DISTRICTS
‘Districts’ refer to areas within the coastal plain of Suriname outside ‘the city’ (Paramaribo). Previously, there were no roads or dirt roads, no electricity and no running water. People travelled across the rivers by pontoons, boats, or corjals, used water from cisterns, and used kokolampu (oil lamps) for lighting. Cooking was done on wood fires.
Exceptions were large modern companies with a workers’ village, like the Mariënburg sugar factory in Commewijne, which had electric lighting before Paramaribo did. And in Moengo, the bauxite town, an American factory village with a swimming pool, cattle farm, hospital, stadium, club for senior executives and model houses for workers was built from the 1930s onwards. Both places have since fallen into disrepair.
District boundaries used to correspond with the river basins. In 1977, school textbooks referenced, from west to east:
- Nickerie (including the Courantyne River basin up to the southern border)
- Coronie (plantation area along the coast)
- Saramacca
- Paramaribo city district
- Suriname (lower Suriname River)
- Para (Para River south of Paramaribo)
- Brokopondo (and upper Suriname River)
- Commewijne and
- Marowijne (up to the southern border)
The district boundaries have changed a number of times. This has to do with population numbers and expected election results. Districts in Suriname are entitled to a number of seats in the National Assembly (parliament) and the number of votes needed to secure a parliamentary seat in a district is much lower than in Paramaribo.
The sparsely populated south of Suriname is now the Sipaliwini district, which is divided into four sections. District commissioners head the districts. District boards have local powers, but often lack financial resources. Suriname is governed from Paramaribo, where all the ministries are located. Discussions about a new international airport and a new capital have so far failed to lead to action.
Nickerie district
The capital city is Nieuw Nickerie on the Nickerie River. The town has been relocated several times due to erosion and flooding. Tourists visit Nickerie primarily en route to Guyana, or on a day trip to Bigi Pan, a shallow lake area with a wealth of fish, birds and caimans. The red ibis is becoming increasingly rare due to uncontrolled hunting. Poachers receive steep fines, but are rarely caught.
In the 1960s, polders were created around the model village of Wageningen for large-scale machine farming. Rice is planted for national consumption and export. There are also banana plantations. Most bananas are exported. There are many different kinds. ‘Bakba’ (bacoven) can be eaten freshly picked, while bananas should be boiled or fried.
Hindustanis are the largest population group in Nickerie, followed by the Javanese. There are still small farms, which are not very profitable. Most families prefer a job with a fixed income. People are therefore moving away to Nieuw Nickerie and Paramaribo. The government is doing its best to maintain basic facilities such as secondary education and a hospital in the district.
Coronie district
The main town is Totness. Coronie lies on a sand ridge (a beach ridge), sandwiched between the ocean and vast swamps. English and Scottish plantation owners established coconut plantations in the 19th century. The work was done by slaves. Javanese also settled in Coronie in the 20th century Before there was a road from Coronie to Paramaribo and Nickerie, people travelled across the rivers and sea by boat. It was difficult to dock in Coronie as the coast is very muddy.
Plantation names along the East-West link include Burnside, Friendship, Mary’s Hope, Totness. The plantations are run down, there are coconut palms but no new trees are planted. Erosion and salinisation are a major problem. A dike has been built to keep the sea water out, but freshwater from the marshes on the south side is also causing problems.
The East-West link is an international main road connecting Suriname to Guyana in the west and French Guiana in the east. In Coronie, colourful wooden houses line the road, which are increasingly falling into disrepair as residents move away. A number of 19th century Roman Catholic and Evangelical Brethren churches are maintained with difficulty. Coronie has traditionally been the area where ‘deep’ Sranantongo is spoken and where Creole (Afro-Surinamese) culture is kept alive. Well-known poets Sombra and Michael Slory are Coronians and many well-known Creole politicians have roots in Coronie.
Saramacca District
The main town is Groningen, south of the bridge over the Saramacca River. Along the waterfront, there is a square with government buildings and monuments commemorating the settlement of different populations.
Farmers immigrated from the Netherlands from 1845 to 1857 to engage in smallholder farming in the Groningen area. The end of slavery was in sight and it was thought there would be too little labour for agriculture. However, the Dutch farmers were opposed by plantation owners; it was unthinkable that whites would do the same work as slaves. Immigration also failed because most ‘boeroes’ died of tropical diseases within a few years. The survivors were eventually given land closer to Paramaribo where they set up successful agricultural and cattle farms. Familiar names include Van Ravenswaay, Van Dijk, Gummels, Tammenga and Loor. Historian André Loor presented TV programmes about the history of Suriname for many years and has written a wonderful book on the history of Suriname. The ‘boeroes’ formed a closed group that married among themselves for generations; the last 30 years have seen more mixed marriages with other ethnic groups.
Another important population group in Saramacca are the indigenous people (Indians), who live scattered along the Saramacca River. Their houses are clustered together, and the meeting hall sometimes still has a roof of palm leaves.
After the abolition of slavery (1863), work on the plantations and small farms was done by Hindustani and Javanese contract workers. The plantation area extended from the mouth of the Saramacca River to beyond Hamburg. Part of the right bank of the Saramacca river is no longer inhabited and is now covered with second-growth forest.
Bombay and Calcutta are well-known Hindustani settlements. Under the name K.R. Singh, politician and former minister Stanley Raghoebarsing published the book ‘From the clay of Saramacca’, in which he gives an evocative description of the daily life of his ancestors and family from the 1920s in Saramacca and later in Paramaribo.
There are no plantations in Saramacca today; Javanese smallholders grow peanuts, vegetables and fruit in the sandy soil. There are tourist resorts and more and more country houses along the Saramacca River.
Staatsolie is the most important company in Saramacca. Oil was drilled by chance in the 1980s and with tremendous perseverance, oil production was started. The driving force was Eddy Jharap, who was a director of the company for many years. There is now an oil refinery in Paramaribo and offshore oil drilling takes place in collaboration with multinationals. Oil production took off earlier in Guyana, giving the country a huge economic boost. Oil has in fact been found in Suriname, but large-scale production has not yet started.
There are two bridges over the Saramacca River: the bridge at Groningen along the East-West link, and the bridge between Uitkijk and Hamburg. Further upstream is the Maroon village of Santigron and even further upstream, behind numerous bends and rapids of the Saramacca river, there are villages founded by runaway slaves (New Jakobskondre, Pusugrunu).
Gold mining has been taking place since the late 19th century and thousands of people with excavators and dredging mills have been searching for gold, both in the jungle and in the river, since the 1980s. From the air, you can see a patchwork of abandoned ‘pools’ where prospectors have been working. Their camps can be recognised by huts made of black and blue agricultural plastic and the roads are passable only by ATVs (quads). The source areas of the Saramacca River are at the foot of Tafelberg in the Central Suriname Nature Reserve.
Wanica district
This is a densely populated area between Saramacca and Paramaribo where agriculture and cattle farming takes place and many businesses are located. It is situated along Kwattaweg and Garnizoenspad, part of the East-West link.
Paramaribo district
The city of Paramaribo has expanded from the historical centre over the past century. The names of several neighbourhoods hark back to the plantations that were once there. A few examples: Leonsberg, Clevia, Blauwgrond, Ma Retraite, Tourtonne, Nieuw Charlesburg, Kwatta, Zorg en Hoop, Dijkveld. Working class houses were built from the 1960s to the 1980s and these can still be seen today in Flora, as well as middle class houses in Ma Retraite.
Bruynzeel’s prefab wooden houses, which were even exported, were well-known There are often Bruynzeel houses for teachers near schools. Most district and inland government buildings were supplied by Bruynzeel in the 1960s and 1970s. The houses stand on wooden stilts (high plinth blocks). There is space for a storage shed, open garage and for drying laundry under the house. Low plinth blocks (stonfutu: stone feet) were used for working class houses.
Today, cement blocks and concrete are used for construction. This is not comfortable in a tropical climate, and residents are more or less forced to acquire air conditioning.
‘Klein Belém’ (Prinsessestraat, Anamoestraat) is in Paramaribo North. This is home to the Brazilians who form the mainstay of the Brazilian gold prospectors in the interior. There are Brazilian supermarkets that sell water pumps, tools and supplies for gold mining. Hotels, restaurants and casinos advertise in Portuguese via neon adverts. Shops and houses are rented from owners living in the Netherlands.
South of the Saramacca Canal (Nieuw Weergevondenweg and Kwarasan), there are cluttered neighbourhoods with middle class houses, working class houses, and houses made of demolition material. Not all places have a water supply or electric lighting and many people live below subsistence level. Still, many are well-dressed and there are sometimes big cars parked in front of the homes. Many men ‘hustle’ in Paramaribo or work in the gold fields for months on end and come home for a week now and then.
Flights to the interior of Suriname depart from Zorg en Hoop airport. There are daily international flights to Guyana. Tickets are expensive because small planes can carry limited passengers and cargo. Inland air traffic is important because the rivers are difficult to navigate due to alternating water levels and rapids, and because there are hardly any roads in the interior.
Near Paramaribo is the bridge over the Suriname River, built in 2000 and part of the East-West link; the road to Guyana and French Guiana.
Para District
Along Indira Gandhiweg (or Pad of Wanica) in Lelydorp, there are popular warungs (Indonesian eateries) that serve tasty baka bana, dawet, saoto soup, nasi, or noodles.
Onverwacht is the main town in Para. District administration, police and schools are located here. There is a rusty locomotive as a memento of the 173 km railway from Paramaribo to the gold fields between the Suriname River and the Marowijne. With the construction of the dam at Afobaka and the creation of the reservoir at Brokopondo, part of the railway line became submerged and no trains ran after 1985.
The SURALCO and Billiton bauxite mines supplied the raw material for aluminium in the Para and Marowijne districts for many years. Craters and ponds, as well as the abandoned aluminium smelter and port at Paranam, are still visible in the landscape. Production ceased when the bauxite was mined out. The bauxite and aluminium industry was Suriname’s main source of foreign exchange (US$) earnings from 1920 to 1990.
Zanderij International Airport (Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport), which was built by Americans in World War II, is about 40 km south of Paramaribo. When the Netherlands was at war from 1940 to 1945, American soldiers came to Suriname to protect the port of Paramaribo and aluminium production.
There are leisure resorts in Republiek and Bersaba, on the Para River, at Colakreek and Carolina Creek in Para. Artificial beaches have been constructed at White Beach and Overbridge on the Suriname River Families from Paramaribo visit the leisure resorts in Para on weekends and holidays. They barbecue, relax in hammocks, and play cards and volleyball. You can relax under centuries-old mahogany trees in Domburg along the Suriname River and enjoy what the market and warungs have to offer.
There are endless mud banks along the coast of Suriname; the sandbanks (Braamspunt and Matapica) at the mouth of the Suriname River are inaccessible by road and are increasingly being eroded and excavated.
Commewijne District
Commewijne is located across from Paramaribo. Since the construction of the bridge over the Suriname River (2000), many houses have been built by commuters from Paramaribo. Commewijne was an important plantation region from the 17th century onwards. Peperpot Plantation and nature reserve give you an impression of a coffee and cocoa plantation. The 19th century wooden director and overseer’s house, drying sheds and kampong can be visited.
Nieuw Amsterdam is located at the confluence of the Suriname River and Commewijne rivers. The district commissariat and a police post are located here. There is also a fishing port. The 18th century Fort Nieuw Amsterdam is an open-air museum and there is a nice walk along the outer dike of the star-shaped fort, which was built to protect the plantations in Commewijne from attacks by pirates and enemies approaching from the sea.
There is a road from New Amsterdam to Mariënburg and Alkmaar. Plantation houses and white wooden churches of the Moravian Congregation can be seen along the way.
Mariënburg was a model company from 1882. Sugar cane from the wider area was brought here by rail and processed into cane sugar and rum in a factory. The famous Marienburg rum and Borgoe now come from Paramaribo. The ruins of the factory and director’s houses can be seen on a square with gigantic trees. There are monuments commemorating Javanese immigration and the victims of a sugar plantation workers’ uprising (1902) during which the plantation director was killed. The company was active until the 1960s and eventually went bankrupt. Wooden workers’ houses and barracks can still be seen along the access roads.
Boats to Frederiksdorp and Johanna Margaretha depart from the jetty on the Commewijne river near Mariënburg. Frederiksdorp was a police post next to a coffee plantation and is now a tourist resort with historic and modern buildings. There are tours to Matapica during the sea turtle laying season. There are also cycle tours along the right bank of the Commewijne river where several plantations are parceled out and fishery and farming take place. Shrimp and fish are salted and dried at Rust en Werk and there is an aquaculture company that supplies shrimp.
The East-West connection to Tamanredjo, a Javanese village where tourists from French Guiana can acquaint themselves with the warungs, runs through Commewijne. The bridge over the Commewijne river is at Stolkertsijver. There was intense fighting along this road during the Internal War (1986 – 1991) and abandoned houses with bullet holes in the walls can still be seen here and there.
Marowijne district
Marowijne district borders Commewijne. The main town is Moengo, on the Cottica River. Bauxite was mined in the area and transported across the river to the smelter in Paranam. An American factory village with a swimming pool, cattle farm, hospital, stadium, a club for senior executives, and model houses for workers was built in the bauxite town from the 1930s. The town has since fallen into disrepair. Internationally renowned Surinamese artist Marcel Pinas regularly brings artists to Moengo to collaborate with locals on modern art.
Off the main road, there is a side road to Langatabiki on the Marowine River and the gold fields near Merian, where multinational Newmont has its operations.
A metal tower along the East-West link commemorates victims of Moiwana Maroon village who were shot dead by the National Army during the internal war for allegedly hiding guerrillas of the Jungle Command. The victims were mostly women and children. They are symbolised in Marcel Pinas’ artwork by metal blocks, which are higher or lower depending on the person’s age. The monument features the Afaka script, a secret writing of the Maroons, which can also be seen in other artworks by Marcel Pinas.
Albina is the departure point for the ferry to French Guiana. Passports are stamped and visas are checked here. Those crossing by corjal do not usually pass through customs and are allowed into French Guiana only for a short visit to Saint Laurent. Those travelling on to Cayenne will be turned back at a police station en route. From Albina, prospectors set off upstream to the gold fields on the Marowijne River with provisions and barrels of fuel.
Piakas (seaworthy boats) also go from Albina to the indigenous village of Galibi (Christiaankondre and Langamankondre). Tour operators transport tourists from Paramaribo to Albina by bus and then to Galibia by piaka, equipped with life jackets. The water can be quite turbulent at high tide. Galibi is a popular destination for sighting sea turtles on the beaches during the laying season (January to July). There is a sandy beach and walks through the native village are organised.
Brokopondo district
The main town is Brownsweg, where the district administration is located. Brownsweg originated in the 1960s when residents of Maroon villages who had to be evacuated for construction of the reservoir moved here. The straight rows of small wooden houses on low plinths and with zinc roofs are still there. The village is not on the river and today most of the men work in the (illegal) gold mines. As it happens, Brownsweg borders both the Brownsberg Nature Reserve and multinational IAMGOLD’s concession. Illegal gold miners operate in the wider area, both with metal detectors (pio-pio) and excavators and huge tractors.
Brownsberg is a well-known tourist destination. It is cool and humid on the mountain plateau, and the rainforest is home to many birds, monkeys and other animal species. The huge jungle giants and dense vegetation of lianas, bromeliads and orchids are spectacular. Unfortunately, gold prospectors have felled parts of the jungle, increasing erosion, making creek water turbid, and driving wildlife away with electric lighting and noise from generators and water pumps. Tour operators organise day trips and multi-day trips to Brownsberg, sometimes combined with stays on Overbridge or Ston Island.
A road goes from Brownsweg to Afobaka along the foot of the dam. Water from the Suriname River and Sarakreek basin could no longer flow to the sea following construction of this 40-metre high dam to generate hydropower. The water level behind the dam rose gradually and the reservoir grew bigger and bigger. Villages were evacuated and there are still logs and pointy stumps in the lake. From Afobaka, next to the dam, pontoons and corjals with cargo and prospectors leave for the gold fields around the reservoir, which is as big as the entire province of Utrecht in the Netherlands. The reservoir is widely fished by anglers on weekends.
The dam was transferred to the state of Suriname after the departure of ALCOA, SURALCO’s parent company. The dam was built in the early 1960s to generate electricity using hydropower for SURALCO and later for Paramaribo too. Much of the electricity for the urban area is still produced with hydropower from the dam. Part goes to IAMGOLD, a multinational that mines gold southwest of the dam and in Saramacca. They are open mines where huge tractors and excavators are used.
From Brownsweg, a road leads southeast to Atjoni, on the Suriname River. There, corjals depart upstream to the inland villages and resorts. There is no public transport, the tourist resort you are visiting provides transport from Paramaribo, and all meals are provided on site. There are few shops in the inland villages, so everything needed is brought in from Paramaribo. Some resorts can be reached by light aircraft and then by corjal.
Well-known tourist resorts along the Suriname River include Isadou, Gunsi, Anaula, Danpaati and Kumalu. Awarradam lies on the Gran Rio. The resorts are situated in the vicinity of Maroon villages founded by ‘runaways’ (slaves who had fled the plantations during the period of slavery) in the 17th and 18th centuries. You can learn about their way of life, music and dance on the tours There is hiking in the surrounding jungle.
Sipaliwini district
The laterite road to Apoera on the Courantyne River starts behind Zanderij. Forest access roads were built in the 1960s. They are important for transporting wooden blocks (logs). Side roads southwards lead to timber concessions and gold fields. The laterite roads are often impassable because they are damaged during the rainy season and by heavy transport.
At the bridge over the Coppename River, you often have to pay villagers from Witagron to put planks on the bridge before your vehicle can cross it. The Raleighvallen resort in the Central Suriname Nature Reserve is a few hours’ boat ride upstream from Witagron. Tourists usually fly there from Paramaribo. The combined bus and boat trip takes a full day.
Sipaliwini is Suriname’s largest and most sparsely inhabited district, accessible almost exclusively by river and plane. There are no roads from the coastal plain to southern Suriname. The Courantyne river forms the border with Guyana. The territory on the southern border between the headwaters of two rivers is disputed. There is also disputed territory on the eastern border with French Guiana. There are only border crossings with customs at Southdrain, south of Nickerie, and at Albina.
Maroons and natives regard the river as a road, where they have family on both banks. They are not concerned with national borders. The Surinamese government tries to provide as many people as possible with proof of identity during election time so that they can exercise their right to vote as citizens.
The presence of the army, police, education and healthcare is limited to strategic locations. Nieuw Nickerie, Apoera and Kwamalasamoetoe in the west, and Albina, Langatabiki, Stoelman Island and Dritabiki in the east. Witagron on the Coppename River, Nieuw Jakobkondre on the Saramacca river.
The southern border is a winding line across the watershed between Brazil and Suriname. Brazil’s rivers flow south to the Amazon. Suriname’s rivers flow in a northerly direction to the Atlantic Ocean.
The contrast between the Surinamese and French banks of the Marowijne River is enormous. There are roads from north to south, and government agencies are clearly visible on the French side Yet the French are also plagued by illegal prospectors. The interior of French Guiana is a nature reserve where logging is only allowed under strict conditions. Gold mining is subject to strict regulations.
Suriname’s interior has had a network of telecomms transmission masts in recent years, so mobile phones have largely taken over the role of radio communication. There is no coverage in sparsely populated areas.
Multi-day trips are offered to Sipaliwini from Paramaribo. There are resorts in Kabalebo, Arapahu (Courantayne river), Raleighvallen (Central Suriname Nature Reserve), Awarradam (Gran Rio) and Palumeu. There is no mass tourism as the transport of passengers and all supplies is carried out by light aircraft from Zorg en Hoop airport in Paramaribo.
