World Travels - Suriname
I have been a little addicted to the YouTube channel Geography Now recently… getting to know little known countries of the world and getting a real picture of what they are like. One of the places that Geography Now took me to was Suriname (watch this excellent film about Suriname to get a snapshot of the country.) I was intrigued to understand the rich history of the former Dutch plantation colony in South America and how it informed the cuisine. That mixture of different cultures that includes India, Africa, Indonesia, China and of course the Netherlands makes for an intriguing melange of recipes. The dark history of enslavement rears its ugly head with an estimated total of 220,000 enslaved Africans working the plantations of what was then Dutch Guiana on farms of coffee, cocoa and sugar[1]. Slavery was officially abolished in Suriname on July 1, 1863 by the Emancipation Act. 32,911 slaves were released but still had to work under contract for 10 years. After the Emanci...
