The annual gathering of Surinamese people in Queens, New York. Family, food, soccer, music and more.
Sranan Dei, translated Suriname day, is the annual gathering of Surinamese people in New York. Traditionally it is held in the first week of August and people from Surinamese descent from all over the US are gathering. Some are even coming from Holland. Since many Americans wonder where Suriname is, here is a little about this country very few of you have heard of.
The Republic of Suriname lies in South America, yes indeed, South America, in the middle of the Guyana’s at the north of Brazil. Some of you may know the country by its former name, Dutch Guyana. Like the US, Indians were the native inhabitants of the land before it was colonized by the Europeans in their urge for treasures and expansion. With temperatures between 73 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit, without natural hazards and ranked the 17th wealthiest nation when regarding its natural resources, Suriname can still be considered an attractive little paradise. This is of course a contrast because even with a literacy rate of 93%, the infrastructure of 400.000 inhabitants from four different continents is insufficient to commercialize the natural resources. After 300 years of slavery, the Dutch colonizers also shipped Asians from India and Indonesia to the country to work the plantations which is why the population is so diverse.
Raymond Joval Middleweight Boxing champion since 1999 is a regular on Suriname Dei
right: Traditional dress from the Maroon People in Suriname
Raymond Joval Middleweight Boxing champion since 1999 is a regular on Suriname Dei
right: Traditional dress from the Maroon People in Suriname
41% of the diverse population is from African descent and as with all the children of the Diaspora there is a resemblance to African Americans. More than related our histories are entangled. Not only did we also overcome the cruelties of slavery with the help of heroic freedom fighters, we saved our spirits by reinventing our culture as well. As many similarities and differences our newly evolved cultures have, the one thing that truly connects us is that we are blessed with nappy hair. This may sound shallow but isn’t it true that in every corner of this world we were and are still being judged, banned or discriminated for wearing locks, braids or afro’s? We are connected by our roots because we are the only people in the entire world who were ever denied the basic right to wear our God given hair natural. We had to go to court before we were allowed to wear our natural styles. “Ain’t that something?”
Long crinkled locs and watching soccer
Like so many Surinamese I was looking forward to the Suriname day. There are not too many of us in New York. Consequently it’s very unlikely to bump into each other and our busy schedules hardly allow us to meet on a regular basis. That makes coming together to celebrate our culture a real joy. We are a soccer-loving nation so as usual there was a friendly competition between teams. If you are part of a soccer team, feel free to join us next year. I have to warn you though, we are pretty good. We got some famous players around the world, like Edgar Davids or Patrick Kluivert These two dominated the Nike commercials during the world cup a couple of years ago. As friendly as we are, you might get your behind kicked.
We can humbly say that we are pretty well-known for our sport efforts in General. Anthony Nesty, who also grew up in Suriname, is the first black first black athlete to win an Olympic medal in swimming. He beat US favored Hall of Famer Matt Biondi on 100-meter fly at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
Our food really sets us apart as the flavors and dishes from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, are all coming together in the Surinamese kitchen. Naturally besides food there was also our music to enjoy. Two live bands drawn people to the so called dance floor in front of the singers. The unique Surinamese rhythms like Skratjie and Kawina, are hard to resist. They call the dance spirits to live and clearly did their job on this “Sranan Dei”. The people were dancing as if they were shaking the phantoms out of their systems.
It was a great day in Smokey Park, Queens. The weather was nice, people were laughing, eating, drinking, dancing, singing and in all this colorful madness the nappy connection was everywhere. Since it’s my pleasure to portrait natural hairstyles, I had a blast. Hopefully you’ll experience some of it when you see the pictures.
Sources:
CIA World Fact book
Wealth of Nations
Raymond Joval
Anthony Nesty