Across the three Guianas (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana), around half the population have African ancestry. These objects – a gourd bowl and a comb – show off African culture in its most traditional form. Whilst elsewhere African art has been transformed by the influence of other cultures, this is not so among the Maroons of Suriname.
Across the three Guianas (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana), around half the population have African ancestry. These objects – a gourd bowl and a comb – show off African culture in its most traditional form. Whilst elsewhere African art has been transformed by the influence of other cultures, this is not so among the Maroons of Suriname.
Genetically, the maroons are probably little different to other Africans in Guiana; they arrived on the same slave ships; they came from a same huge area of Africa, stretching from Mali down through Congo and Angola. But there the similarity ends. From 1674 onwards (the departure of the English from Suriname, or ‘Willoughbyland’), a huge community of escaped slaves began to develop in the interior. They re-formed into African-style tribes, retained their African religions, and – as these artifacts show – nurtured their traditional artforms. For the maroons (now numbering around 50,000) it’s been a hard existence. Their history has been bloody, and, even now, many live secretive lives deep in the forest. Looking at these objects, it always amazes me how people who live such a remote, unstructured existence can be so geometric in their thoughts. These are, truly beautiful works of art, and are the pride of my little collection.
You can read more about the maroons in my book, Wild Coast
