Gaanman Adaaï an Okanisi Maroon who became Gaanman of the Matawai Maroons

 By André R.M. Pakosie

The Maroons of Suriname and French Guiana consist of six politically independent communities. These are the Okanisi, the Saamaka, the Matawai, the Aluku, the Pamaka and the Kwiïnti. The traditional residential area  of the Aluku Maroons is in French Guiana. Those of the other five Maroon communities in Suriname.

Each of these six Maroon communities has its own traditional administration. This consists of a Gaanman as the highest community leader, several Kabiten as leaders of the various sub-communities (the Lo) and several Basiya as assistants to the Kabiten and Gaanman.

In the early years after the formation of the Maroon communities, the position of Gaanman was not hereditary. Only later in history did the position of Gaanman become hereditary within a particular Lo.

After the position of Gaanman became hereditary, it sometimes happened that the family from the Lo that was supposed to provide the Gaanman did not have a suitable adult candidate.

The family would then choose someone from another Lo in the same Maroon community to hold the gaanmanship for a period of time.  After his death, the rightful person – who was too young to be gaanmanship at the time and is now old enough – would succeed him. This was the case, for example, in the Okanisi and Saamaka Maroon communities, although this arrangement did not always work perfectly.

The person thus appointed as the Gaanman of that particular Maroon community was given all the powers that went with it.

In my younger years, when I was researching and recording the history of the Maroons, I heard rumours that something similar had happened among the Matawai Maroons. That the gaanmanship of the Matawai had once been given to a person called da Fáka Noah Adaaï Vroomhart, who was not a member of the Lo who provided the gaanman of the Matawai Maroons. Da Fáka Noah Adaaï Vroomhart was gaanman of the Matawai for 23 years, from 1870 to 1893.

What intrigued me so much at the time were the additional rumours. Dr Silvia de Groot, for example, told me at the time that she had heard during her research that this da Fáka Noah Adaaï Vroomhart was an Okanisi and not a Matawai. I had heard from other people that da Fáka Noah Adaaï Vroomhart was a Matawai and his father an Okanisi. I already knew that his successor, da Bosu, better known as Johannes King, had an Okanisi father.  I wanted to know exactly how this was with da Fáka Noah Adaaï Vroomhart.

Sometime in 1974, in a conversation with the Matawai Gaanman, gaanman Aboné Lafanti, Edekabiten Alexander Daniel Emanuel, kabiten Apooidan Laban Valentijn and two others, I asked them: “Who exactly was gaanman Adaaï?”

They shouted in unison: ‘He is an Okanisi!’.  An older man added: ‘This is not hearsay, I was there when he became a Gaanman’.

Gaanman Aboné Lafanti of the Matawai said: ‘Kabiten let me tell the story. Gaanman Adaaï is not a Matawai, he is an Okanisi. Do you know what it was like? Before he became Gaanman of the Matawai, there was a leadership vacuum. The previous Gaanman (Josua Kaakun, 1853-1867) had died. The person who was supposed to succeed him as Gaanman was too young for the job. This was Lafanti (Agubaka Lafanti,1898-1901). At the time, Adaaï was living with a Hambei-Lo woman. As an in-law, he had behaved in an exemplary manner.  Because of his good behaviour, the family decided to entrust da Adaaï with the Gaanmanship, with the intention that when he died, Agubaka Lafanti, who was then too young for the Gaanmanship, would be old enough to succeed him. So Adaaï became Gaanman of the Matawai and lived in the village of Maipasiton.

This is a very special event in the history of the Maroons. It shows how the former Maroons trusted and respected each other. That one Maroon community appointed someone from another Maroon community as their Gaanman and he was their Gaanman for 23 years.

One wonders now where the community spirit (solidarity) of the past is.

Reference:

Gaanman Alfred Johan Aboné Lafanti

Edekabiten Alexander Daniel Emanuel

Kabiten Apooidan Laban Valentijn