Apoera, also Apura, is a town in western

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 ...

. The village has a population of 777 people as of 2020. It is the final destination of the Southern East-West Link. north-west on the other side of the

Courantyne River The Courantyne/Corentyne/Corantijn River is a river in northern South America in Suriname and Guyana. It is the longest river in the country and creates the border between Suriname and the East Berbice-Corentyne region of Guyana. Its tributarie ...

lies the Guyanese village of

Orealla Orealla (or Orealla Mission) is an Indigenous community in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region of Guyana, on the Courantyne River, approximately south of Crabwood Creek and north of Epira, located at , altitude 11 metres. south-east on the ...

. The village is home to the

Lokono The Lokono or Arawak are an Arawak people native to northern coastal areas of South America. Today, approximately 10,000 Lokono live primarily along the coasts and rivers of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Barbados and French Guiana. They speak the ...

tribe, but has been westernized. Due to the influx of people of

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

, the languages used are

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, and

Sranan Tongo 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 amo ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

is rarely spoken and the native language has all but disappeared. According to the

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...

, Apoera was founded around 1920 by the Gordon family.

Geography

Apoera is part of the

Kabalebo Kabalebo is a resort in Suriname, located in the Sipaliwini District. Its population at the 2012 census was 2,291. Geography Kabalebo is a resort in Suriname named after the Kabalebo River that flows through this area. Clockwise, the Kabalebo ...

resort in the

Sipaliwini District Sipaliwini is the largest district of Suriname, located in the south. Sipaliwini is the only district that does not have a regional capital, as it is directly administered by the national government in Paramaribo. History Sipaliwini was created i ...

. This town is situated on the Surinamese (Eastern) Bank of the river Corantijn and has about 777 inhabitants, originally mainly Ameridians of the

tribe. Apoera, apart from over the river, is also accessible via the road link

Zanderij Zanderij is a village located in the northern part of Suriname, situated 50 kilometres south of the capital Paramaribo on the Southern East-West Link. The Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport , al ...

-Bitagron-Camp 52 (the southern east–west link). It is located about 24 km from the Guyanese village of Orealla. The town of Apoera is situated in the close vicinity of the Amerindian Village

Washabo Washabo is a town in Suriname, located in the Kabalebo resort of Sipaliwini district. The town lies on a bend in the Corantijn river (Courantyne), on the border with Guyana. Washabo is an indigenous village of the Lokono tribe near Apoera. It has ...

, the Tiriyó village of

Sandlanding Sandlanding is a Tiriyó village in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. The village lies just south of Apoera, which is mainly inhabited by Arowaks. Most of the villagers originally came from Kwamalasamutu who had settled in Wanapan. Sandlan ...

, and the Washabo Airstrip. Up to 1995, the villages of Apoera, Washabo and Section were governed by the same chieftain due to their close vicinity.

Healthcare

Apoera is home to a ''

Medische Zending Medische Zending Primary Health Care Suriname, commonly known as Medische Zending (Dutch for "medical mission") or MZ is a Surinamese charitable organization offering primary healthcare to remote villages in the interior of Suriname. History The ...

'' healthcare centre.

Economic development

In the framework of the West-Suriname plan from 1976 to 1978 an 80 kilometer long railway was built from the south of Apoera to the Bakhuis mountain range, for bauxite mining. It was intended that Apoera would be developed into a port where bauxite ships could dock, but in the end the railroad was never used for this purpose. According to this

West Suriname Plan The ''West Suriname Plan'' was an economic development plan for the western part of Suriname. As originally conceived, it consists among others of the mining of bauxite in the Bakhuis Mountains, the building of a hydroelectric power plant on the ...

, Apoera would be transformed into a prosperous harbor city transporting

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

coming from the

Bakhuis Mountains The Bakhuis Mountains () are a mountain range in central Suriname, spanning 110 kilometres. The mountain range form of the Northern part of the Wilhelmina Mountains, and the mountains and its village were named after the Netherlands, Dutch explorer ...

to the ships in the harbor. The plan never came to fruition and the 63 prefab houses for the workmen had been abandoned and often squatted. In 2003, twelve houses were sold to the inhabitants. In the framework of the

IIRSA The Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA) is a development plan to link South America's economies through new transportation, energy, and telecommunications projects. IIRSA investments are expected t ...

project on the upgrading of the road between

Ciudad Guayana Ciudad Guayana () (in English Guayana City) is a city in Bolívar State (Venezuela), Bolívar State, Venezuela. It stretches 40 kilometers along the south bank of the Orinoco, Orinoco river, at the point where it is joined by its main tributary ...

, , Linden, Apoera and

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...

, a bridge spanning the

is planned near Apoera. According to a study by Pitou van Dijk, the Linden-Paramaribo section has only secondary priority with IIRSA at the moment. There was timber extraction taking place at Apoera including at the business complex of the sawmill of the

Greenheart Group Greenheart Group () is a listed multi-national forestry company based in Hong Kong. The company owns 13,000 hectares of softwood plantation forest in New Zealand and 322,000 hectares of concessions and harvesting rights in Suriname. Gree ...

, but Greenheart closed the sawmill in 2015. Apoera has some lodges where tourists can stay during trips through the rain forest. The Surinamese writer

Clark Accord Clark Bertram Accord (6 March 1961 – 11 May 2011) was a Surinamese–Dutch author and makeup artist. Writing His debut book, published in 1999, was ''De koningin van Paramaribo'' (''The Queen of Paramaribo''), written about the life of Max ...

wrote the novel ''"Between Apoera and Oreala"'' which was published in 2005.

References

{{Authority control Guyana–Suriname border crossings Indigenous villages in Suriname Populated places in Sipaliwini District Squatting in Suriname