Subject: [Art] Maroon Art
Article:

Richard and Sally Price are collecting Naroon art for the museum to be located at Remire, French Guiana. All of their art collecting efforts takes place in July 1990 and is restricted to the French side of the Maroni River due to the jungle 'war' in Suriname. They form a collection team and throughout the book it becomes clear that collecting Maroon arts such as woodcarvings, textiles and calabashes is not that easy. You can sense their frustration when they have to deal with the bureaucracy, lack of facilities, spare parts for their boat motor, the heat and mosquitoes. The authors both speak the Saramaka language and some of their transactions follows a script like the one below: "Me wanny buy timbeh' (E) I want to buy wooden pieces Answer from a maroon: "Me no habbi massra" (E) I have nothing to part with. [massra is from the slave period for Master] "Me no wanny fu selly" (E) I do not want to sell it The buyer: "Me gon gibbe sixa banknoto" Before independence the Ndjukas preferred to be paid in Dutch silver half guilders (banknoto) or tobacco. The authors paid in French Francs. If it is a deal the seller [Maroon] answers "gimme". The authors travel by canoe up/down the Maroni River stopping at jungle villages and huts of the Maroons but primarily those of Ndjukas, Alukus and Saramaka and Paramakas. They meet old friends from previous visits and often they have refreshments or hot meals with the Maroons. While eating they are shown carved stools, canoe padles,tables, textiles and calabashes. Some are not chosen because they are not museum quality. The book 'Equatoria' has numerous drawings of the items that were collected for the museum in French Guiana. -------


Met dank aan Albert Buys