Bigi Poika
| Bigi Poika | ||
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Coordinates: 5 ° 25 ′ N , 55 ° 30 ′ W Bigi Poika on the map of Suriname
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| Basic data | ||
| Country | Suriname | |
| District | Para | |
| Residents | 525 (2012) | |
| Detailed data | ||
| surface | 2361 km 2 | |
| Population density | 4.5 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| height | 30 m | |
| Waters | Saramacca , Coesewijne | |
| Time zone | UTC −3 | |
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Bigi Poika ( Caribbean : Akarani) is a place and resort inhabited by the Caribs in the Para district in Suriname . It has 525 inhabitants (Census 2012).
location
Bigi Poika is situated between the Saramacca and Coesewijne rivers . It can be reached from the capital Paramaribo, about 80 kilometers away, via the Indira-Gandhi-Weg towards Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport , from here via the south-east-west connection, the Avanaveroweg, westwards towards Apoera. On the way you have to cross the bridge over the Saramacca and then a side path leads north to the village, which is about 25 kilometers away from here. Bigi Poika lies in the shape of the landscape in a savannah .
There is a daily bus connection with Paramaribo. Since the sand runways from the airport are usually poorly maintained, the drive to or from Paramaribo often takes more than four hours.
income
The inhabitants live mainly from hunting, forestry, small-scale farming and, to a lesser extent, from fishing. Some of the products, as well as goods made from cotton or wood, are brought for sale daily in the Paramaribo market. In addition, the village community has the traditional rights over the adjacent Ober-Coesewijne nature reserve . The local population is therefore preferred by the state as forest and protection personnel in the nature reserve.
Language, public institutions
The colloquial language in Bigi Poika is the Caribbean. Most of the residents also speak Sranantongo and, to a lesser extent, Dutch . The place has a primary school with four teacher's apartments. The educators mostly consist of local staff. In the neighborhood of the school there is a traditionally built community house.
There is also a small polyclinic in the village , but it is not always manned. As a result, the population is often dependent on the polyclinic in Zanderij .
Civil war
In the course of the civil war, also known as the “jungle war”, which broke out in 1986, between the “jungle command ” under Ronnie Brunswijk and the national army under the leadership of Desi Bouterse , various smaller guerrilla groups called Angula, Mandela were established in the Bigi Poika area and kofimaka active. Locals from different villages founded the Tucajana Amazones movement , which was armed by Bouterse. They blocked the south-east-west connection and declared the entire hinterland to be an independent local area. The military commander of the Tucajana’s (translated: storm), Thomas Sabajo, set up his headquarters in a teacher's apartment in Bigi Poika in 1989 . With the peace talks at the beginning of the 1990s, the situation normalized again and the Tucajana’s left Bigi Poika in September 1992.
music
Traditional songs have been sung and danced in Bigi Poika since ancient times, especially during the inauguration, installation of the village head and mourning rituals. A large community festival is also organized every year in June.
In the 90s of the last century a new phenomenon developed, the originally pure Creole Kawina music, sung a cappella , accompanied only by a few traditional percussion instruments, also became increasingly popular among the locals. Kawina groups formed who sang texts in local languages and in Sranan. Bigi Poika was one of the places where this Ingi-Kawna took root. Music formations such as Akarani Sound, Esekematoko and Kari Kuri emerged.
Community forest
On July 9, 2016, a government delegation formally handed the village community the right to use the forest for an area of 22,000 hectares in the Bigi Poika area in the form of a concession agreement.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Grondgebied Bigi Poika / Akarani vastgesteld op 22,000 ha StarNieuws from July 9, 2016, in Dutch, accessed on July 11, 2016.