Ganzee (also Gansee) is a former village in the

Brokopondo District Brokopondo is a district of Suriname. Its capital city is Brokopondo; other towns include Brownsweg and Kwakoegron. The district has a population of 15,909, and an area of 7,364 square kilometres. History The Brokopondo district was establish ...

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 was home to Maroons of the

Saramaka The Saramaka, Saamaka or Saramacca are one of six Maroon peoples (formerly called "Bush Negroes") in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in French Guiana. In 2007, the Saramaka won a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Hum ...

tribe, and located on the

Suriname River The Suriname River (Dutch: ''Surinamerivier'') is 480 km long and flows through the country Suriname. Its sources are located in the Guiana Highlands on the border between the Wilhelmina Mountains and the Eilerts de Haan Mountains (where it i ...

. In 1965, the village was flooded after the construction of the

Afobaka Dam The Afobaka Dam is an embankment dam with a main gravity dam section on the Suriname River near Afobaka in Brokopondo District of Suriname. The primary purpose of the dam is to generate hydroelectric power and it supports a 180 MW power stati ...

History

The village was founded in the interior of Suriname by runaway slaves. From 1765 onwards, the Moravian Church embarked on missionary activities among the maroons. First the focus was on converting people. In 1850, the first school in the interior was opened in Ganzee. In 1919, the village had a population of about 500 people and was the capital of the Upper Suriname district. In 1931, a clinic was established in the village. In 1958, plans were developed to create the

in order to provide electricity for the aluminium industry. The damming of the

would lead to the

Brokopondo Reservoir The Brokopondo Reservoir, officially named Professor Doctor Ingenieur W. J. van Blommestein Meer, and also called the Brokopondostuwmeer, is a large reservoir in Suriname. It is named after the Surakarta-born Dutch hydrological engineer Willem ...

, and flood the village of Ganzee. With an estimated 1,200 people, Ganzee was the biggest village in the area. In 1964, the villagers were transmigrated to

Klaaskreek Klaaskreek is a resort in Suriname, located in the Brokopondo District. Its population at the 2012 census was 2,124. Located northeast of Brokopondo, the main town is Reinsdorp. In 2007, a technical training centre in biological agriculture was ...

and Nieuw-Ganzee.

References

Former populated places in Suriname {{Suriname-geo-stub