Langu: The last of the Saramaccans

"Not many Saramaccans have seen this."--Boatman Asigide, at Awaadan

I have been living on the Upper Suriname River with the Saramaccan people for 18 months. At this point, I know and have been to almost every village between Atjoni and Tuliobuka, a shrine dedicated to the first Saramaccans where the river splits into the Piki Lio (Little River) and Gaan Lio (Great River); the villages that run North to South between Atjoni and Tuliobuka are only accessible by motorized canoe and when the water is high it's about a 4 hour ride from Atjoni to Tuliobuka where Saramaccans residence on the river seeminly ends. But in fact, beyond Tuliobuka, above the Tapa Wata (Stopping Water) rapid, on the Gaan Lio (Great River) there is a clan of Sarmaccans who reside in several villages even further south on the river.

I had yet to go beyond the Tapa Wata rapid and venture to an area named for the clan that inhabits it, Langu. The last group of Saramaccan villages, Langu is a name that originates from an area near the mouth of the Congo River in Africa where two of the original Langu descendants were born before being brought to Suriname as slaves (First Times by Richard Price). Since most Saramaccans can not afford the expensive transportation costs to venture to Langu often if at all, it's become a place of mystery and legend to most modern Saramaccans. Before leaving Gunzi for Langu, I was told to be on guard for witchcraft,
forest spirits and potentially unfriendly Amerindians.

My transportation to Langu was set up by another Peace Corps Volunteer. In order to afford the trip ourselves, we had to get a boatload of Peace Corps Volunteers to commit to going to Langu and use local contacts to give us friendly prices. The boatman for the trip who helped set up the trip was Asigide from Kajapaati, who is regularly employed by the Peace Corps as a boatman and guide on the river. After preparing the boat and oil in Atjoni, Asigide drove the boat from Atjoni to Gunzi which is about an hour ride, after I got on the boat, we made several stops picking up volunteers along the way until we arrived in Zemoise, a village with 2 Peace Corps Volunteers and about two and a half hours up river (south) of Gunzi. Due to the length of our journey, we had to spend our first night in Zemoise at a small guesthouse where 9 of us tied hammocks.

The next morning we were on the river and departing Zemoise at 9 am. About 30 minutes later, we reached Tapa Wata, the rapid that blocks entrance to the Gaan Lio where the Langu clan resides. We walked through the village searching for any helping hands that could help us haul our boat up the Tapa Wata rapid which has an angle of about 45 degrees and stands about 20 feet high with water rushing down a daunting rocky stairway. We finally found a few young men near the river washing their clothes who volunteered to help our Saramaccan guides haul the boat up the rapids. What I thought would take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes took exactly 4 minutes to get the boat from bottom of the rapid to the Gaan Lio which lies above the rapid. Asigide was revving the engine while two guys at the front helped pull the boat up with rope and three young men at each side of the boat walked up the rocks and pulled the boat up the rapid with relative ease.
It was quite an amazing feat to ascend the rapid so quickly.


After acsending the Tapa Wata rapid we were on the Gaan Lio. After a quick bathe in the river, our boatman and guides got back in the boat and we went another 45 minutes up river when we finally arrived at the Gaan Dan (Great Rapid). This rapid was impassible due to its steeper angle, height and faster rushing waters--in Saramaccan oral history, an infamous canoe crash took place at this rapid around 250 years ago. Luckily our boatman had made arrangements prior to our arrival and so we dodged trouble by walking around the Great Rapid on foot to where our new boat and guide were waiting to take us deeper into the jungle into Langu along the Gaan Lio. (However, on our return trip three of the Peace Corps guys helped a few Saramaccan men haul a boat up and around the Gaan Dan)

After another hour of boat rides, we made it to Langu. Immediately, I realized a lot of the stories I had heard about this place probably were not relevant any longer. Entering Langu, I noticed many modern houses with zinc roofs, as compared to the predominantly thatch roofs in Gunzi, and a huge church that overlooks the river in one of the first Langu villages called Longolio. When we finally arrived on shore at the village of Kayana where we were staying, people were not overly startled by the fact that a boat full of random white folks showed up who could speak Saramaccan. Overall, people in Langu were very friendly--there are several up-scale tourist camps in the area where rich Dutch tourists pay big bucks to fly into the area by plane and enjoy the most amazing and wonderous nature I've seen in Suriname up to this point.

The tourist camp where we stayed was an upstart without even a name, cheap and really the only one we could afford in the area. So, some slept in beds, some slept in matresses on the floor and some of us slept in hammocks. Upon arrival at our nameless tourist camp in Kayana, one of the Langu villages, we explored the area and we sat down and had a free beer with the owners of one of the other local tourist camps. Gaan taangi fii (Thank you)! As we continued to walk around, the local kids looked on with bewilderment and amazement and sometimes just giggled as our huge group spoke fluent Saramaccan and the Peace Corps girls wore their traditional Saramaccan skirts (koosu).
Upon further exploration, I did run into a man of Amerindian descent who worked with the tourist camp. He was a nice gentleman and did not have a tail or try to eat me like my Saramaccan villagers believed would happen.
(Although these details were told to me more or less jokingly, I sensed a hint of seriousness to these Saramaccan beliefs)

On our second day in the Langu area I woke up with a cockroach on my face. Again, it was the only tourist camp in the area we could afford and that's why it is important to always carry your mosquito nets, Sur-17. We boated further south, up the river, past the last Langu clan settlements to a place called Awaadan (Right-Now Rapid).
We started at the bottom of this massive rapid on a small island where a very expensive tourist camp has been built. We ate lunch, swam in the river and mingled with the Saramaccan staff at the tourist
camp who were all interested to talk with us and hear about the villages where we lived. During lunch, we could hear the calls of a troop of monkeys in the distance--we suspected Howler Monkeys. After lunch, we boated a bit further up the river around the base of the Awaadan rapid up to its mouth. A fitting and scenic to the end of the Saramaccan territory. The mouth of the Awaadan is a series of stone steps covered in green algae and exotic water tolerant plants creating a very beautiful contrast of rock, rushing water and plants. The rocks where we docked our motorized canoe had marks which looked like they had been tampered with by humans. One of our guides believed the first Saramaccans to enter the jungle used the stones to make tools. And there we were at the end of the Saramaccan land. When I looked out beyond the Awaadan rapid on the Gaan Lio which continued to run south I knew there were no more Saramaccans, just jungle and some very isolated Amerindian villages several hours south, on the river which our boatman said comes to an end at some forgotten mountain beyond the distance.

And that was our trip. The next day we woke up and left our nameless tourist camp around 10 am and I arrived back at Gunzi around 6 pm. During this voyage to Langu I gained a newly found appreciation for the Saramaccan people who fought for their freedom from slavery, escaped into the jungle and for more than 300 years have resided deep in this beautiful, mysterious and at times treacherous jungle.