Nickerie is a district of

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 ...

, on the north-west

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

. Nickerie's

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...

Nieuw-Nickerie Nieuw Nickerie. Retrieved 17 November 2009. is the third largest city in Suriname with a population estimated at . It is the capital city of the Nickerie district, and the terminus of the East-West Link. Nieuw Nickerie lies on the mouth of the ...

. Another town is

Wageningen Wageningen () is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of in , of which many t ...

. The district borders the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

to the north, the Surinamese district of

Coronie Coronie is a district of Suriname, situated on the coast. Coronie's capital city is Totness. The district border the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the Surinamese district of Saramacca to the east, the Surinamese district of Sipaliwini to the sou ...

to the east, the Surinamese district of Sipaliwini to the south and the region of

East Berbice-Corentyne East Berbice-Corentyne (Region 6) is one of ten regions in Guyana covering the whole of the east of the country. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the Nickerie District and Sipaliwini District of Suriname to the east, Brazil to the sou ...

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 ...

to the west. Nickerie has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 36.639 (2004) and an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

of 5,353 km². Nickerie's population includes East Indian, Javanese,

Afro-Surinamese Afro-Surinamese are the inhabitants of Suriname of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought to work on sugar plantations. Many of them escaped the plantations and formed independent settlements together, bec ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, and

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...

. Nickerie is bordered with

. There is no bridge between the countries, but there is a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

that sails between Molson Creek in Guyana and South Drain.

History

Nickerie District was originally settled by

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

s. Near the

Wonotobo Falls The Wonotobo Falls (Dutch: ''Wonotobovallen'') are a series of waterfalls in the Courantyne River in Sipaliwini District, Suriname near the border with Guyana. The waterfalls are not navigable. A pre-Columbian petroglyph site is located near the ...

, a settlement was discovered which dates from the

1st century BC The 1st century BC, also known as the last century BC and the last century BCE, started on the first day of 100 BC and ended on the last day of 1 BC. The AD/BC notation does not use a year zero; however, astronomical year numberi ...

. Between the 6th and 16th century some ''

terp A ''terp'', also known as a ''wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt'' or ''værft'', is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides an ...

en'' (artificial mounts) were built in the coastal area of which

Hertenrits Oostelijke Polders is a resort in Suriname located in the Nickerie District. Its population at the 2012 census was 7,153. Villages in the resort include Glasgow, Hamptoncourtpolder, and Paradise. Oostelijke Polders is an agricultural area with ...

is the best known. In 1613, a tobacco plantation was established on 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 ...

, however it disappeared without a trace. In 1718, Dietzel became the first person to successfully settle in the area. In 1797, governor

Jurriaan François de Friderici Jurriaan François de Friderici (7 December 1751 – 11 October 1812) was a Dutch military officer and plantation owner. He served as Governor of Suriname from 1790 until 1802. In the 1770s, he was involved in the Boni Wars. In 1799, Suriname wa ...

approved the first plantation in Nickerie. A large number of Scottish and English settlers arrived in the area during the British Occupation, and primarily grew

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

. The capital Nieuw Nickerie was built in 1879 after the former center of the district,

Nieuw Rotterdam Nieuw Rotterdam was the capital of the Nickerie District in Suriname, built on the right bank of the Nickerie River. Around 1875, this town got flooded by the sea. In 1879, on the left bank of the Nickerie River, the current capital Nieuw Nickerie ...

, was destroyed by floods. The name Nickerie is probably based on ''Neekeari'' which was first reported by Teenstra in 1596 for an

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

tribe living the area. The name also appears in Robert Dudley's ''The Voyage of Robert Dudley to the West-Indies, 1594-1595''. Nickerie had a poor connection to

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 ...

. It was not until 1960s when the East-West Link was constructed linking Nickerie with the rest of the country.

Resorts

* Groot Henar *

Nieuw Nickerie Nieuw Nickerie. Retrieved 17 November 2009. is the third largest city in Suriname with a population estimated at . It is the capital city of the Nickerie district, and the terminus of the East-West Link. Nieuw Nickerie lies on the mouth of the N ...

* Oostelijke Polders *

* Westelijke Polders

Villages

* Cupido *

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

* Hamptoncourtpolder * Lokono Shikuabana *

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

* South Drain

Agriculture

During the 19th century, Nickerie became home to many plantation. The abolition of slavery, transformed the area in smaller scale farming. In the late 19 century, many plantations start to shift to

balatá ''Manilkara bidentata'' is a species of ''Manilkara'' native to a large area of northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Common names include bulletwood, balatá, ausubo, massaranduba, quinilla, and (ambiguously) " cow-tree". D ...

production whose latex was used for driving belts and isolation, but started to become obsolete in the early 20th century. In 1955, a project of poldering started, resulting in an increase of cultivatable land.

Banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

s and

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

are the main crops grown in Nickerie. Some rice had been grown previously, but during the 20th century, Nickerie became the centre of the rice in Suriname, mainly due to the East Indian and Javanese indentured laborers.

Tourism

Nieuw Nickerie is started to develop as a tourist area. There are quite a number of

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

s in the city, and the nearby Bigi Pan Nature Reserve opened opportunities for

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...

. In 1972, the

Nature Reserve was founded. In the reserve there are five ''

en'' (artificial mounts). They were located in the middle of the

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, and remains from the

pre-Columbian era In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the Migration to the New World, original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization of the Americas, European colonization, w ...

had been discovered in the mounts. Hertenrits has been incorporated into the Bigi Pan reserve.

References

External links

Nickerie.nl

Nickerie.net
* * {{Authority control Districts of Suriname