Peaceful Relations In A Stateless Region: The Post‐War Maroni River Borders In The Guianas

One effect of Surinam's civil war (1986–1992) has been the migration of the Maroon population and of Brazilian gold diggers to the frontier territory of the Maroni river basin. The region's new political structure is the product of a ‘partial state failure’ or a government void. In Latin America this phenomenon is generally associated with uncontrollable violence of a variety of non‐state armed actors. In our case, extreme violence is absent. The region is even the locus of a fairly peaceful multi‐ethnic social fabric, a peaceful multicultural coexistence of Maroons and Brazilian migrants, but Surinamese Maroons fled to French Guiana. In French Guiana the authorities tend to turn a blind eye to the stream of migrants, in Surinam they are more or less openly tolerated. The institutional perpetrators of the civil war violence have withdrawn from the region, alliances and treaties between the several Maroon clans and the regional indigenous village chiefs have been struck. The (informal) gold economy and the influx of Brazilian garimpeiros brings short‐term prosperity and both ethnic groups enjoy their share of the surplus, whereas transport is protected by local Maroon authorities. The Brazilian migrants have learnt to pay their informal taxes and respect the customary laws of sexual relations and marriage.