Suriname’s maroons preserved African ritual practices through the end of the nineteenth century

Evidence

The story of how our forefathers honored God and their early ancestors when they came to receive the presents [presented by the government to the Bush Negroes as confirmation of peace treaties] and then returned to their villages: … When they got back safely to their villages, they fired many salutes for the people who had waited at home. These people came to the bank of the river singing, to escort them to shore. They played drums, danced, blew African trumpets, and sang, danced and celebrated the whole afternoon until nighttime and the whole night until morning And they played drums so! When they were finished, they would bring a bush drink that they made from sugar cane juice, and which is called bush rum. They would pour a libation on the ground. That was in order to give thanks to God and the ancestors. After that they would play for the obeahs and for the other gods who had helped them fight. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 699

Categorization

• XREF: Ritual libation and ancestor veneration among maroons connects to Achebe’s Things Fall Apart where African religious practice before colonization is the core subject.
• DEFINE: Concrete glimpse of what ‘African’ cultural continuity meant among diaspora maroons—drumming, obeah, ancestor veneration preserved as a bloc.