Surinamese people

Surinamese people are people who identify with the country of Suriname. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Surinamese, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Surinamese. Suriname is a multiethnic and multilingual society, home to people of various ethnic, racial, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. As a result, the Surinamese do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and allegiance to Suriname. Aside from the indigenous population, nearly all Surinamese or their ancestors arrived since the Age of Discovery and establishment of the colony of Surinam, primarily from Africa, Europe and Asia. The population of Suriname is made up of various distinguishable ethnic groups: Afro-Surinamese form about 37% of the population, and are usually divided into two groups: The Creoles (15.7%). These are descendants of enslaved Africans who also have some admixture from the European (mostly Dutch), Spanish, Portuguese and Jewish colonists The Maroons (21.7%). These are descendants of enslaved Africans who managed to escape and set up a living in the Amazon jungle. The two main Maroon tribes are the Aukan and Saramaccans. Other smaller tribes include the Aluku, Paramaccan, Kwinti and Matawai tribe. Indo-Surinamese form 27% of the population. They are descendants of 19th-century indentured workers from British India, who came to work on the sugar estates of Surinam. They are mostly from the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh, in Northern India. Javanese Surinamese, descendants of indentured workers from the Dutch East Indies (present Indonesia) on the island of Java, form 14% of the population. Amerindians, the original inhabitants of Suriname, form 3.7% of the population. The main groups are the Akurio, Arawak, Kalina (Caribs), Tiriyó and Wayana. Chinese Surinamese, mainly descendants of the earliest 19th-century indentured workers.