their status is not legally recognized, government officials tend to respect their position.

Traditional carving (rice plate)

In both Maroon societies, decision-making about issues affecting the entire village is based on consent and may take days of gatherings or krutus . Traditional authorities and elderly facilitate these meetings, but usually anyone may speak out. Krutus also serve to solve conflicts between different village members. In these cases, the captain or head-captain serves as a judge on respectively the village and lo levels, assisted by Basias and village elderly. Discussions, negotiations, and sometimes divination are employed to seek solutions, which may include a public beating, a fine, or an arrangement with the aggrieved party. For more information about the Maroons of Suriname, particularly their involvement in samll-scale gold mining, you can read my publications and reports.