Acarouany is a village in the

Mana According to Melanesian and Polynesian mythology, ''mana'' is a supernatural force that permeates the universe. Anyone or anything can have ''mana''. They believed it to be a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being a ...

commune of

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (; gcr, Senloran di Maronni) is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is one of the three sub-prefectures of French Guiana and the seat ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

. Acarouany was the location of

leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Af ...

between 1833 and 1979. From 1989 until 1992, it was the location of a Surinamese

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

. The village is located on the .

Leper colony

In 1828, the

Ministry of the Navy and Colonies One of France's Secretaries of State under the Ancien Régime was entrusted with control of the French Navy (Secretary of State of the Navy (France).) In 1791, this title was changed to Minister of the Navy. Before January 1893, this position also ...

sent Sister

Anne-Marie Javouhey Anne-Marie Javouhey, SJC (November 10, 1779 – July 15, 1851) was a French nun who founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny. She is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. She is known as the ''Liberator of the Slaves'' in the New World, a ...

to colonize the area. Lepers up to then had been treated on the

Salvation Islands The Salvation Islands (french: Îles du Salut, so called because the missionaries went there to escape plague on the mainland; sometimes mistakenly called Safety Islands) are a group of small islands of volcanic origin about off the coast of Fre ...

. In 1833, Sister Javouhe set out to create a

leprosarium A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Af ...

south of the village of Mana on the Acarouany River. At first the patients were housed in straw huts, the construction of a leprosarium with brick buildings took three years. Between 1882 and 1886, the leprosarium was directed by

Paul-Louis Simond Paul-Louis Simond (30 July 1858 – 3 March 1947) was a French physician, chief medical officer and biologist whose major contribution to science was his demonstration that the intermediates in the transmission of bubonic plague from rats to h ...

. After returning to France, he wrote his doctoral thesis ''Leprosy and its means of spread in French Guiana'' for which Simond was awarded the Godard Prize. Simond would later proof that the

flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

spread the

bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well a ...

. In 1947, the leprosarium was modernized and renovated, however the Sisters still remained in charge. In 1979, the leprosarium was closed.

Surinamese refugees

The

Surinamese Interior War The Surinamese Interior War ( nl, Binnenlandse Oorlog) was a civil war waged in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname between 1986 and 1992. It was fought by the Tucayana Amazonas led by Thomas Sabajo and the Jungle Commando led by Ronnie Brunswij ...

, which was fought between 1986 and 1992, resulted in refugees crossing the border between

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 ...

and French Guiana. The village of Acarouany was rediscovered by the refugees and

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

. In 1989, a camp was built near the village to house the refugees. Originally the camp was home to 1,465 refugees. The camp was dismantled in 1992, however Acarouany remained an inhabited village. In 1999, the village was declared an historic monument. The village is nowadays inhabited by Surinamese, Haitian, Brazilian, and

Hmong people The Hmong people ( RPA: ''Hmoob'', Nyiakeng Puachue: , Pahawh Hmong: , ) are a sub-ethnic group of the Miao people who originated from Central China. The modern Hmongs presently reside mainly in Southwest China (Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chon ...

. The Hmong are from neighbouring

Javouhey Javouhey is a town in northwest French Guiana in the Mana commune of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. Most of its people are Hmong refugees from Laos who settled in French Guiana. Javouhey was founded in 1978, as the second Hmong settlement village in Fr ...

, a resettlement village founded in 1978. In 2013, the mayor of Mana removed 44 families who were living in the village illegally.

References

External links

Photos of Acarouany by Raoul Kieffer
{{authority control Mana, French Guiana Leper colonies Refugee camps in South America Villages in French Guiana Squatting in France