Maroon women still grow rice varieties named after their ancestors who hid seeds in their hair when they escaped slavery in Suriname.

Abstract

Given the few written documents left behind by those who escaped slavery, the analysis of African agency in the transfer of crops and knowledge in the successful establishment of Maroon communities benefits from other disciplines, such as oral history, ethnobotany and linguistics. Here we report the histories of several enslaved women, who escaped in the early periods of slave rebellion in Suriname. They played a crucial role in ensuring food security for their runaway communities by bringing rice seeds hidden in their hair. We combined information from ethnobotanical surveys, Maroon oral history, archival documents and published accounts to show how Maroon farmers safeguard their agricultural diversity and cultural heritage by cultivating rice varieties that still carry the names of their female ancestors who took along these seeds during their flight to freedom. We trace the routes of the Saramaccan ancestors Sééi, Yaya and Paánza, Tjowa of the Matawai, Sapali, Ana and Bapi of the Aucans, and describe the rice varieties named after them. The legends of these female ancestors acknowledge the importance of women in Maroon survival. Maroon women’s agricultural knowledge probably contains much more neglected oral history on how their ancestors obtained food crops from plantations or Amerindians.

O Ecossistema Afro-Capilar No Processo Criativo Em Artes Visuais

“…Ao envolver pesquisas etnobotânicas, história oral quilombola e documentos que enfatizam o protagonismo africano na transferência de cultivos e saberes, as imagens geradas propõem o destaque das mulheres escravizadas como guardiãs da segurança alimentar de suas comunidades, exemplificado pelo ato de esconder sementes de arroz em seus cabelos ao escapar do regime de escravidão Maat;Pinas, 2022). Partindo da variedade do arroz Ma Paánza encontrado na comunidade Saramacá do no interior do Suriname, realizei uma intervenção artística em fazendas coloniais na região de Cunha -SP enquanto portadora da variação do arroz.…”