The name Lokono comes from the Arawak words loko meaning "people" and no, a suffix that makes a noun plural.[2] They are also called Arawak.[2]
In 1989, John Peter Bennet (Arawak) wrote that the word Arawak was not originally a Lokono word but was adopted by them.[7]
About 10% or 1,000 of the 10,000 Lokono today are fluent in their language, all aged 50 and over, with another 10% of varying ages - but mostly 30 to 50 in age range being semi-fluent, and 80% under 30 years of age being unable to speak their native tongue but only able to speak English, Dutch, French or Spanish - as Lokono is not taught in any school system in any country.[citation needed]
In the 19th century, when Western scholars had established that the major Indigenous population of the Caribbean during European contact (now known as the [Taíno] were culturally and linguistically related to the South American Lokono-Arawak, ethnologist Daniel Garrison Brinton proposed calling the Caribbean people "Island Arawak". Subsequent scholars shortened this convention to simply "Arawak", thereby causing confusion with the mainland people.[8]
In the 20th century, scholars such as Irving Rouse began using the older term Taíno for the Caribbean peoples to distinguish them from mainlanders. The mainland Arawak call themselves "Lokono" (also spelled "Locono" and "Lokomo"); this has become more common in scholarly literature since the late 20th century.[8][10]
History
The Arawakan languages may have developed in the Orinoco River Valley, and subsequently spread widely as speakers migrated, becoming the region's most extensive language family by the time of European contact.[11] The group that identified as the Arawak or Lokono settled the coastal and river valley areas of what is now Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Barbados and parts of the island of Trinidad.[10][8][12][13]
While the Spanish rapidly colonized the Caribbean islands, the Lokono and other mainland peoples resisted colonization for a much longer period. The Spanish were unable to subdue them throughout the 16th century. However, with increased encroachment from other European powers in the early 17th century, the Lokono allied with Spain against the neighboring Kalina (Caribs), who had allied with the English and Dutch.[14] Subsequently, the Lokono engaged in trading relationships with the Europeans, an arrangement that led to prosperity. However, economic and social changes in the region in the early 19th century, including the end of the plantation economy, adversely affected the Lokono, and their population began to decline.[1]
In the 20th century, the Lokono supplemented their traditional agricultural economy by selling fish and lumber and through migrant labor. Their population has begun to rise again. Approximately 10,000 Lokono are living in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, as well as thousands of others with Lokono ancestry.[1]
Guyana
The Lokono are one of three Amerind peoples living in coastal Guyana. The other two are the Kalihna and Warau.[9] Historically, they had matrilineal, agrarian societies.[9] In the 18th century, Dutch colonists hired them as fishermen and salt miners, but they were not enslaved.[9] In the 19th century, Lokono people worked under the English colonists.[9] Lokono have often intermarried with Afro-Guyanese people, and their children are accepted as being Amerind. By the 20th century, many of them assimilated in part to the Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese cultures;[9] however, they have taken efforts to keep their Lokono language alive in their communities. In 1989, John Peter Bennet (Arawak) wrote an An Arawak-English Dictionary.[15] In the 20th century, schools have implemented a 10-month language programme for Lokono children.[16]
Barbados
In 1627, English colonists convinced a Lokono family to move to Barbados to help with farming.[17]
Suriname
Johannes Karwafodi (Lokono, 1878–after 1940) was an important botanist and researcher in Suriname.[18]
Religion
Lokono have their own Indigenous religion. They respected spirits found in nature. Spiritual healers could communicate with these spirits, cure people, and offer advice.[19]
In the 18th century, Jeptha (Lokono), aided by two boys, translated the Bible and German hymns into Lokono.[17]
Notable Lokono people
Oswald Hussein, a Lokono sculptor who incorporates "rituals, spirits and animals held sacred by his culture" into his art.[20]
1 2 3 "Arawak". Caribbean Indigenous and Endangered Languages. Mona, Jamaica: UNESCO in collaboration with the Jamaican Language Unit, University of the West Indies. 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
1 2 "Lokono"(PDF). DICE Missouri. Archived(PDF) from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
↑ Rybka, Konrad (June 2015). State-of-the-Art in the Development of the Lokono Language. University of Hawaii Press. OCLC919313664.
↑ Brown, E. K.; Ogilvie, Sarah (2009). Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world. Elsevier. ISBN9780080877747. OCLC264358379.
↑ Bennett, John Peter (1989). "An Arawak-English Dictionary"(PDF). Archaeology and Anthropology. 6 (1, 2). Georgetown, Guyana: Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology.
↑ Bennett, John Peter (1989). "An Arawak-English Dictionary"(PDF). Archaeology and Anthropology. 6 (1, 2). Georgetown, Guyana: Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology.
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