Small and beautiful
Suriname is the smallest country in South America but home to diverse cultures. Suriname falls in the northeastern Atlantic Coast. It is bordered by French Guiana to the east, Brazil in the south and Guyana in the west.
Cuisine
Suriname’s cuisine is inspired by varied cultures – India, Africa, Indonesia, Portuguese as well as Netherlands. Interestingly, since Suriname was a Dutch colony till 1970, the Dutch got Indonesian labourers to the country. Hence Moksi-alesi made of salted meat, shrimp/fish, vegetables and rice is a dish similar to Indonesian fried rice, nasi goreng.
Tropical climatic conditions bring in coconut and plantains. Bojo cake is a popular coconut dessert whipped up with coconut and cassava.
Proximity to the coast attracts seafood. There is a stockfish called ‘bakkeljauw’ that is dried unsalted fish used in Suriname cooking along with vegetables.
Pom, a Portuguese Jewish influence is a baked dish of chicken, vegetables and pomtajer (new cocoyam) root. But chicken and rice stands as the national dish of Suriname.
Culture
Dutch is the official language of Suriname. They also left behind their traces in the form of designing the modernist buildings between the years 1950 to 1970.
The Maroons are African descendants who were brought by the Dutch to work as labourers. They contributed in the field of art and are well known for their woodcarvings and paintings.
With the influx of Indians, folk music in Suriname at first was played with instruments like harmonium, tabla, dholak, dhantal and sitar. In addition, kaseko is a music style, which is a blend of European, American and African cultures. Cynthia Mcleod is a famous name in literature for her works on Suriname’s real historical evidences.Like other South American countries football is a popular sport along with basketball and volleyball.
