Totness is a town in Suriname, located in the

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 ...

district, of which it is the capital. Totness is the oldest settlement in the district.

History

Totness was settled by Scottish and English colonists from 1808 onward, and is named after

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and abo ...

, England. In 1863, the area around Totness was designated for independent agriculture. A market and a District Commissioner's Office on the former

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

Friendship were added to the resort. In the 1940s, a road was built linking Totness with

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' ...

which is nowadays part of the East-West Link. The Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System has its landing station in Totness. It connects the telecommunications networks in Suriname with those in Guyana and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and from Trinidad to the rest of the world. The Totness Airstrip is one of the oldest airports in Suriname, in use since 1953, when the

Piper Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is P ...

(PZ-NAC) of Kappel-van Eyck named "Colibri" landed there from Zorg en Hoop Airport. Totness has been designated as a regional centre, and is planned to be upgrade with a medium sized

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 re ...

and a proper city centre. The village of

Friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept o ...

is located is on the north side of the East-West link, and Totness is to the south.

Sports

The Letitia Vriesde Sportcomplex is a multi-purpose stadium located in Totness. It is home to SVB Eerste Klasse club F.C. West United.

Tata Colin

Tata Colin (circa 1806 - 1836) was a slave on the plantation Leasowes near Totness. In 1835, he attempted a slave rebellion. His intention was to free all the slaves, but he was betrayed, taken to

where he was tortured and tried. Colin was taken to Fort Zeelandia to be hung, but died or vanished using black magic, before his sentence was carried out. His followers were sentenced to hard labour or public corporal punishment. A statue had been erected to Tata Colin in the central square of Totness, and the local school had been named after him.

Notable people

* Jozef Slagveer (1940–1982), journalist, and a victim of the

December murders The December murders (Dutch: ''Decembermoorden'') were the murders on 7, 8, and 9 December 1982, of fifteen prominent young Surinamese men who had criticized the military dictatorship then ruling Suriname. Thirteen of these men were arrested on De ...

. *

Michaël Slory Michaël Arnoldus Slory (4 August 1935 in Totness, Surinam – 19 December 2018 in Paramaribo, Suriname) was a Surinamese poet. He mainly wrote poetry in Sranan Tongo, and is considered one of the most important poets in Sranan Tongo. He also pu ...

(1935–2018), poet mainly in

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 ...

* Ervin Tjon-A-Loi (born 1995), footballer *

Letitia Vriesde Letitia Alma Vriesde (born 5 October 1964) is a female former track and field athlete from Suriname, who specialised in the 800 metres but was also successful over 1500 metres. She is the first (and to date, only) sportsperson from Suriname to co ...

(born 1964), athlete *

Emile Wijntuin Emile Linus Alfred Wijntuin (22 September 1924 – 7 May 2020) was a Surinamese politician who served as Chairman of the National Assembly of Suriname from 1975 until the aftermath of the 1980 Surinamese coup d'état. Wijntuin was a member of t ...

(1924–2020), Chairman of the National Assembly of Suriname.

Gallery

File:Church on Sunday (18168628221).jpg, Church of Totness File:Huis tussen de bomen - 20651592 - RCE.jpg, Hidden house (1967) File:Vooraanzicht en zijaanzicht gevel - Totness - 20417921 - RCE.jpg, House in Totness File:Haven en zoutwaterkanaal van Totness (titel op object), NG-1994-65-1-28-1.jpg, Harbour of Totness (1906-1913)

References

{{Authority control Resorts of Suriname Populated places in Coronie District