The civil war in the 1980s, road improvement and the lack of employment and education opportunities in the interior are causes of an ongoing migration of Amerindians and Maroons to Paramaribo (Kambel and MacKay, 1999). They still live in isolated areas of the tropical rainforest of Suriname (e.g.: Brokopondo, Marowijne, Saramacca), but many moved to 3 Maroons can be subdivided in: Aucan (Ndyuka) living in the east of Suriname, Saramacan originally living next to the sarramacariver, Paramacan, Kwinti, Aluku’s and Matawai (Pakosie, 2005). Maroons are the descendants of escaped slaves.
The use of medicinal plants in Surinam is very popular, especially among Maroons. Illness in Afro-Surinamese culture may not only be attributed to natural causes, but also spiritual ones (Pakosie, 1998a). Thick and clean blood is considered healthy while thin and dirty blood is unhealthy (Staker ML, 1992). For Creoles the condition of the blood is reflected in one’s health. The moment the menstruation stops she must wash all her clothes, take a herbal bath and perform some other rituals before she can go back to her village and her male partner or husband (Pakosie, 1998b Polimé, 2000). She has special pans and pots which she only uses during menstruation. She isn’t allowed to cook for her male partner or husband during her period, since if she does, the man will fall ill. When a Maroon woman starts menstruating, she has to live in a special hut. Menstruating Maroon women in Suriname are also considered unclean (Pakosie, 1998b Polimé, 2000). Recent research in the Netherlands pointed out that a lot of medicinal plants are used around menstruation (van Andel & van’t Klooster, in press) however in the existing Surinam literature about traditional medicine the subject is rarely mentioned (Heyde, 1987). These are based on religion, tradition and/or culture (Snoweden R, 1983 Gena RK, 2000). Worldwide many women get social and physical proscriptions during their menstruation period. Some major religions like the Islam consider menstruating women unclean (Snoweden R, 1983).
Religion is an influencing factor on the behaviour of menstruating women. Introduction In many countries all over the world, menstruating woman are considered to be impure and proscriptions are placed upon her social activities (Snoweden, 1983 Gena, 2000). Almost half of the respondents combined traditional medicine with western medicine of which we don’t know the interactions between those two. Some of these traditional medicines could be harmful, because the dosage cannot be very precisely and vaginal steam baths probably increase the risk of getting infected with sexual transmitted diseases like HIV. Their unclean period doesn’t bother them much, because they are used to it as they said so. Most women used traditional medicine during menstruation because the accompanying complaints bother them and they want to feel better. The ingredients of these medicines differed a lot, but the way traditional medicines were used during menstruation was very consistent. Most respondents used traditional medicine during menstruation. Structured depth-interviews were held with 20 maroon and Creole women, three traditional healers, two collectors/sellers of medicinal herbs, one traditional midwife, two gynaecologists, one family doctor and four researchers. The assumption was that these women use medicinal plants around their menstruational period to keep their unclean period as short as possible. It was also necessary to find out what medicine the women used, because we didn’t know anything about that. The use of traditional health care for menstruation and menopause related issues among Surinamese Maroon and Creole women Abstract This explorative research was set up to find out how and why Surinam-Creole women use traditional medicine in dealing with menstruation and menopause. The use of traditional health care for menstruation and menopause related issues among Surinamese Maroon and Creole women OVLATAM023OV Author: Daphne Koopmans Studentnumber: 0242225 Phone: 0645438484 In Cooperation with Sanne de Korte
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