The Afro-Surinamese Winti Religion

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases four videos of the Afro-Surinamese Winti religion.

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic purposes. The copyrights remain with their owners.

My thanks to the composers and performers of this music. My thanks also to the videographers and uploaders of these featured videos.

A brief statement about the Winti religion is provided in the uploader statements for Videos #3. Additional online information can be found by clicking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winti.

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FEATURED VIDEOS

Video #1: Akata Kondre



Uploaded by Kanaal van toto583 on May 13, 2011

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Video #2: Sangrafu - Maripa kondre'.mp4



Kanaal van toto583 on Aug 15, 2011

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Video #3: Naks Wan Rutu Tapu Kromanti (Winti) dance



Uploaded by moneyvillage on Nov 25, 2008

"Winti is the Afro-Surinamese traditional religion that resulted from the coming together of different elements of the religious luggage of the slaves that were brought to Suriname from different west African tribes (nowadays countries). Similar religious developments can be seen elsewhere in the America's and the Caribbean (e.g. in Brazil's Candomble, Cuba's Santería, Haiti's Voodoo, Trinidad and Tobago's Orisa, etc.). The Tapu Kromanti Winti is a group of Sky/Warrior gods. They got their name from the tribe: Koromantine or Kromanti."
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From http://www.mona.uwi.edu/dllp/jlu/ciel/pages/kromanti.htm:
"Kromanti is an Akan language closely related to languages of the Akan dialect/language cluster, notably Twi and Fante, important languages in modern day Ghana. According to reports, Kromanti survived as a language of normal everyday communication amongst the Maroons up until the early decades of the 20th century. Since then, its use has receded and it is known mainly by elderly members of the [Jamaica Maroons] community. It is mainly restricted to religious and ceremonial life of the community."

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Video #4: Naks Wan Rutu Tapu Kromanti winti dance part2



Uploaded by moneyvillage on Nov 25, 2008

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RELATED LINKS
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Suriname for information about Surinamese music.

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UPDATE 5/22/2012
Afro-Europe, a blogger from The Netherlands - http://afroeurope.blogspot.com/ - posted two comments on the second post that I did today on Surinamese music http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/surinamese-music-dance-in-netherlands.html. In his second comment on that post & in a comment that he added to this post, he clarified that the all of the music shown in the videos of this post is called "Kawina" music (also known as "Kauna").

In one of Afro-Europe's comments on that other post, he also shared a link to a video of winti pre, and explained that "winti pre is a ceremony where people come into some sort of a trance. A winti is spirit, by the way. But the dancers can also get an Indian (indigenous) winti."

Here's that video:

Kondre Banya Prey



Uploaded by toto583 on Apr 28, 2011
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Thanks, Afro-Europe! I appreciate you sharing that information & video link. As a result of your comment, I looked up "Kawina music" and found the following information:

"[Kawina] is one of the oldest forms of Traditional Suriname Music, next to the music of the original habitants of the South American continent "the indians".

...these songs where song by the slaves. Characteristic for this is the form in which the singing is done, a lead singing and the guest/public repeating him.

No electronic instruments are used, the main instruments are, the Kawina drum, the so called "Apintie" drum and a wooden bench."
Source: http://swietiesranang-aka-sweetsuriname.blogspot.com/2007/10/kawina-music-by-bose-krioro.html

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