Sarah Patterson, Peace Corps volunteer for the Foundation for Nature Conservation Suriname (Stinasu): "The people who are buried here showed us the way, we follow in their steps. It is good to preserve that, to learn from it and show respect."
Forever entrusted. Brooms, sacks of flour, hand brushes, rakes, machetes, plant sprayers, small buckets of water: it is a busy going and coming of things and people. But when sundown comes nobody wants to leave, ‘one last photo’, ‘one more measurement’, ‘one more form to fill in’. Everybody uses other words to tell what his or her motivation is, but the importance of keeping and baring a unique piece of history is evident for everybody. Sarah Patterson, Peace Corps volunteer for the Foundation for Nature Conservation Suriname (Stinasu): "The people who are buried here showed us the way, we follow in their steps. It is good to preserve that, to learn from it and show respect."
‘Pain instead of song I brought’ it says on the tombstone of a young mother who died during childbirth. It makes one feel melancholic to think that two centuries ago people would have been gathered round her grave, as sad as one would be today. Forever entrusted to the Surinamese soil. Marty Zimmerman, student and volunteer for CVE, on what he believes to be the story behind the stones: "I don’t think that life then was all that different from life nowadays. They just looked for a safe haven, a safe place to stay: a home." Marnix Visser shouts: "But of course I think about those who are buried here, all the time!"
Last month Jodensavanne was included in the list of World Monument Watch, as one of the one hundred most endangered historical sites of the world. That means international recognition of the historical value. For people interested in Jewish history it is almost a sacred place. Or is it just a pile of bricks, some graves in the jungle, not worth the maintaining and rehabilitating the place? That is the choice Suriname has to make (and has made clearly in the last months, MV) now. The Foundation for Jodensavanne, active again since last year after a long dormant period, operates under the leadership of Chairman Guido Robles. Robles has done a lot of work in the last months, in close collaboration with the citizens of the Amerindian village Redi Doti nearby Jodensavanne. Jodensavanne is cleared, cleaned and maintained by the inhabitants of Redi Doti. Also under Robles, a pier has been built and an info center erected. Tickets have been printed and a brochure is being prepared. The nomination on the prestigious world monument list is valid for two years. An important component of the listing is the grant seeking assistance the World Monuments Fund provides its listed sites. Jodensavanne seeks funding for maintaining, conserving and making accessible its historic/sacred sites. Of great importance is to keep the vegetation at bay so as to avoid its repeated take-over as has happened in years past due to lack of maintenance funding.
