Case file · Witch trials
Winti outlawed in Suriname
A colonial law of 1874 banned Winti, the Afro-Surinamese religion of ancestral and nature spirits, treating its rites as 'idolatry'. Offenders faced up to three months' detention or a fine.
1874 CE · 5.85, -55.20 · status: official
The account
Winti continued in secret in Paramaribo and among Maroon communities. Its spirits include gods of earth, water, forest and sky, and possession is central to its rituals.
The sceptical view
An official record of persecution, not of spirits.