Johannes King | |
|---|---|
 Johannes King (~1870) | |
| Born | Adiri [1] circa 1830 [a] |
| Died | 24 October 1898 (aged 67–68) [4] Maripaston, Bigi Poika, Suriname |
| Nationality | Suriname |
| Occupation(s) | writer, missionary |
Johannes King (born: Adiri circa 1830 - 24 October 1898), was the first Maroon missionary, and the first important writer in Sranan Tongo. [1] [5] King belonged to the Matawai tribe, [1] and performed his missionary activities for the Moravian Church. [6]
Adiri was born as a son of granman (paramount chief) Kodjo of the Matawai, [7] near the plantations of Haarlem and Maho in Suriname. [3] Adiri was born and raised in a completely illiterate society. [6] In 1852, Adiri moved to Maripaston. During this period, he fell ill, and the illness lasted many years. [7] In 1855, Adiri started to receive visions: a strange god pointed at an alien religion, told him to go to the city, and be baptized. [6] Adiri went to Paramaribo, where he met van Calker, who was the preacher at the Moravian Church. He didn't stay long, and returned to his village soon after. Adiri returned in 1860, and had taught himself to read by then. [7] He had used an A.B.C. (alphabet) book, and Singiboekoe , a book with psalms from the Moravian Church in Sranan Tongo. [8] Once again he didn't stay long, but when he returned home, he started to build a church in Maripaston. [6] In 1861, he returned to the city, was baptized, and changed his name to Johannes King. [7]
King first started to preach under his own people for which King was paid by the mission. [6] King was briefly granman when his brother died, but opted to be solely a preacher. [9] In 1864, he was sent to the Ndyuka for a dual purpose: The Moravian Church had up to then been unable to reach the Ndyuka, [10] and the Matawai wanted to make a peace treaty with the Ndyuka. In 1864, King published a book about the visit in Sranan Tongo. [6] The book is hard to read, because he uses an autodidactic spelling and often confuses a with h. [b] [2] The original is archived by the Moravian Church in Zeist. [11]
During 1864 and 1865, King wrote and published over 1,000 pages on his visits to various tribes. [1] His most important works are a 1868 book about the religions and customs of the Maroons, the 1886 Skrekiboekoe (book of horrors), which deals with his visions, and a 1886 history of the Maroons. [7] King also wrote dresibuku, a medical book, but decided to keep it secret. [6] The fast majority of his writing are archived by the Moravian Church in Zeist or Herrnhut. [1]
On 29 May 1958, the Johannes King Hospital in Stoelmanseiland was named after Johannes King. [12] In 1973, the dairies of Johannes King were published in Sranan Tongo as Life at Maripaston with summary in English by Henri Frans de Ziel. [1]
"God zij met ons Suriname", or "Opo kondreman", is the national anthem of Suriname. It has two verses: the first in Dutch and the second in Sranan Tongo.
Sranan Tongo is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a lingua franca by approximately 519,600 people in Suriname.
The Aluku are a Bushinengue ethnic group living mainly on the riverbank in Maripasoula in southwest French Guiana. The group are sometimes called Boni, referring to the 18th-century leader, Bokilifu Boni.
The Paramaccan or Paramaka are a Maroon tribe living in the forested interior of Suriname, mainly in the Paramacca resort, and the western border area of French Guiana. The Paramaccan signed a peace treaty in 1872 granting the tribe autonomy.
The Kwinti are a Maroon people, descendants of runaway African slaves, living in the forested interior of Suriname on the bank of the Coppename River, and the eponymous term for their language, which has fewer than 300 speakers. Their language is an English-based creole with Dutch, Portuguese and other influences. It is similar to the languages spoken by the Aluku and Paramaccan Maroons, and split from Sranan Tongo in the middle 18th century. The Kwinti had a population of about 300 in 2014 and adhere to the Moravian Church.
Wanhatti is a village and resort in Suriname, located in the Marowijne district on the Cottica River. The resort is inhabited by the Ndyuka Maroons, and has a population of 468 people as of 2012. The village is primarily inhabited by Ndyuka of the Ansu clan or lo.
Johannes Alabi (c. 1743–1820) was granman of the Saramaccans, a Maroon people in Suriname. He was of Yoruba West African descent.
Tapanahoni is a resort in Suriname, located in the Sipaliwini District. Its population at the 2012 census was 13,808. Tapanahoni is a part of Sipaliwini which has no capital, but is directly governed from Paramaribo. Tapanahony is an enormous resort which encompasses a quarter of the country of Suriname. The most important town is Diitabiki which is the residence of the granman of the Ndyuka people since 1950, and the location of the oracle.
The Ndyuka people or Aukan people (Okanisi), are one of six Maroon peoples in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in French Guiana. The Aukan or Ndyuka speak the Ndyuka language. They are subdivided into the Opu, who live upstream of the Tapanahony River in the Tapanahony resort of southeastern Suriname, and the Bilo, who live downstream of that river in Marowijne District.
Kwinti is an English-based creole of Suriname closely related to Ndyuka. The language has less than 300 speakers, and split from Plantation Creole which is nowadays known as Sranan Tongo in the middle 18th century. Code-switching with Sranan Tongo and Dutch was common among the younger generation in 1973, and about 70% of the tribe have moved to the urban areas. UNESCO considers the language endangered.
André R.M. Pakosie is a Surinamese historian, poet, Ndyuka activist and Edebukuman of the Afaka script.
Diitabiki is a Ndyuka village in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. Diitabiki is the residence of the gaanman of the Ndyuka people, since 1950, and the location of the oracle.
Langatabiki is a Paramacca village in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. Langatabiki is the residence of the granman of the Paramaccan people. Langatabiki is located in the Pamacca resort which was created on 11 September 2019 out of Tapanahony.
Granman is the title of the paramount chief of a Maroon nation in Suriname and French Guiana. The Ndyuka, Saramaka, Matawai, Aluku, Paramaka and Kwinti nations all have a granman. The paramount chiefs of Amerindian peoples in Suriname are nowadays also often called “granman”.
The Matawai are a tribe of Surinamese Maroons. The Matawai were originally part of the Saramaka, and signed a peace agreement with the Dutch colonists in 1762. The tribe split from the Saramaka, and in 1769, they were recognized as a separate tribe.
Stoelmanseiland is an island, and a village in the Paramacca resort of the Sipaliwini District in Suriname. It is located at the confluence of the Tapanahony River with the Lawa River which forms the Marowijne River, and is also the border with French Guiana.
Paramacca is a resort in Suriname, located in the Sipaliwini District. The population is estimated between 1,500 and 2,000 people. In 1983, the Sipaliwini District was created, and the eastern part became the resort of Tapanahony. The Paramacca resort is the northern part of Tapanahony, and mainly inhabited by the Paramaccan people, the border of the resorts is the island of Bofoo Tabiki in the Marowijne River.
Maripaston was a village situated in the Bigi Poika resort of the Para District, Suriname. The village was located along the Saramacca River and used to be the main village of the Matawai maroons, a group of descendants of African slaves who escaped and formed their own communities in the interior of Suriname.
Johannes Helstone, born Nicodemus Johannes Helstone, was a Surinamese composer, pianist and writer. He is best known for his 1906 opera Het Pand der Goden.
Sara Creek is a former tributary of the Suriname River located in the Para District of Suriname. After the completion of the Afobaka Dam in 1964, the Sara Creek flows into the Brokopondo Reservoir. In 1876, gold was discovered along the Sara Creek, and a railway line from Paramaribo to the river was completed in 1911.
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