This is a demography of the population of Suriname, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.
"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.
Saramaccan is a creole language spoken by about 58,000 people of West African descent near the Saramacca and the upper Suriname River, as well as in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname. The language also has 25,000 speakers in French Guiana and 8,000 in the Netherlands. It has three main dialects. The speakers are mostly descendants of fugitive slaves who were native to West and Central Africa; they form a group called Saamacca, also spelled Saramaka.
Nigerian Pidgin, also known simply as Pidgin or Broken or as Naijá in scholarship, is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria. The language is sometimes referred to as Pijin or Vernacular. First used by British colonists and slave traders to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century, in the 2010s, a common orthography was developed for Pidgin which has been gaining significant popularity in giving the language a harmonized writing system.
Ndyuka, also called Aukan, Okanisi, Ndyuka tongo, Aukaans, Businenge Tongo, Eastern Maroon Creole, or Nenge is a creole language of Suriname and French Guiana, spoken by the Ndyuka people. The speakers are one of six Maroon peoples in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in French Guiana. Most of the 25 to 30 thousand speakers live in the interior of the country, which is a part of the country covered with tropical rainforests. Ethnologue lists two related languages under the name Ndyuka, the other being a dialect of Lutos.
West African Pidgin English, also known as Guinea Coast Creole English, is a West African pidgin language lexified by English and local African languages. It originated as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders during the period of the transatlantic slave trade. As of 2017, about 75 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea used the language.
Caribbean Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbean people and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is a koiné language mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi languages. These Hindustani languages were the most spoken by the Indians who came as immigrants to the Caribbean from Colonial India as indentured laborers. It is closely related to Fiji Hindi and the Bhojpuri-Hindustani spoken in Mauritius and South Africa.
Surinamese Dutch, also known as Surinaams is the form of Dutch spoken in Suriname and is the official language in Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands. Dutch is spoken as a native language by about 80% of the population, most of them being bilingual with Sranan Tongo, Hindi, Javanese, and other languages. Nevertheless, Dutch is the country's sole official language. Surinamese Dutch is easily intelligible with other forms of Dutch. Furthermore, as opposed to other languages that have different forms in the Americas the regulation and thus standardised spelling of the Dutch language is done through a joint Dutch–Belgian–Surinamese organization, the Dutch Language Union, and thus has no regional differences regarding spelling. Suriname has been an associate member of this Nederlandse Taalunie since 2004. Therefore, many typical Surinamese words were added to the official Wordlist of Standard Dutch, known as "the Green Booklet".
Surinamese people are people who identify with the country of Suriname. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Surinamese, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Surinamese.
Afro-Surinamese are the inhabitants of Suriname of mostly West African and Central African ancestry. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought to work on sugar plantations. Many of them escaped the plantations and formed independent settlements together, becoming known as Maroons and Bushinengue. They maintained vestiges of African culture and language. They are usually split into two ethnic subgroups.
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.
NAKS is a social and cultural organization which promotes Afro-Surinamese culture and expression in Suriname and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1948 with Eugène Drenthe as its first president, when it emerged as the successor of association football club T.O.P. which was founded a year prior.
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”.
Eduard Johan "Eddy" Bruma was a Surinamese politician, lawyer and writer.
Julius Gustaaf Arnout Koenders was a Surinamese teacher and fervent activist for Sranan Tongo. As a teacher, he was forced to use the Dutch language thus denying the children their own language. He was an early advocate of Sranan and Creole culture.
Sranan Tongo, or for short Sranan, an English-based creole language spoken by many people in Suriname, is not an official language of Surinam but it has an extensive body of written literature dating back to the 18th century. Until the middle of the 20th century, most written texts in Sranan, seen at the time as a low-prestige language, used a spelling that was not standardized but based on Dutch orthography. In view of the considerable differences between the phonologies of Sranan and Dutch, this was not a satisfactory situation.
"Birth of a New Age" is a song by Surinamese singer-songwriter Jeangu Macrooy. The song represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The music video was recorded in the Rijksmuseum. In the song, Macrooy calls for resilience and authenticity. The song is mostly written in English and partly in Sranan Tongo, a lingua franca in 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.
The statue of Kwakoe in the Surinamese capital Paramaribo is a monument commemorating the abolition of slavery. It was made by the sculptor Jozef Klas.
Christiaan Hendrik "Hein" Eersel was a Surinamese linguist and cultural researcher.
