Rebel Destiny: Among the Bush Negroes of Dutch Guiana (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Rebel Destiny: Among the Bush Negroes of Dutch Guiana

In the Guiana bush, however, where these runaway Negroes and their descendants have been living, the for tunes Of African kingdoms, the cultural contacts that have affected the Africans, have not touched their own tribal destinies. Neither has the civilization of the white man nor that of the Indian introduced basic changes into their manner of living or thinking.

There are no roads in the Guiana bush, and what foot paths exist to connect one village with another are difficult to follow and, moreover, are not for the stranger, whether he be white or mulatto. For such as these the highway is the river, with native paddlers alert in their surveillance of a stranger's activities. The Old men on the river have made a tradition of recalling the struggle of the ancestors for freedom and survival, and it is not without significance that one of the three worst crimes among the Bush Ne groes - one that ranks with incest and murder - is inform ing on a Negro to a white man.

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