1.1. General In this book the family life of the lower-class Creole
population of 1 Paramaribo will be discussed. This group, which will
henceforward be referred to as "the lower-class Creoles", possesses a
"West Indian" family system, implying that the latter display all the
main characteristics of the Caribbean Afro-American family. The Creoles
constitute a numerically important ethnic segment of the society of
Surinam. This society is composed of different ethnic groups,
comprising, besides a handful of Amerindians, an "immigrant population"
including people from many different parts of the world. It is made up
of Creoles, Indians (or Hindustanis, as they are called in Surinam),
Indonesians (Javanese), Chinese, Europeans, Lebanese and Bush Negroes,
the latter of whom still live predominantly in tribes. The Creoles are
the descendants of those Negro slaves brought to Surinam from Africa who
did not escape from bondage by running away from the plantations into
the Bush, as their brothers the Bush Negroes did. The circumstances
under which the bulk of the slaves lived were appalling. Nor were they -
or are they still in p at present - much better for their descendants
the lower-class Creoles.