The Reinvention of Household Medicine by Enslaved Africans in Suriname

Abstract

EnslavedAfricans inSurinamefacednotonlyaharshenvironmentandbrutal conditions,but the challenge of sourcing therapeutically useful plants in an unfamiliar land. Howdid they discovermedicinal herbs in the NewWorld? Literature suggests that slave medicine was already well developed in eighteenth-century Suriname, while herbaria prove that Old World plants were present since 1687. Current vernacular plant names reveal European,Amerindian andAfrican influence. Ethnobotanical research among present-day Afro-Surinamers and related West African groups demonstrates that although most plants used by Afro-Surinamers are Neotropical, preparation methods and applications are still veryAfrican. This illustrates thedurability andpersistenceof householdmedicinedespite thedisruptionduring theMiddlePassage.Afro-Surinamershave reinvented their householdmedicinebyusing familiar OldWorld plants, selecting NewWorld plants that were related to African ones, incorporating knowledge of other ethnic groups and deploying trial and error.