Saramaka Maroon Community Environmental Heritage

Vol. 31, No. 3, Summer 2009 45 PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY saramaka maroon communiTy environmenTal heriTage By Cheryl White introduction: locating the saramaka maroons T his discussion highlights the vital role anthropologists have played in negotiating issues of heritage management in the recent InterAmerican Court of Human Rights’ (IACHR) decision regarding the rights of Saramaka Maroons to ancestral land that was destroyed without the acknowledgement, authority or agreement of Saramaka peoples. The Saramaka, a tribal group living in Suriname, accused the Surinamese government of allowing multi-national logging enterprises to harvest timber from traditional Saramaka territory. In addition to this violation of human rights, the government did not provide a plan following the destruction of Saramaka collective property. In response, the Association of Saramaka Authorities submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission claiming the government of Suriname did not consider the socio-cultural character, and the subsistence and spiritual relationship the Saramaka have with their environmental heritage. The IACHR judgment1 arms the Saramaka with the legal underpinning to enact a heritage management strategy to safeguard their physical and cultural survival. Suriname Maroons have maintained consistent cultural lifeways since their inception approximately 330 years ago in the neotropical Guiana hinterland. As descendants of escaped slaves residing in central Suriname, the Saramaka are the most politically organized of Suriname’s six Maroon groups, with a collective population of 20,000 to 30,000 individuals inhabiting their ancestral homeland in the Upper Suriname River Basin (Figure 1). Photo by Cheryl White Figure 1. View of the Suriname River from Saramaka Village, Tutubuka Extensive anthropological research has been conducted among the Saramaka that further demarcates their distinctive cultural patterns (Herskovits 1936; Price and Price 1980). Their major cultural features assert that they are politically and socially autonomous river based communities with an egalitarian social structure and a hunter and gatherer subsistence economy (Figure 2). They practice a mild form of slash and burn horticulture and have numerous rituals that reaffirm their relationship to their natural environment and their ancestors, including a matrilineal descent order and matrilocal housing schemes. In addition, archaeological evidence suggests that during the Maroons’ formative period they benefited from the technological advancements of neighboring indigenous peoples (Ngwenyama 2007). The cultural information about Saramaka Maroons provided by anthropological research contextualizes their social relevance within the larger Surinamese national identity. Maroon history and the corresponding anthropological research foster the recognition of Maroon cultural identity on an international level. According to the criteria of UN Convention No. 169 (1991 Convention), Maroons fall under the legal rubric of tribal peoples. The term Maroons derives from the original Spanish term cimarrone, describing loose cattle, is used by academics to describe former enslaved Africans that aggressively claimed freedom to live in autonomous communities. Even though the Saramaka were one of the first Maroon groups to sign a peace treaty with their Dutch colonial counterpart in the 1760s—to determine the stipulations concerning privileges to land and all the benefits thereof —the Saramaka have been the victims of blatant disregard to violations of the Maroon treaty and of Convention No. 169. The violations have been in the form of the construction of a hydroelectric dam which encompasses numerous Saramaka villages and mining and logging concessions granted to multinational companies. Both cases are seen as an affront to the quality of life in traditional Maroon territory by destroying homes and provision grounds in the Upper Suriname River Basin. The hydroelectric dam was built by 46 PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY Photo by Cheryl White Figure 2. Saramaka Hunters with Wild Fowl Surinamese domestic authorities in the 1960s as a power source for the mining industry and the growing population in coastal Paramaribo (IACHR Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname). During the construction process Saramaka villages were flooded and displaced to so-called “transmigration villages” the likes of which were merely shanty dwellings without the cultural character and availability of subsistence provisions provided in a traditional Saramaka village (IACHR Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname Article III A 12). According to the Saramaka, construction of the dam has fostered persistent negative effects on Saramaka cultural territory (IACHR Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname). Moreover, the timber exploitation of the 1990s only exacerbated an already sordid situation. According to a 2001 press release, “The Saramaka leaders first became aware that a concession had been granted in their territory when a group of ‘Englishspeaking Chinese’…arrived in the communities and informed the communities of Saramaka that they were about to begin logging operations” (Forest Peoples Programme 2001). Awareness of the logging concessions, enacted without collective Saramaka approval and consent, prompted them to take legal strides to address the issue. The dam construction and the timber extraction permanently destroyed hamlets of extended families and their shared sub- Photo by Cheryl White Figure 3. Meeting of the Association of Saramaka Authorities Vol. 31, No. 3, Summer 2009 sistence plots. Saramakaans affected by both these events were forced to migrate to the capital, Paramaribo, where many work as unskilled laborers and exist in urban squalor. Background of the case The case began in Oct. 27, 2000, when, after much deliberation, the Saramaka Maroons’ right to determine the use and access of communal property was restricted by the Surinamese government. Prior to this date three formal complaints were presented to the Surinamese government. Each met with no response. Writing about their unsuccessful attempts to seek justice legally, Fergus MacKay (2003:3) writes that the Saramaka “concluded that Surinamese law was so stacked against them that resorting to the courts would be futile, offering them no possibility of success because Surinamese law vests ownership of all unencumbered land and resources in the state, there are no environmental laws and indigenous and Maroon rights are not in any way legally guaranteed” (MacKay 2003:3). In response the Saramaka formed a grassroots organization called The Association of Saramaka Authorities (Figure 3). With the legal backing of international lawyers of the United Kingdom based Forest Peoples Programme, the Saramaka petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about alleged violations to their traditional culture on the Upper Suriname River. In an acknowledgement of this petition (IACHR Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname Article I 2 [2007]) the IACHR found that the Surinamese government violated Article 3 ‘Right to Juridicial Personality’ of the convention by “failing to recognize the legal personality of the Saramaka people”. The Saramaka supported this accusation with a catalog of issues stemming from the building of the dam. The many grievances were repudiated by the government based on perceived inaccuracies in the Saramaka petition. Surinamese national polities Vol. 31, No. 3, Summer 2009 argued the petition stemmed from the Saramakas’ lack of understanding of Surinamese law. The government furthered this point by stating that Saramaka use of the land is a privilege not a right. The Saramaka addressed the government allegations by responding that the system of Saramaka land tenure is based on clan ownership or lo (in Saramaka language). The government of Suriname did eventually acknowledge that their judicial system did not recognize the right of Saramaka peoples to use and enjoy property in accordance with their cultural system of communal ownership (IACHR Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname [2007]). validating saramaka cultural identity The foundation of the Saramaka case was based on illustrating a uniquely Saramaka Maroon cultural construct and validating their cultural autonomy within the larger Surinamese national identity. In order to accomplish this goal the tribe had to prove that the Saramaka essentially are who they say they are—a tribal people born of colonial hegemony, but socially removed from contemporaneous Surinamese nationals. The role of anthropological science was relegated to the validation process. Anthropological testimony addressed how the Saramaka illustrate who they are, their lifestyle, and cultural variables that differentiate them from their indigenous and creole Surinamese neighbors. Once these issues were addressed, the question arose of whether their difference warranted specified treatment. To demonstrate their social difference cultural anthropologist Richard Price, an expert on Maroon developmental history and cultural behavior, was asked to submit “expert evidence” to the Inter-Commission on Human Rights illustrating the cultural nuances of the Saramaka people. Price’s defining publications on Saramaka social structure were produced in the seventies after several intense years of ethnographic research PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY in the sixties with his wife, Sally Price. Richard Price’s sole publications— Saramaka Social Structure: An Analysis of a Maroon Society in Suriname (1975); First-Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American People (1983a) and To Slay the Hydra: Dutch Colonial Perspectives on the Saramaka Wars (1983b), and Their Joint Effort, Afro-American Arts of the Suriname Rainforest (1980) are frequently cited in cultural matters concerning Maroons of the Guianas, in particular Saramaka. Richard Price’s report states why the Saramaka are a unique cultural entity that complements the definition of UN Convention 169. The testimony (IACHR Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname Article VI A 65f [2007]) presented the grist of the cultural evidence needed to validate Saramaka traditional lifeways. Charateristics of these lifeways include the use of an azonpow, a wooden frame, elevated and horizontally placed at the entrance of a village. The azonpow indicates that a village is non-Christian and adheres to traditional ritual practices. Entrance to a traditional village is also marked by gender specific paths. Though there are spatial differences within villages all Saramakaans along the Suriname River valley practice the Koyo celebration. The Koyo event is a village wide celebration of menses and marks the beginning of womanhood. Young women are paraded around the village and donned with the traditional panghi garb. During menses women are sequestered to menstrual houses along the periphery of the village. Women are disengaged from social and domestic activity and are not allowed to wash in the river where food preparation and the washing of eating utensils typically take place. Some women seek greater freedom of movement by relocating themselves to a secluded and removed place along the riverbank. To support his statement, Price offered and explained a cultural map created via the participatory geographic information system (PGIS) by Saramakaans with funds from the Forest Peoples Programme (IACHR Case 47 of the Saramaka People v. Suriname Article VII F144 [2007]). The Saramaka cultural map demarcates dwellings, ancestral land, provision plots, places of spiritual and ritual significance, and the location of subsistence items such as fish, fowl, game, and vegetation for medicinal use and timber used for dwelling construction. This entire body of evidence created a basis from which the Association of Saramaka Authorities and their legal representation from the Forest Peoples Programme were able to compile and condense evidence of a tribal identity. Richard Price’s anthropological testimony was dismissed by Surinamese legal polities as outdated accounts of a culture long transformed by larger national issues—notably independence from the Netherlands in the mid-1970s and a civil war in the 1980s. The 1975 change of power was a precursor to the financial and social instability that set the stage for civil war through the 1980s. Independence brought with it a development assistance program signed with Holland to enhance infrastructure. However, the inability of the new government to properly institute development benefiting all Surinamese quickly set off a military coup d’etat in 1980. The civil war was fueled by the recruitment of Maroons from various regions of the country that interpreted their social circumstances in Suriname’s hinterlands as disenfranchisement from infrastructural and social inroads enjoyed by the larger Surinamese population. In this context, Maroons such as the Saramaka became likely candidates for acts of civil unrest. These events had transpired since the Prices’ initial research and encouraged the migration of large amounts of Maroons from forest hamlets to city dwellings. This migration was essentially seen as forcing the Saramaka to acculturate into a larger national milieu of amorphous cultural identities. This discussion not only highlights awareness of the heritage of a tribal people, but also underscores the role of anthropology as a tool for mediating international issues in heritage 48 PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 31, No. 3, Summer 2009 in order to appease avenging ancestral spirits (Ngwenyama 2007: 194). The accounts discussed above demonstrate the marriage of ethnographic and archaeological methods in order to grasp the indiosyncratic nature of culture as it is expressed socially and materially at ancestral places. By combining these two anthropological methods we can further bolster an argument for cultural continuity and legitimize the contemporary use, relevance and meaning of ancestral places. heritage management from Within Photo by Cheryl White Figure 4. Archaeological Excavation at an Eighteenth Century Saramaka Ancestral Community management in environmentally contested spaces. African Diaspora heritage is at the front line of international discourses on human rights violations—a position that necessitates the integration of different types of anthropological methodologies. Ethnographic data coupled with archaeological evidence about the material continuity of the Saramaka may have better illustrated the relationship they hold with their ancestral community (Figure 4). For example, the best available archaeological evidence that we have tells us that there is continuity of cultural practices in the form of Maroon ceramics (Ngwenyama 2007). The ceramics speak to the spiritual relationships Saramaka have with their environment. Saramaka ancestral history is rooted in associative places. Forest creeks are named for eventful historical migrations and ancestral figures, and noted areas along the river banks mark historical battles with Dutch colonists. In addition, the ceramic vessels are a reflection of ceremonial spiritual preparation of ancestral Saramakaans prior to battles. Ceremonial ceramic vessels called ahgbangs can be found in prayer shrines strategically located in contemporary Sarmaka villages (Ngwenyama 2007; White 2009). This archaeological data that I have compiled is evidence of strategically placed ahgbangs used for ceremonial washing at an early 18th century ancestral settlement named Kumako. According to oral historical accounts and historical records, Kumako was the site of a defining battle between the Saramaka and Dutch planters. Evidence of similar use and placement of ahgbangs can be found among other contemporary Maroon groups throughout Suriname. But according to Richard Price’s (1983a) compilation of oral historical accounts it is the Saramaka that used ahgbangs to mix powerful vegetation to permit the magic of invisibility from colonial enemies. This knowledge was passed to ancestral Saramakaans from indigenous peoples during the formative years of Maroon migration. A further interpretation of contemporary ceremonial washing from the ahgbang is to address social illness on the individual and /or familial level The judgment of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was the culmination of a seven-year case against the government of Suriname in which anthropological testimony provided information outlining the cultural markers of Saramaka Maroons, thereby validating their right to a traditional lifestyle. Because of the stipulations outlined by the judgment, anthropology can move out of the academic sphere and become a practical and useful tool for mediating environmental heritage matters such as the case of the Maroons. How does understanding the value of different types of anthropological methods in a situation such as this translate into sustainable heritage management in Suriname? The decision of the Inter-American Court provides a legal rubric for Suriname Maroons to maintain and preserve their cultural and environmental heritage. Reparations defined in the judgment mandate the following: That environmental and social impact assessments are conducted…prior to any development or investment project within traditional Saramaka territory, and implement adequate safeguards and mechanisms in order to minimize the damaging effects such projects may have upon the social, economic and cultural survival of the Saramaka people. (IACHR Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname Article VIII C.1 194e [2007]) Vol. 31, No. 3, Summer 2009 More importantly, the reparation justifies Maroon need for a heritage management infrastructure. Developing a sustainable anthropological archaeology program in Suriname that will arm Maroons with the means of securing their environmental and cultural rights offers a solution by 1) working with Maroons in the pursuit of their legal right to communal ancestral property, 2) curating and exhibiting key Maroon material culture at local institutions, and 3) providing training in anthropology and archaeology. This will enable documentation of Maroon environmental heritage as they negotiate their cultural transformation on an international stage. By creating this type of infrastructure, tribal peoples such as Maroons, can control their cultural identity. The Maroons received a prestigious form of reinforcement for their activities when key figures of the Association of Saramaka Authorities, Wanze Eduards and Hugo Jabini, became one of six recipients of the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots environmental action, representing Central and South America (The Goldman Environmental Prize 2009). The Goldman Prize is hailed as the Nobel Prize of environmentalism and acknowledges the tireless efforts of the Association of Saramaka Authorities throughout the lengthy Inter-American Court of Human Rights Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname 2007. The international recognition associated with receiving the Goldman Prize places greater accountability on the Surinamese government to adhere to the IACHR mandate that “free, prior and informed consent [by Saramakaans] be required for major development projects throughout the Americas” (The Goldman Environmental Prize 2009). Receipt of such a prestigious award further demonstrates how the knowledge provided by anthropologists can aid in the preservation of cultural heritage. In sum, archaeology was not a part of the court case, and material culture only a slight part of the argument, Yet I believe based on my own research 49 PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY among the Maroon that multiple methodologies can and should be part of discussions about heritage management here and elsewhere. The policy outlined in the case regarding applied social science will be at the forefront of future Saramaka decision making processes. This will pave the way for multiple methods to be used in the future, notably archaeological assessment prior to development projects that can cause permanent landscape damage. The mandate creates a platform from which we as anthropologists may develop heritage management programs and responses that are more conducive to addressing social issues as they effect the cultural transformation of African-Diaspora communities. references Forest Peoples Programme 2001 Surinam Maroons say no to multinational logging. World Rainforest Movement. Forest Peoples Program Press Release. Electronic Document, http://www.wedderwille.de/Bilder/Suriname_2001/ fpp02.htm, accessed January 1, 2003. Herskovits, Melville J. 1936 Suriname folk-lore. New York: Columbia University Press. MacKay, Fergus 2003 Logging and Tribal Rights in Suriname. World Rainforest Movement. Electronic Document, http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/ Surinam/logging.html, accessed January 1, 2003. Ngwenyama, Cheryl 2007 Material Beginnings of the Saramaka Maroons: An Archaeological Investigation. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida. Price, Richard 1975 [1974] Saramaka Social Structure: An Analysis of a Maroon Society in Surinam. Caribbean Monograph Series, No.12, Institute of Caribbean Studies. Puerto Rico: University of Puerto Rico. 1983a First-Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American People. Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture. Richard Price, ed. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press. 1983b To Slay the Hydra: Dutch Colonial Perspectives on the Saramaka Wars. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers. Price, Richard and Sally Price 1980 Afro-American Arts of the Suriname Rainforest. Berkeley: University of California Press. The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation 1991 Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. Electronic Document, http://www.unhchr. ch/html/menu3/b/62.htm, accessed March 13, 2008. The Goldman Environmental Prize 2009 The Goldman Environmental Prize 2009 Recipients. Electronic Document, http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipients/current, accessed April 20, 2009. White, Cheryl 2009 Archaeological Investigation of Suriname Maroon Ancestral Communities. Caribbean Quarterly March, Volume 55:1. Key words: heritage management, African-Diaspora, Maroons Cheryl White practices applied anthropological research (ethnographic and archaeological) of tribal communities. Her primary topical and regional focus is the Maroons (communities of runaway slaves and their descendants) of South America. Cheryl White currently works with the Department of Defense as a Department of State attaché in southwest Asia. For further information, please contact her at [email protected]. n