Groningen is the capital town of the
Saramacca District
Saramacca is a district of Suriname, in the north. Saramacca's capital city is Groningen, with other towns and cities including Batavia, Kampong Baroe, Uitkijk, Maho and Boskamp. Saramacca has a population of 17,480 and an area of 3,636 km2 ...
,
Suriname.
Groningen only began to grow after 1960. Around that time the
East-West Link, a road linking
Albina via
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' ...
to
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 ...
was built. This let Groningen become accessible by road.
The town features: an office of the district commissioner; a post office; an office for the police commander, an office of the State health foundation(SZF) and the
J. Eliazer football stadium, named after the founder of the Football Federation of Saramacca and president. There is also a Moravian Church and a Roman Catholic church.
In 1910, a nursing home for
yaws
Yaws is a tropical infection of the skin, bones, and joints caused by the spirochete bacterium ''Treponema pallidum pertenue''. The disease begins with a round, hard swelling of the skin, in diameter. The center may break open and form an ulce ...
sufferers was established. It was closed after it was discovered that the disease could be cured within days by applying
Salvarsan
Arsphenamine, also known as Salvarsan or compound 606, is a drug that was introduced at the beginning of the 1910s as the first effective treatment for syphilis, relapsing fever, and African trypanosomiasis.
This organoarsenic compound was the fi ...
.
History
A pentagonal fort was built on this site in 1790, which was named by Governor
Jan Wichers
Jan Gerard Wichers (15 July 1745 – 3 October 1808) was a military officer and lawyer. He served as Governor of Suriname from 1784 until 1790.
Biography
Wichers was born on 15 July 1745 in Groningen, Dutch Republic. In 1760, he started studying ...
, after his birthplace in
Groningen, Groningen. Across the river was a
leper colony by the name of ''Voorzorg'', meaning 'precaution'. Fort Groningen was part of a cordon of forts. However the fort itself had only a few plantations and therefore was not very developed. There were plans to expand the fort and build a town that would be called Columbia, however not much more than the fort itself, a few blocks, a cemetery and an 1830s Moravian Church was ever built.
During his time as a soldier in Suriname (1836–1842),
August Kappler described the area, and notes about Groningen that "on this place (...) a city would be built. Several streets have been laid out (...); however for the main issue, houses, one searches in vain."
The fort was rediscovered in 2011.
Colonisation attempt
At the end of 1845 the survivors of a group of Dutch farmers, led by Pastor Arend van den Brandhof, arrived in Groningen. They emigrated to Suriname from the Dutch province of
Groningen to help build a new life on the other side of the
Saramacca River
Saramacca River is a river in Suriname. The Arawaks named this river "Surama", and today's name "Saramacca" is probably derived from it. It originates in the Wilhelmina Mountains and flows northwards and enters the Atlantic Ocean together with t ...
. Within six months nearly two hundred people had died of
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
and/or
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...
and the remainder resettled across the river in Groningen. Countless other settlers died.
From 1849 small groups of survivors began to move to the areas of
Kwatta
Kwatta is a resort in Suriname, located in the Wanica District. Its population at the 2012 census was 14,151.
Kwatta is named after a former cocoa plantation located here. It used to be an agriculture area, but due to its close proximity of Para ...
and
Uitvlugt
Uitvlugt (pronounced "owt-flut") is a village in the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region of Guyana. On the coastal public road on the west bank of the Demerara River, it lies immediately to the west of Stewartville and to the south of Zeeburg ...
near Paramaribo. Colonisation was considered a failure in 1853, when there was a total of 43 people left living in Groningen. The following year their leader, , departed, heading back to the Netherlands. His wife, Anna Pannekoek, had died in 1845 and been buried in the cemetery in Groningen. ''Pannekoekstraat'', a street running through Groningen, is named after her. When the districts were established in 1863, Groningen became the capital of the Saramacca district. Van den Brandhof's house, now left alone, became the residence of the district commissioner. In 1945 a monument was built to commemorate the presence of the
Boeroes in Groningen. It was unveiled on 20 June 1945.
On the 150-year anniversary in 1995, descendants of the Boeroes donated a medical laboratory to Groningen.
See also
*
Groningen (disambiguation)
References
{{Authority control
Resorts of Suriname
Populated places in Saramacca District