• Suriname
    1990 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • Suriname

      Snakes and jaguars lurk in the mountainous rain forest that blankets most of Suriname​—the smallest country in South America, both in area and in population. And when it comes to the courage of the worshipers of Jehovah God, the country is second to none.

      ON July 31, 1667, the ever-competing British and Dutch empires signed a peace agreement and swapped possessions: The Dutch handed New Amsterdam to the British, while the British ceded Suriname to the Dutch. Probably you are familiar with the British share of the exchange​—New Amsterdam, which they renamed New York. Still, what about Suriname?

      Formerly named Dutch Guiana and later Surinam, it lies on South America’s northeastern coast, wedged between Guyana, Brazil, and French Guiana. Its tropical climate would remind you of Florida (U.S.A.), although it is somewhat smaller than that peninsula. But wait, if you love to swim in blue seas or relax on white beaches, Suriname may not be the place for you. In fact, the country’s muddy shore looks so unfriendly that early settlers called it the Wild Coast. If you are the adventurous type, however, pack your insect repellent, malaria pills, and mosquito net and come, explore the most luxuriant and mysterious of all natural worlds: the mighty rain forest.

      Seen from an aircraft, the rain forest’s canopy forms a monotonous green carpet torn only by numerous rivers snaking northward to the Atlantic Ocean. Yet if you peek under that carpet, you find a habitat more diverse than anywhere else: the world of the elusive jaguar, splashy macaw, howling monkey, and king-size anaconda.

      Diversity is also the earmark of Suriname’s human population. The original inhabitants were the Amerindians. Then came the black slaves from West Africa, brought in to work the coffee plantations. Later, runaway slaves, or Bush Negroes, formed tribes thinly spread throughout the thick rain forest, which covers 80 percent of Suriname. After that, East Indians and Indonesians arrived. Add to those the Chinese, Lebanese, Jews, and descendants of Dutch settlers, and you see why Suriname’s population of 400,000 people is sometimes called “the world in pocket-size.”

      The equally diverse beliefs of the country’s Hindus, Muslims, Moravians (Protestants), Roman Catholics, animists, fetishists, and others have resulted in a religious patchwork. Add to this the variety of some ten languages, ranging from Dutch (the official language) to Sranan Tongo (the local tongue), and you can appreciate why the book Suriname​—Land of Seven Peoples notes that national unity still has “a long way to go.”