Anana, the sky god, Aisa, the earth mother, and Loko, the spirit of trees and of traditional medicine, among the winti, spirits organised into four pantheons in Winti, the Afro-Surinamese religion formed among enslaved and later free Africans in Suriname. Winti combines West and Central African religious inheritance, chiefly Akan and Kongo, with elements absorbed from Suriname's Indigenous, Dutch and Indian communities, and it was long suppressed under Dutch colonial law before Suriname's 1971 decriminalisation of winti practice allowed public devotion to resume openly.
Facts
Structure
Structure of the PantheonA supreme creator above a working order of intermediary powers 1 Divine HeadshipA supreme creator who withdrew from active rule and receives little direct cult 1 Succession Between Divine GenerationsOne divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1 The Creator and the Ruling GodsThe creator withdrew after making the world and is seldom addressed in cult 1 Attestation
Era of AttestationCarried from West and Central Africa to Suriname under slavery and documented in the outside record from the colonial period; the observance was prohibited by Surinamese law until 1971 1 Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 Cult
Principal Cult CentreNo single centre. Observance is held by the family and the kin group, at the winti prei 1 Organisation
Membership of the PantheonEvery place, clan and lineage adds its own 1 How Mortals Enter the PantheonAncestors and founders become objects of cult 1 Sources
Primary SourceOral tradition held within Surinamese Creole families, with published ethnography. 1 Connections
Associated With
The Netherlands is home to a large Afro-Surinamese diaspora that has practiced Winti since Dutch colonial times, when it was legally prohibited until 1971.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Its own cited description places Winti's four pantheons in Suriname.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Winti (Wikipedia)
In Group: Afro-Caribbean and Latin American Folk Pantheons, Introduction, sentences 1-2Quote, In Group: Afro-Caribbean and Latin American Folk Pantheons, Introduction, sentences 1-2
Winti is an Afro-Surinamese traditional religion that originated in Suriname. It is a syncretization of the different African religious beliefs and practices brought in mainly by enslaved Akan, Fon and Kongo people during the Dutch slave trade.
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