This chapter in Routledge Handbook of Caribbean Studies discusses Suriname's contested political and socio-cultural evolution in the last 150 years.

Abstract

'Multi-ethnic nation building and branding in Suriname' discusses the country's contested political and socio-cultural evolution in the last 150 years. In the 1930s, a policy with long-lasting consequences was gradually implemented. Ethnicity was institutionalized, thus establishing, legitimizing, and maintaining ethnic boundaries. It was this design of a plural society that formed the basis of early nation building in Suriname. After independence in 1975, the government neglected nation building. When it was picked up by the military regime in the 1980s, it became a toxic issue.

The chapter further highlights the importance of monuments and street names. Monuments not only remember the past; they also use the past to make present and future claims for equality and inclusion. The chapter closes with an analysis of the intersection of nation building and nation branding and an evaluation of nation building in Suriname, almost half a century after the republic gained its independence.

Author

Rosemarijn Hoefte.

Edited volume

Routledge Handbook of Caribbean Studies.

Editors

Patricia Noxolo, Kevin Rhiney & Ronald Cummings (eds.)

Publisher

Routledge.

10-04-2025

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