Suriname 1 Suriname by Rein Spoorman (2004) Suriname, formerly Dutch Guiana, is located on the Atlantic coast in the northeastern part of South America. It is bordered to the east by French Guiana, to the south by Brazil and to the west by Guyana. The country has an area of 63,245 sq miles (163,800 sq km). The climate is tropical, and the chief resources are bauxite, iron ore, copper, nickel and timber. Paramaribo is the country’s capital, largest city and chief seaport. The main ethnic groups are Asian Indians (Hindustanis), who make up about 37 percent of the population, and Creoles, a people of African descent (32 percent). There are also sizable communities of Indonesians (15 percent); Maroons, descendants of blacks who escaped slavery by moving to the interior (10 percent); Amerindians, descendants of indigenous tribes (3 percent); Chinese (2 percent); and Europeans (1 percent). The official language is Dutch; most people also speak Sranang Tongo (Taki-Taki), a local language that includes elements of several other languages. The main religions are Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Before the advent of Europeans, the territory that is now Suriname was inhabited by tribes of Arawak, Carib and Warrow Indians. The first Dutch expeditions to the northeast coast of South America took place in 1597--98, and the first Dutch colony was established in 1616 on Essequibo Island in what is now Guyana. The Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621 to exploit the area. Although in South America, the area that was to become Suriname was historically part of the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean. English traders established sugar and tobacco plantations on the west bank of the Suriname River around 1650 and founded the settlement that is now Paramaribo, bringing slaves from West Africa to work on the sugar- cane plantations. In 1667 the English ceded their part of Suriname to The Netherlands in exchange for New Amsterdam (later New York City). In 1815 the Congress of Vienna awarded the area that is now Guyana to Britain while confirming Dutch rule in what was Dutch Guiana -- present-day Suriname. After the abolition of slavery in the area in 1863, Indian emigrants and Chinese and Javanese workers were brought in to solve the labor shortage. In 1922 Suriname became an integral part of The Netherlands, and in 1954 a new constitution elevated its status to that of a coequal member of the kingdom. When Suriname attained full independence in 1975, many people chose to retain Dutch citizenship and emigrated to The Netherlands. Music in Suriname Each of Suriname’s population groups developed its own musical traditions. In the case of the indigenous people, Amerindian songs, (bamboo) flute music, (healing) spiritual music and dance are remembered mainly by the older generations. Though the Carib tribes have maintained their traditional music, most of the young people are influenced by popular music. For instance in the east by the French-Antillian kadence-music and by the popular kawina of the dominant Afro-culture. For their part, the Javanese of Suriname, who from 1890 on had been shipped from one