1 Charles E. Orser Jr., ‘The Archaeology of the African diaspora’, Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 63–82; Cheryl White, ‘Kumako: a place of convergence for Maroons and Amerindians in Suriname, SA.’, Antiquity 84, no. 324 (2010): 467-79; Daniel Sayers, A Desolate place for a Defiant people: the Archaeology of Maroons, Indigenous Americans, and enslaved laborers in the Great Dismal Swamp (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2014).
2 Case Watkins and Judith A. Carney, ‘Amplifying the Archive: Methodological Plurality and Geographies of the Black Atlantic’, Antipode 54, no. 4 (2022): 1297-319.
3 Simone Schwarz-Bart and André Schwarz-Bart, In praise of black women 2: Heroines of the slavery era (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), 64-6.
4 Tinde van Andel et al., ‘Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 50 (2014): E5346-53; Tinde van Andel, Amber van der Velden and Minke Reijers, ‘The ‘Botanical Gardens of the Dispossessed’ revisited: richness and significance of Old World crops grown by Suriname Maroons’, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 63, no. 4 (2016): 695-710; David Picking and Ina Vandebroek, ‘Traditional and local knowledge systems in the Caribbean: Jamaica as a case study’, in: Traditional and indigenous knowledge for the modern era: a natural and applied science perspective, ed. D.R. Katerere, W. Applequist, O.M. Aboyade, C. Togo (Boca Raton: CFC Press, 2019): 89-116.
5 Judith A. Carney, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001): 107-41; G. Ugo Nwokeji, ‘African Conceptions of Gender and the Slave Traffic: New Perspectives on the Transatlantic Slave Trade’, The William and Mary Quarterly 58, no. 1 (2001), 60.
6 Bethany Aram and Manuel Enrique García Falcón, ‘Rice Revisited from Colonial Panama: Its Cultivation and Exportation’, in American Globalization 1492–1850, Trans-Cultural Consumption in Spanish Latin America, ed. B. Yun-Casalilla, I. Berti, and O. Svriz-Wucherer (New York: Routledge, 2022): 146-68.
7 Nwokeji, African Conceptions of Gender, 47; Rénie van der Putten, ‘Surinaamse ‘weglopers’ van de jaren 1767-1802’, Oso 24 (2005): 279; Richard Price, Maroon Societies: Rebel slave communities in the Americas (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996): 16,19
8 Richard Price, ‘The Maroon Population Explosion: Suriname and Guyane’, New West Indian Guide 87, no. 3-4 (2013): 323–7.
9 See for the Saramaccans, Richard Price, First-time: the historical vision of an Afro-American people (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983); Edward C. Green, The Matawai Maroons: An Acculturating Afro-American Society (PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 1974); John D. Lenoir, The Paramacca Maroons: a study in religious acculturation (PhD diss., New School for Social Research, 1973); André Köbben, ‘Continuity in change-Cottica Djuka society as a changing system’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 124, no. 1 (1968): 56-90; Bonno Thoden Van Velzen and Wim Hoogbergen, Een zwarte vrijstaat in Suriname: De Okaanse samenleving in de achttiende eeuw (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
10 Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan, Tolin E. Alexander, Stones have laws, Documentary (2018; Amsterdam: Vriza). https://vimeo.com/ondemand/stoneshavelaws/583263308; Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), ‘Lands of Freedom: The oral history and cultural heritage of the Matawai Maroons in Suriname’, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/198cd38e98014dbe9b926d3d20011f98 (accessed 25 Oct., 2022); Merengue de Beet, Michiel de Koning, VR Film: De Reis van Mama Tjoa, Video (2020; Youtube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JPs9tfKUzE (accessed 25 Oct., 2022).
11 Exceptions are: Jean Hurault, La vie matérielle des noirs réfugiés Boni et des Indiens Wayana du Haut-Maroni (Guyane française): agriculture, économie et habitat (Paris: ORSTOM, 1965); Marie Fleury, ‘Agriculture itinérante sur brûlis (AIB) et plantes cultivées sur le haut Maroni: étude comparée chez les Aluku et les Wayana en Guyane française’, Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Ciências Humanas 11, no. 2 (2016): 431-65; Van Andel et al, Botanical Gardens of the Dispossessed.
12 John Gabriel Stedman, Narrative of a five years’ expedition, against the revolted negroes of Surinam, trans. and ed. Richard and Sally Price (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, [1790] 1988).
13 Sally Price, Co-wives and Calabashes (Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press, 1993).
14 Sylvia de Groot, Agents of their own emancipation: topics in the history of Surinam Maroons (Eigen Beheer: Amsterdam, 2009).
15 Price, First-Time; 1983; Frank Dragtenstein, De ondraaglijke stoutheid der wegloopers: Marronage en koloniaal beleid in Suriname, 1667-1768 (PhD diss., Utrecht University, 2002); Bonno Thoden and Wilhelmina van Wetering, The great father and the danger: Religious Cults, Material Forces, and Collective Fantasies in the World of Suriname Maroons (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1988).
16 Price, First-Time, 8.
17 Tinde van Andel et al., ‘Tracing ancestor rice of Suriname Maroons back to its African origin’, Nature Plants 2 (2016): 16149.
18 Tinde van Andel et al., ‘Hidden rice diversity in the Guianas’, Frontiers in Plant Science 10 (2019): 1161.
19 Price, First-Time, 45-49; Idem, Alabi’s world (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990): 9-10.
20 David I. de Cohen Nassy, Essai historique sur la colonie de Surinam (Amsterdam: S. Emmering, [1788] 1968): 76; Dragtenstein, Wegloopers, 17.
21 Ibid., 11; Price, First-Time, 59.
22 Idem, Alabi’s world, 9-10.
23 Idem, First-Time, 56-8; Dragtenstein, Wegloopers, 11.
24 National Archives the Hague, SVS, nr. 129, NL-HaNA_1.05.03_129_0252-1712; Dragtenstein, Wegloopers, 11,74.
25 Price, First-Time, 77-8
26 Price, Co-wives and calabashes, 32
27 Price, First-Time, 89
28 De Groot, Agents, 88-90
29 Price, First-Time, 127,160
30 Sally Price, unpublished list of rice names collected along the Pikin Lio in 1967.
31 Nicholaas M. Pinas, Harro Maat, Marieke van de Loosdrecht, Tinde van Andel, ‘Vernacular names of traditional rice varieties reveal the unique history of Maroons in Suriname and French Guiana’, Economic Botany, forthcoming.
32 Leo Wiener, Africa and the discovery of America, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Innes & sons, 1922).
33 Interview Saramaccan paramount chief Albert Aboikoni with the last author, Asidonhopo, August 2021.
34 Communicatie Dienst Suriname: Jeanet Pansa from Djoemoe explains about upland rice, Video (2022; Youtube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RkBN0T47z0 (accessed 25 Oct., 2022).
35 Van Brummelen et al., Stones have laws,
36 Price, First-Time, 129-34; Idem, Alabi’s world, 23
37 Suriname Plantages, https://www.surinameplantages.com/archief/h/hebron; https://www.surinameplantages.com/archief/d/dispas; https://www.surinameplantages.com/archief/g/goedevrede (accessed 25 Oct., 2022). According to Price (1990:23), Dispas was later known as De Goede Vreede, which he erroneously translated ‘the two good friends’, but the website Suriname Plantages lists them as two different plantations.
38 Letter of administrator Jan de Schepper to the Society of Suriname in Amsterdam, SvS 266, folio 834 verso, NL-HaNA_1.05.03_266_0838, National Archive, The Hague.
39 Price, Alabi’s world, 23,52; idem, First-time, 129-30
40 F.H.J. Muntslag, Paw a paw dindoe: Surinaamse houtsnijkunst (Paramaribo: Vaco Press, 1979): 24-5; Price, Alabi’s world, 358
41 Thoden van Velzen and Hoogbergen, Zwarte vrijstaat, 60.
42 Interview with all three authors, 21 July 2022, in Boslanti, upper Saramacca River.
43 Interview with all three authors, 20 July 2022, in Bethel, upper Saramacca River.
44 Green, Matawai Maroons; Price, First-Time, 90; Chris De Beet and Mirjam Sterman, People in between: the Matawai Maroons of Suriname (PhD diss., Utrecht University, 1981); Amazon Conservation Team, Lands of Freedom.
45 De Beet and de Koning, Mama Tjoa.
46 Price, First-Time, 89-90
47 Ibid., 90.
48 Green, Matawai Maroons.
49 ACT, Land of Freedom
50 See note 24.
51 Interview with first author, 10 July 2017, Bigiston, lower Marowijne River, Suriname
52 Bert Koene, De mensen van Vossenburg en Wayampibo: Twee Surinaamse plantages in de slaventijd (Hilversum: Verloren, 2019), 42,73,75.
53 Köbben, Continuity in change, 66
54 Interview with first and last author, 6 August 2021, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
55 Interview with last author, 15 May 2022, Paramaribo, Suriname
56 Valika Smeulders, ‘Sapali: een eigen samenleving’, in Slavernij, ed. E. Sint Nicolaas and V. Smeulders (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum and Atlas Contact, 2021), 197.
57 Thoden van Velzen and Hoogbergen, Zwarte vrijstaat, 47
58 Interview with first author, 27 March 2022, Crique Margot, St. Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana.
59 Abraham J. van der Aa, Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden, vol. 12 (Gorinchem: Noorduyn, 1848): 174.
60 Koene, Vossenburg en Wayampibo.
61 Van der Putten, Surinaamse weglopers, 279.
62 Dragtenstein, Wegloopers, 180.
63 Interview with first author, 5 August 2022, Peto Ondo, Cottica River, Suriname.
64 Lenoir, Paramacca Maroons, 20
65 J. Marten W. Schalkwijk, The early history and geography of the Pamaka tribe (Paramaribo: Anton de Kom University, 2018).
66 Lenoir, Paramacca Maroons, 20; Schalkwijk, Early history, 3
67 Lenoir, Paramacca Maroons, 21
68 Schalkwijk, Early history, 3
69 United News, ‘Productie Pamaka hooglandrijst opgevoerd, 18 August 2019’, https://unitednews.sr/productie-pamaka-hooglandrijst-opgevoerd/ (accessed 25 Oct., 2022).
70 Wim Hoogbergen, The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname (Leiden: Brill, 1990): 64.
71 Stedman, Narrative; Hoogbergen, Boni Maroon wars.
72 Marie Fleury, ‘Gaan Mawina, le Marouini (haut Maroni) au cœur de l’histoire des Noirs marrons Boni/Aluku et des Amérindiens Wayana’, Revue d’Ethnoécologie 13 (2018): 1-29.
73 De Groot, Agents, 74-84.
74 Stedman, Narrative, 404
75 Ibid, 400; Dragtenstein, Wegloopers, 180.
76 Fleury, Agriculture itinérante, 464.
77 Marie Fleury, ‘Impact de la traite des esclaves sur la phytogéographie: exemple chez les Aluku (Boni) de Guyane française’, Journal d'Agriculture Traditionnelle et de Botanique Appliquée 36, no. 1 (1994): 113-37.
78 Wim Hoogbergen, ‘Origins of the Suriname Kwinti Maroons’, New West Indian Guide 66, no. 1-2 (1992): 32.
79 Chris De Beet and Mirjam Sterman, Aantekeningen over de geschiedenis van de Kwinti en het dagboek van Kraag (1894-1896) (Utrecht: Centrum voor Caraïbische Studies, 1980): 10,55.
80 Minu Parahoe, Agro-biodiversity and relationship of people with the environment: a comparison of the Kwinti Maroons and Trio indigenous people, Suriname (MSc diss., University of the West Indies, 2001): 42.
81 Carney, Black Rice, 107-41; Idem, ‘Rice and Memory in the Age of Enslavement: Atlantic Passages to Suriname’, Slavery and Abolition 26, no. 3 (2005): 330-1, 339.
82 De Groot, Agents, 85-86.
83 Dorothea Bedigian, ‘Slimy leaves and oily seeds: distribution and use of wild relatives of sesame in Africa’, Economic Botany 58, no. 1 (2004): S4.
84 Price, Co-wives and Calabashes, 30.
85 Nwokeji, African concepts of gender, 59.
86 Edward C. Green, ‘Matawai lineage fission’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 1 (1977): 137; Price, First-Time, 152.
87 Price, Co-wives and Calabashes, 38.
88 Pinas et al., Vernacular rice names, forthcoming.
89 Valika Smeulders, ‘Sapali: een eigen samenleving’, in Slavernij, ed. E. Sint Nicolaas and V. Smeulders (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum / Atlas Contact, 2021), 201; Tessa Leuwsha, ‘Matu alisi: zwarte rijst’, Ons Koloniale verleden in vijftig voorwerpen VII, De Volkskrant, 2022, forthcoming.
90 A. Vaillant, Milieu cultural et classification des variétés de riz des Guyanes française et hollandaise’, Revue International de Botanique Appliquée et d'Agriculture Tropicale 28 (1948): 522; Judith Carney, ‘‘With grains in her hair’: Rice history and memory in colonial Brazil’, Slavery and Abolition 25, no. 1 (2004):1–27; Idem, ‘Rice and Memory in the Age of Enslavement: Atlantic Passages to Suriname’, Slavery and Abolition 26, no. 3 (2005): 325–47.
91 David Eltis, Philip Morgan and David Richardson, ‘Agency and Diaspora in Atlantic History: Reassessing the African Contribution to Rice Cultivation in the Americas’, The American Historical Review 112, no. 5 (2007): 1334. If Vaillant could not speak Aucan, he must have had a bilingual assistant, as he translated most of the rice varieties he described.
92 Carney, Black Rice, 72; Angus Dalrymple-Smith and Ewout Frankema, ‘Slave ship provisioning in the long 18th century. A boost to West African commercial agriculture?’, European Review of Economic History 21. No. 2 (2017): 185-235.
93 Price, First-Time, 129.
94 Natalie Zemon Davis, ‘Physicians, Healers, and their Remedies in Colonial Suriname’, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 33, no. 1 (2016): 31.
95 Edith Adjako, Alice Bertin and Tinde van Andel, ‘How the Maroon ancestors hid rice grains in their hair’, Video (2018; YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H1IbY6PGIk (accessed 31 Oct., 2022).
96 Dragtenstein, Wegloopers.
97 Jerome S. Handler and JoAnn Jacoby, ‘Slave names and naming in Barbados, 1650-1830’, The William and Mary Quarterly 53, no. 4 (1996): 689-722
98 Carney, Black Rice.
99 Van Andel et al., Tracing ancestor rice.
100 Pinas et al., Vernacular rice names, forthcoming.
101 Pinas et al., Vernacular rice names, forthcoming.
102 Price, First-Time, 7, 17; Köbben, Continuity in change, 65-6.