Pikin Slee (also Pikienslee) is a village 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 the resort

Boven Suriname Boven Suriname (also Upper Suriname) is a resort in Suriname, located in the Sipaliwini District. Its population at the 2012 census was 17,954. Almost its entire population consists of Maroons The resort is home to many small tribal villages. The ...

of 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 ...

. It is home to about 3,000 people, and the second largest village 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 ...

Maroons Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesi ...

, after

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

Overview

Pikin Slee has a school, clinic, and the Saamaka Marron Museum. Pikin Slee adheres to the Afro-Surinamese

Winti Winti is an Afro-Surinamese traditional religion that originated in the colony Suriname, part of the Dutch Empire. It is a syncretization of the different African religious beliefs and practices brought in mainly by Akan and Fon slaves durin ...

religion. The majority of the population make their living from agriculture. Pikin Slee is home to a group of

Rastafari Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of ...

wood carving Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...

artists, whose work is on display in the museum. A holiday eco-resort is located near the village. On 14 November 2011, the Saamaka Marron Museum was founded. The museum is dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Saramaccans with a special emphasis on art. The current

chieftain A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categori ...

of the village is Wanze Eduards. During the 1990s logging companies encroached on the village of Pikin Santi. Extensive

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

caused by faulty bridging resulted in the loss of large plots of agricultural land. Eduards was awarded the

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...

in 2009, jointly with Hugo Jabini, for their efforts to protect their traditional land against logging companies, by bringing the case to the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'', ...

, and further to the

Inter-American Court The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR or IACtHR) is an international court based in San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it was formed by the American Convention on Human Rights, a human r ...

. In late 2019,

solar energy Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essenti ...

panels were installed in the village to provide 24 hours of electricity. Pikin Slee can be reached by boat from

Pokigron Pokigron is a town in Suriname located on Brokopondo Reservoir. It is located in the Boven Suriname municipality (resort) in the Sipaliwini District. It has a population of approximately 400 people in 2018. Pokigron is located at the end of a pave ...

which is the end of the road. Villages to the south of Pokigron can only be accessed by boat. An unpaved road leads to the

Botopasi Airstrip Botopasi Airstrip , is an airstrip serving Botopasi, Suriname. History of the airstrip The Botopasi Airstrip was constructed by the Surinamese Medical Missionary Service, the " Surinaamse Medische Zendings Vliegdienst", also called the “Medi ...

References

External links

Saamaka Marron Museum
(in Dutch) {{Surinamese District Sipaliwini Populated places in Sipaliwini District Saramaka settlements