Surinam Meets Ghana, Kromanti Part 2 

When they started speaking in their language and the Ghanaian realized they could still understand each other, i all of bust out crying. To think after all these centuries, there are still pockets of people who are almost exclusively one and still were able to maintain their language and ways because of it, it’s a dream!

I am from Cote d'Ivoire and I am Akan. This story breaks my heart. Surinam Jamaica Guyana need to be taught in deep to young african generations. Thanks so much for this video.

Thanks for watching everyone. I'm from Surinam myself, currently living in USA. When I grew up all of this was common knowledge, that honestly I took for granted. A few of our elders made trips to Africa throughout the years. It hit me however how little is known about our heritage, outside of Surinam, which I believe is a shared heritage throughout the Caribbean & USA diaspora. This is why I made this video with English subs. One of the reasons this heritage was preserved so well is that in Surinam is that Slaves successfully revolted, formed groups and ultimately won autonomy as early as 1762. So in essence they are a country within a country. There are three main groups, Ndyuka, Saamaka & Aluku (Which have migrated to French Guyana for the most part). They basically live according to the way their ancestors lived, with some added modern conveniences. I may make a follow up video about the culture as it exists today.

The Akan brother's shock sums up the loss and the shame. No book on slavery or poem, and not even words, can express what the eyes of the Maroon elder expressed. A deep, noble compassion- maybe something profounder, and closer to a tender dignity, touched with irony, that his people fought and survived against the cruelest of odds.

The Ghanaian was so moved he had to sit down. I think the enormity of what happened to the slaves just hit him .We black people must never let this happen to us again.Every black man in the west should watch this video.

My grandfather was a Maroon from Jamaica. I have always felt so connected to Africa and have a deep longing to come home.

As a Senegalese this made me cry, its sooo amazing how they kept on their language and culture

It's amazing how the language has been preserved all those years and that our African brother from Ghana can speak his kromanti language and be responded to and understood my our Surinamese Marroons

I'm crying looking at this story, because I'm a desendant of Ghanaian

"Life was hard. But thanks to our forefathers, we overcame."

I'm here after a mention by the RU-vid channel "Geography Now", the history is sad but the reunion part was wonderful. Amazing how they can understand each other.

that Ghanaian brother was truly. moved, you could tell, what a moment.

This is so deep, it made me very emotional, it's a beautiful thing to see the departed reunite, as a Ghanaian, I feel a connection with our brothers and sisters who were unfortunately torn from us.

Wauw! My mom told me about this year ago. Now today a finally found this. So greatfull. Thank you!

Wow, powerful!!! Most often it's the diaspora visiting the motherland. This time an individual from Ghana visits and becomes emotionally moved from this exchange.

I am from Suriname from the same area and the name of this village is not ADAMPAY, but ADAWAI, which means IT GIVES HAPPINESS. The language he speaks with the Ghanian is known by the Saramaccaners (maroons) as the Komanti language. he dead years back. May his soul rest in peace.

As someone with Surinamese heritage seeing the Ghanian and Marroon man communicate in the Kromanti language with each other made me feel very emotional. It's unbelievable how this African language endured from the 1700s all the way to now.

Thanks for uploading this! It's incredible that even after all these years of being separated, they could still communicate in their own language. That's a privilege many people of the diaspora don't have. Great video!

i am a grown man , but I was moved at the end, We are strong people. No matter where slavery took us to,, our culture and humanity never deserted us, Only Africans could have survived slavery and triumphed.

Thank you for sharing this really moving and inspiring video with its somewhat bittersweet flavour. I am Ghanaian and understand Fante reasonably well, and I think that at the end, it was more a mutual understanding of the ebb-and-flow of customary welcoming and greeting of a visitor, rather than literally understanding each other’s language. In my eyes, that makes it even more of an incredible encounter.

Geography Now brings me here

we never left Africa and we never give up the fight for freedom against colonisation. one blood.

I was also so touched at the meeting, that I just broke down and cried! These are our people! Our people who refused to die - and were lost to us!😭🙆‍♀️🤦‍♀️ oh, the agony of what we as a people have borne!!!!✊

this video done made me cry. beautiful

Im a Ghanaian and I wanna visit Suriname someday.

This is one of the most beautiful things ever.

With tears of joy, thank you for posting this video

This people look 100% Ghanaian even more, this are authentic Ghanaians they kept them culture no mix at all, them look is like the people in cape coast and elmina ashanti en fanti tribes.

That sounded like nzema another Akan language spoken in both Ghana and Ivory Coast. Nzema is a much older Akan

Thank you. Yes Dahomey & Benin are very big influences in Surinam as well as Yoruba & igbo. Feel free to share your your knowledge. It will give us in the afro diaspora a better picture overall.

This gave me the chills. i can understand a language that I was never taught. I AM AIN SOF AIN OSUN OSINE NE BAH LANG BIN DEH GU BEY... WE ARE ASHANTI SUN GR01T. ASE O

I had chills and cried my eyes out. These stories must never be forgotten.

This is priceless. Thanks everyone who contributed in putting this together. The message of this footage goes far in the past. IT is a huge honor for our ancestors. Love for all black people who are trying to find their roots back in Africa. ONE LOVE!

Thankyou for this video. As a surinamese guy born in surinam and living in the netherlands. I think it is so important to keep the connection between yourself and your heritage alive, meaning with surinam and africa. the culture in surinam takes the main course but even though we have been living in surinam for so long the original believes and culture of africa should he respected and cherished.

I am Akan from Côte D’Ivoire and the elder sound like he is speaking old twi, what my great grandmother and grandmother spoke, my grandmother was born in the very early 1900s. Around 1901/02 or perhaps 1899 because she recalled french missionaries punishing students by limiting their educations as a result of not westernizing their names.

Ghana meets Suriname

Wow wat geweldig. . . ze kunnen gewoon nog met elkaar communiceren in dezelfde taal als de Kromanti voorouders die uit Kromanti, Ghana vertrokken en naar Suriname werden ontvoerd om als slaven werkzaam te zijn op de surinaamse plantages. . .

This video gave me goosebumps at the end. They can still understand each other. As an afreecan i realize that we don't know much about our brothers and sisters who've been taken away to the americas. May the enslaved afreecan rest in peace

In Suriname exist several types of kromanti languages (but a very few person know to speak them) : ancient Fanti of the "amanfu nengre", kyeri ancient Akyem, Wawi (maybe a Guan dialect or the wali language) and the last is called "Openti Madyawsu" it's a sacred spiritual language only talked by the Akomfo (okomfo) insiders to the Kromanti spirits (ancestors, and abosoms) and by the kromanti spirits .

Behold I Live, and AM alive for EVERMORE...man can kill the body, but the Spirit lives on.

I'm from Suriname living in Europe. This brought tears to my eyes. Cause i always had a feeling they could communicate. I grew up listening to all kinds of music but, mostly Caribbean/south American,African and North American music. Those African music not only from Ghana but all over Africa, i would sometime catch a few words that meant something in Sranangtongo or Saramakaans and wonder if it meant the same thing. I'm a mix of Natives and African diaspora who weren't able to escape. Now that i think about it, i also used to watch African comedy and i never thought to see if a word match the same meaning, i was so focused on reading the translation to get the jokes. This warms my heart though !

eye water when the brothers reunited.

How touching! Thank you for sharing this amazing video!

There should be a DNA project of all these small descendants of slave groups in places like Suriname, Columbia, Guyana, South Carolina, Jamaica, Brazil, Equador, Peru, etc.

Amazing video... I can watch this video over and over...

So glad I found this treasure! Much Love, Peace & Respect!

Got tears.......

The Ghanian brother was stunned

very touching

onti kantinaka. this warms my heart lobi !

incredibly how they kept their language and traditions.

This video is so emotional. I was literally crying. I salute the resilience of our ancestors. That is who we are as Africans. The indigenous people of the Americas were almost wiped out right from Canada to Argentina. Africans survived the cruelty of slavery and are still thriving. God blessed the souls of our ancestors.

I am Dutch and in to history,also this bad history where my country was involved. I have been in west African countries,to work.Also in Ghana,I felt welcome always,the people are so friendly.I know offcourse of the terrible history of the African slaves(who don’t).All for money and power, today its still the same.War in Ukraine is about this to,the western world didn’t learn anything.Today we are all slaves from the system,work and then we die. This video made tears in my eyes.

Years of years ago, some adventurous people took a travel for a greater good, for finding their culture mate. Culture, the thing we are living for and living with. And now, after all these years, I saw a 2 second clip of this video at Geograph Now's Suriname video. Then I came there and I get blessed with this. I blessed with the power of "Culture" and power of your ancestors. That beautyfull peoples left us a sign. Even for me, a 22 years old from Turkey, I took their messages. Thank you and Love you, all gods may bless you my friends

I scouldn't stop the tears as soon as he started singing!!... Sigh!

Thanks for your comments. You are correct, but most slaves to our part of the world which were controlled by the English & Dutch did come from the area that was controlled by the Ashanti which is now considered modern day Ghana. As you may know Africa didn't have official borders before the Europeans came. The borders as we know them today were basically set by Europeans. Africa as the Middle East, was, IS organized by tribes.

This make me cry, especially when they started speaking Koromanti and he said "time was hard". Black people when our suffering will end?

Saramaka Maroons are the more old Maroons people. Their Yoruba Ewe Kongo and Akans ancestors were broughth to Suriname since the 1600's and they started to revolt, to fight against Dutch and slavery and to fleed trough the deep bushy jungles since the begining of the 18th century. Then in 1765 after many years of fighting they accepted to sign a peace treaty with the Dutch which granted them definitely their autonomy and officially their freedom. So it's to say that they came from ancient africans peoples which still exist but the culture and the languagese dont remained the same. Suriname Maroons by the fact they have lived far away,isolated and remoted in the suriname bushes for 2 centuries have preserved lot of things from precolonial Kama (Africa) some that no more longer exist today in present Africa.

Beautiful

MUCH RESPECT TO GHANA AND SURINAME❤❤❤

longing to Forward to INI roots Tears of joy and lost

sounds like the nzema dialect of Ghana !

Kan misschien de hele docu geupload worden? Het ziet er super interessant uit, zou heel graag de rest willen zien!

Dit was ons aangeleerd door de kolonialisten... Daarom is het boek "Wij Slaven Van Suriname" een belangrijk boek voor all Surinamers!

The best I have dream about I love and will share this on Facebook

One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen ‼

I showed this to my African friend who said we are not Africans. After watching this he cried and changed his mind.

Wow Jamaicans an Suriname are all From Ghana this is great.

Het is een les voor ons stads Linge (slaven die in de stad zijn blijven wonen en geen cultuur hebben mee gegeven wij lachen meestal of kijken neer op de zo genoemde djoekas waarvan zij nog steeds ver van huis zijn niet alleen de taal. Maar ook de cultuur handhaven het woord tijd om van hun te leren

Wow, ik ben zeer onder de indruk. Geweldig dat je dit hebt gedaan. Surinaamse geschiedenis. How moving. Thanks for making this documentary. What is the name of the beautiful song?

Thanks dank je wel danke hvala

I am speechless...wow

Omg. I started crying when they started talking in their native tongue.

superinteressant

Wow

The Kromanti language is basically Fanti.👍👍👍

Wonderful!! So overwhelming!!!

Makes me wanna go back home ..

This is really emotional😥

i am from Ghana i can hear some Ga words

Thank you very much for this video I can her him wan he speak we are one ❤ 💙 t

Prachtige documentaire

I couldn't show the whole video, but there were elderly people from Ghana who were still upset that their forefathers were kidnapped or betrayed by their own...

Truly amazing!

Amazing to see 😮

Very emotional doc

Those stools one of which he sat on when he went to the old man's cottage is the same traditional ones we got here.

Indeed as I said before this is because the Ashanti now modern day Akan, dominated the area in the time of the slave trade, so their culture did as well influence the region.

This have me broken..we the Africans in the Diaspora we need back our African roots..I was move to 😢

OMG This story breaks my heart.

The stools they sitting on is the same shape of stools in Ghana. Wow.

Surinam my country..we still have the African culture all the way!!!!

This blessed my soul

Awesome

Check hoe ze communiceren 5:40 echt mooi om te zien.

Your language is fine! Thanks again for your input. Mi na foto nenge :)

Who noticed that Ghanaian stool the man sat on? Wow...this is really serious. I'm in shock.

Wauw nice man

I saw this a while back and didn’t want to comment... But... I speak Fante and I could barely make out what the old gentleman from Suriname said. It may be that they came from Kromantse, but over time, their language has greatly evolved. So much that it is unintelligible to present day Akan spoken in Ghana. I fear Mr. Korsah was being a tad bit diplomatic in order not to hurt feelings. I still find the entire story fascinating and wish more research would be done into the history of our diaspora.

From 05:57 to the end of the video was very touching and surreal. wow