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Surinaams
Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally among slaves from West Africa and English colonists, its use as a ''lingua franca'' expanded after the Dutch took over the colony in 1667, and 85% of the vocabulary comes from English and Dutch. It also became the common language among the indigenous peoples and the indentured laborers imported by the Dutch; these groups included speakers of Javanese, Sarnami Hindustani, Saramaccan, and varieties of Chinese. Origins The Sranan Tongo words for "to know" and "small children" are and (respectively derived from Portuguese and ). The Portuguese were the first European explorers of the West African coast. A trading pidgin language developed between them and Africans, and later explorers, including the English, also used this creole. Based ...
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Suriname
Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, and Brazil to the south. At just under , it is the smallest sovereign state in South America. It has a population of approximately , dominated by descendants from the slaves and labourers brought in from Africa and Asia by the Dutch Empire and Republic. Most of the people live by the country's (north) coast, in and around its capital and largest city, Paramaribo. It is also List of countries and dependencies by population density, one of the least densely populated countries on Earth. Situated slightly north of the equator, Suriname is a tropical country dominated by rainforests. Its extensive tree cover is vital to the country's efforts to Climate change in Suriname, mitigate climate ch ...
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Javanese Language
Javanese (, , ; , Aksara Jawa: , Pegon: , IPA: ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, Indonesia. There are also pockets of Javanese speakers on the northern coast of western Java. It is the native language of more than 98 million people. Javanese is the largest of the Austronesian languages in number of native speakers. It has several regional dialects and a number of clearly distinct status styles. Its closest relatives are the neighboring languages such as Sundanese, Madurese, and Balinese. Most speakers of Javanese also speak Indonesian for official and commercial purposes as well as a means to communicate with non-Javanese-speaking Indonesians. There are speakers of Javanese in Malaysia (concentrated in the West Coast part of the states of Selangor and Johor) and Singapore. Javanese is also spoken by traditional immigrant communities of Javanese descent in Suriname, Sri Lanka an ...
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God Zij Met Ons Suriname
"" () or "" ("Rise, countrymen" in Sranan Tongo) is the national anthem of Suriname. It has two verses: the first in Dutch and the second in Sranan Tongo. History The original version of the anthem was written by Cornelis Atses Hoekstra in 1893 and based on a 1876 melody by Johannes Corstianus de Puy. It was written to replace the old anthem "Wien Neêrlands Bloed". The anthem did not have an official status. In 1959, the Government of Suriname appointed Surinamese writer Henri Frans de Ziel to add a stanza about the unity of the country to Hoekstra's anthem. De Ziel was concerned about the negative nuance in the original and started to transform the anthem into a positive message. He combined this with a poem he wrote in Sranan Tongo on the death of Ronald Elwin Kappel. His anthem was unanimously approved by the Government of Suriname on 7 December 1959. De Ziel originally used a melody by Surinamese composer Johannes Helstone Johannes Helstone, born ''Nicodemus Johannes Hels ...
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André Pakosie
André R.M. Pakosie (born 25 May 1955) is a Surinamese historian, poet, Ndyuka activist and ''Edebukuman'' (head of experts) of the Afaka script. Pakosie comes from a family of herbal doctors and is himself a phytotherapist in the Surinamese Maroon tradition. He founded the Sabanapeti health center and the Maroon Institute Sabanapeti Foundation. In the 1980s he had to leave Suriname because of the Suriname Guerrilla War and settled in the Netherlands. He has received honors from the Queen of the Netherlands and the President of Suriname. He was the founder of "Maroon Day", celebrating the Maroon struggle for freedom. In his teens he rejected Christianity as he felt it hostile to pre-Christian traditions. In addition to being a herbalist and activist he is also a poet and historian. He is noted for his writing concerning the Maroon peoples. André Pakosie has written more than 30 books as of 1972, in the following languages: Dutch, Sranan Tongo and the Ndyuka or Okanisi languag ...
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Eugène Drenthe
Eugène Constantijn Donders Drenthe (12 December 1925 in Laarwijk, Surinam – 30 March 2009 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) was a prominent Surinamese poet and playwright. Biography Drenthe was born in Laarwijk, Surinam, as an illegitimate child of Louise Drenthe and the local police officer who was also the parish clerk. Drenthe used to talk about it as if it was normal. This down-to-earth attitude also characterized his plays which showed the normal life of the Creoles in Suriname. The plays were successful, ''Geheim in het gezin'' was performed 57 times in Suriname. Drenthe produced 25 plays in all, which include ''Rudy'' (1959), ''Kedjaman'' (1969) and ''Djomp abra'' (1977). From 1968 onwards, the plays of Drenthe were being performed outside of Suriname. First to Curaçao, Aruba, and Puerto Rico, and later to the Netherlands. Drenthe was one of the founding members and first president of NAKS. NAKS was founded in 1948 as a social and cultural organization which promotes Afro-S ...
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Michaël Slory
Michaël Arnoldus Slory (4 August 1935 in Totness, Surinam – 19 December 2018 in Paramaribo, Suriname) was a Surinamese poet. He mainly wrote poetry in Sranan Tongo, and is considered one of the most important poets in Sranan Tongo. He also published in Dutch, English and Spanish Biography In 1947, Slory moved to Paramaribo from his birth place Totness, and went to the Algemene Middelbare School which is comparable to high school, but does not qualify for university. His teacher encouraged him to write not only to in Dutch, but also Sranan Tongo and Spanish. While in high school, he published his first three Dutch poems in the magazine ''Tongoni''. In 1958, Slory moved to Amsterdam to study a course in Spanish at a private school. After graduating, he enrolled in the University of Amsterdam where he joined Vereniging Ons Suriname. His poetry can be found in the yearbooks of the time. Ons Suriname was during that period, the centre for the Surinamese nationalist movement. Slo ...
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Celestine Raalte
Celestine Raalte (12 November 1948) is a writer and performance artist from Suriname living in the Netherlands. She was born in the Commewijne District. During the 1970s, she was a member of the Surinamese women's group Sranan S'ma Abi Wan Oso. Her work first appeared in the 1981 anthology ''Tide tamara, Dichten voor het volk''. Raalte moved to Utrecht in 1986. In 1989, she published her first collection of poems ''Akwenda / Streven''. That was followed by ''Ma Awitya'' in 1997. Both works also appeared in Dutch. Celestine Raalte has published both in Dutch as Sranan Tongo. Her work has also appeared in various magazines and in the 1995 anthology ''Spiegel van de Surinaamse poëzie''. Raalte also wrote a play ''Witte de Witlaan 25''. In 1997, she received the Kwakoe Award for her contribution to Surinamese art. She has received the Award twice: once for her fashion designs in 1999 and once for her poetry in 2000. In 2002, she received the . In 2010, she was named an Officer in t ...
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Henri Frans De Ziel
Henri Frans de Ziel (15 January 1916 – 3 February 1975), working under the pen name of Trefossa, was a neoromantic writer in Dutch language, Dutch and Sranan Tongo from Suriname. He is best known for the Sranan Tongo stanzas of God zij met ons Suriname, Suriname's National Anthem. Biography He was an educator and lived in the Netherlands from 1953 to 1956. Upon his return to Suriname he was part of the editorial staff of the magazines ''Tongoni'' (1958-1959) and ''Soela'' (1962-1964). He also served briefly as the director-librarian of Suriname's Cultural Centre (Cultureel Centrum Suriname (CCS)). He subsequently returned to the Netherlands to work on the publication of Johannes King's memoirs. Trefossa wrote primarily about the beauty of his native country, Suriname, especially as a source of peace to the restless mind. He influenced many writers in Suriname, including Corly Verlooghen, Eugène Rellum, Johanna Schouten-Elsenhout and Michaël Slory, but the depth and subtlety ...
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Dési Bouterse
Desiré Delano "Dési" Bouterse (; born 13 October 1945) is a Surinamese military officer, politician, convicted murderer and drug trafficker who served as President of Suriname from 2010 to 2020. From 1980 to 1987, he was Suriname's ''de facto'' leader after conducting 1980 Surinamese coup d'état, a military coup and establishing a period of 1980 Surinamese coup d'état, military rule. In 1987, Bouterse founded the National Democratic Party (Suriname), National Democratic Party (NDP). 2010 Surinamese general election, On 25 May 2010, Bouterse's political alliance, the ''Megacombinatie'' ("Mega combination"), which included the NDP, won the parliamentary elections, and 2010 Surinamese presidential election, on 19 July 2010, Bouterse was elected as President of Suriname with 36 of 50 parliament votes. He was inaugurated on 12 August 2010. Bouterse is a controversial figure, held responsible by some for numerous human rights violations committed during his military rule in the 19 ...
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Drietabbetje
Diitabiki (Sranan Tongo: ''Dritabiki'', Dutch: ''Drietabbetje'') is a Ndyuka village in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. Diitabiki is the residence of the gaanman of the Ndyuka people, since 1950, and the location of the oracle. Name Both the Ndyuka and Sranan Tongo name for the village translates to "three islands," with the word ''tabiki'' meaning "island" in both languages. While ''drie'' indeed also translates as "three" in the Dutch language, the word ''tabbetje'' is a homophonic translation of the Ndyuka word. History The Ndyuka people are of African descent, and were shipped as slaves to Suriname in the 17-18th century to work on Dutch-owned colonial plantations. The escaped slaves moved into the rainforest, and banded together. There were frequent clashes between the colonists and the Ndyuka, however in 1760, a peace treaty was signed granting the Ndyuka autonomy. From 1761 onwards, the Ndyuka gradually moved southwards in order to protected themselves from the c ...
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Johannes King
Johannes King (born: Adiri circa 1830 - 24 October 1898), was the first Maroon missionary, and the first important writer in Sranan Tongo. King belonged to the Matawai tribe, and performed his missionary activities for the Moravian Church. Biography Adiri was born as a son of granman (paramount chief) Kodjo of the Matawai, near the plantations of Haarlem and Maho in Suriname. Adiri was born and raised in a completely illiterate society. In 1852, Adiri moved to Maripaston. During this period, he fell ill, and the illness lasted many years. In 1855, Adiri started to receive visions: a strange god pointed at an alien religion, told him to go to the city, and be baptized. Adiri went to Paramaribo, where he met van Calker, who was the preacher at the Moravian Church. He didn't stay long, and returned to his village soon after. Adiri returned in 1860, and had taught himself to read by then. He had used an A.B.C. (alphabet) book, and '' Singiboekoe'', a book with psalms from the Moravian ...
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Saramaccan Language
Saramaccan () is a creole language spoken by about 58,000 ethnic African people near the Saramacca and the upper Suriname River, as well as in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname (formerly also known as Dutch Guiana). The language also has 25,000 speakers in French Guiana and 8,000 in the Netherlands. It has three main dialects. The speakers are mostly descendants of fugitive slaves who were native to West and Central Africa; they form a group called Saamacca, also spelled Saramaka. Linguists consider Saramaccan notable because its vocabulary is based on two European source languages, English (30%) and Portuguese (20%), and various West and Central African languages (50%), but it diverges considerably from all of them. The African component accounts for about 50% once ritual use is taken into account, the highest percentage in the Americas. It is derived from Niger–Congo languages of West Africa, especially Fon and other Gbe languages, as well as Akan and Central African la ...
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