ancestral custom recognizes the roots of the Sara.
The moral authority of the Sara people is tied up
in the rituals of passage of the young men and
women that occur every 7 years for a period of
2 months. For boys and girls, this is a phase of
physical hardship, discipline, and ethnic scarifica-
tion as measures to indicate maturity.
Indeed, the Sara people represent one of the
ethnic groups that have been forced to relinquish
a major part of their ancient traditions and cus-
toms because of external religious influences. Belief
in the impact of the ancestors on the living is still
a part of the Sara tradition despite the inroads
made into their culture by other religions.
M. TillotsonSee alsoAncestors; Rituals
Further Readings
Asante, M. K. (2007).The History of Africa:The Quest
for Eternal Harmony. London: Routledge.
Asante, M., & Nwadiora, E. (2006).Spear Masters:An
Introduction to African Religion. Lanham, MD:
University Press of America.
SARAMACCA
The Saramacca people are one of six Maroon
communities found in Surinam in the South
American hemisphere. The Maroons of Surinam
have the distinction of being the only Maroons to
have maintained themselves as politically and cul-
turally autonomous communities in the Americas
up to this day. Indeed, unlike Maroon communi-
ties in other parts of the Americas, such as Brazil,
for example, the Maroons of Surinam have man-
aged to perdure and carry on their traditions.
There are about 60,000 Maroons in Surinam,
with the Saramacca numbering approximately
25,000. In addition to the Saramacca, the other
Maroon communities include the Djuka, the
Matawai, the Aluku (also known as Boni), the
Paramacca, and the Kwinti.
Surinam, formerly known as Dutch Guiana,
was invaded in 1651 by the British, who set up a
plantation economy based on chattel slavery and
the production of sugar, a typical development in
South and Central America at that time. In 1667,
however, the Dutch successfully seized Surinam
from the British and proceeded to expand the pro-
duction of sugar, with the massive and constant
introduction of Africans. In fact, the high mortal-
ity rate among enslaved Africans, which could not
be compensated for due to a low birth rate and
which was due primarily to the atrociousness of
slavery and the extremely harsh life conditions that
enslaved Africans experienced, rendered necessary
the uninterrupted arrival of men, women, and
children from the African continent. With them,
those men, women, and children brought their cul-
ture, including, of course, African religion. The
culture of the Maroons of Surinam is often cited by
scholars as the most obviously and unmistakably
African culture of the Americas. Interestingly, and
as a preliminary example, one of the Saramacca
villages is calledDahomey, the name of a powerful
kingdom in West Africa. Also, the Creole language
spoken by the Saramacca is tonal, a characteristic
phonological feature of African languages. About
30% of the Africans taken into bondage in
Surinam came from Central Africa, with the
remaining 70% originating in West Africa.
Africans started escaping from plantations as
soon as they were brought into Surinam, that is, in- The Saramacca probably started coalescing,
as a community, in 1690, when a large number of
Africans escaped together. In 1728, the Saramacca,
as well as other Maroon communities that had
come then into existence as well, began to raid
plantations in an attempt to obtain weapons, tools,
and women. The Dutch attempted to fight back
and crush the Maroons, whose frequent attacks
had made their life quite difficult, if not impossi-
ble. However, they were unsuccessful and opted
for peace treaties with the Maroons starting in - Those peace treaties, among other things,
acknowledged Maroon communities as sovereign
nations, totally independent from the plantations.
When slavery was finally abolished in Surinam, in
1863, the Maroons maintained their autonomy
and continued to live in a fair amount of isolation
in the interior of the country.
The Saramacca are organized in lo, that is,
matrilinear clans. Members of a lo trace their
ancestry back to a common woman ancestor. Each
Saramacca village coincides with a given lo. It has
594 Saramacca