The Kallipolitan
  • Featured
  • Articles
    • Issues
  • About Us
    • Contributors
    • Contact

Paramaribo: City Of Colours

1/3/2017

 
By Anders Douglas-Svensson 

Paramaribo is simply known as the capital of Suriname, the last country on earth to lose its colonial status.  That is it.  That is so inadequate when compared to everything the city has to offer.  It is a small city, less than a million people, but it feels like a European city with its heavy dose of Dutch architecture.  Paramaribo is vastly diverse and the multiculturalism is so utterly vivid.  It is the kind of place where you can stand on one side of the street outside an old Dutch colonial building and smell rich Indian curry coming from across the street.  Paramaribo is untapped when it comes to discovery.  There are not a lot of cliché tourist hotspots; relatively few tourists visit the city at the northern edge of the South American rain forest.  So, everything is rather new and inimitable.  
Picture
Image by Antonio Mosquera
Paramaribo is adorably isolated and obsessively unique; bird singing contests and caged monkeys in markets are not for the faint of heart.  It is ecstatically colourful; maroon, pink, green, even the white is brighter in Paramaribo.  What is most amazing about Paramaribo is the interaction.  In the marketplace people debate the morality of squishing a fly that wasn’t doing any harm.  On the harbour you find fishermen and painters talking about their day.  On Fridays you see Muslims leave the Mosque Keizerstraat as across the street Jews file into the Neveh Shalom Synagogue.  Paramaribo is a magical orchestra full of life and vigour.  

Sitting on the harbour watching the fishermen follow their routines religiously we could not help but reflect on everything we’ve seen on this journey.  Sprawling metropolises, divided cities, and fishing ports; each with its own aura.  But they all share something very powerful; three cities a world apart yet all are kindred expressions of people coming together.  Essentially that is what a city is, people acknowledging that we’re better off living together than alone; but somewhere along the line we lost sight of that.  We forgot the reason we came together; to build something special, something worthwhile.  When we left on this trip, we said we would use the journey to wander.  Well, I for one have never felt more at home, not in any particular city, but wherever ‘right here’ is.   

Comments are closed.

    By Issue

    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    By Author

    All
    A. Douglas Svensson
    Ahmed Latif
    Antonio Mosquera
    Gabriel Zultanic
    Kamran Dadi
    Kareem Abdurazag
    Madeleine Caprosz
    Maiy Latif
    Osvaldo G. Turco
    Rahman Ismail
    Toshiro Diggs
    Zurab Andronikashvili

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.