La Charbonnière (

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 ...

: ''Sabonye'') is a neighbourhood 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 department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

. The neighbourhood is mainly populated by

Maroons Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos. ...

. La Charbonnière was created in 1989 to house Surinamese refugees, and to resettle the inhabitants of the shanty towns. It is located between the ferry to Albina and the village of Balaté.

Overview

In 1950, Maroons of the

Aluku The Aluku are a Bushinengue ethnic group living mainly on the riverbank in Maripasoula in southwest French Guiana. The group are sometimes called Boni, referring to the 18th-century leader, Bokilifu Boni. History The Aluku are an ethnic gro ...

tribe settled on the banks of the

Maroni River The Maroni or Marowijne (french: link=no, Maroni, nl, Marowijne, Sranan Tongo: ''Marwina-Liba'') is a river in South America that forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname. Course The Maroni runs through the Guianan moist fores ...

near Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. The first village was called Pikin Agoodé (Little Agoodé) after their

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of origin. The Surinamese Interior War, which was fought between 1986 and 1992, resulted in refugees crossing the border between Suriname and French Guiana. In 1989, a refugee camp was built in La Charbonnière to house the refugees. Originally the camp was home to 1,144 people. In 1989, construction started on a new neighbourhood to house both the refugees, and the inhabitants of the shanty towns. During the 1990s, the settlements on the river bank were demolished. The neighbourhood consists of triangular houses modelled after the huts inhabited by the Maroons. The relocation to

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

had limited success, because later new shanty towns emerged on the outskirts of the city. In 2020, INSEE counted six shanty towns with a maximum population estimate of 9,000 people. Pirogues sur les rives du fleuve Maroni

La Charbonnière has become a tourist attraction, and is one of the busiest parts of the city. Because French Guiana is part of France, and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, the prices for consumer goods are significantly higher than in Suriname. One of the attractions of La Charbonnière is the sale of smuggled goods at lower prices. On 20 April 2020, the illegally constructed stalls and shops were removed, because they violated

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

regulations.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite web, last1=Charbonnière, year=2007, url=https://www.saintlaurentdumaroni.fr/file/158457/, publisher=Ville de Saint-Laurent du Maroni, title=Laisez-vous conter La Charbonnière, language=fr,srn Maroon settlements Refugee camps in South America Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Squatting in France