Winti
Winti is the Afro-Surinamese traditional religion that resulted from the coming together of different elements of the religious luggage of the slaves that were brought to Suriname from different west African tribes (nowadays countries). Similar religious developments can be seen elsewhere in the America's and the Caribbean (e.g. in Brazil's Candomble, Cuba's Santería, Haiti's Voodoo, Trinidad and Tobago's Orisa, etc.).
Winti may further be described according to C. WOODING (a Winti expert) as:
"...an Afro American religion, within which the belief in personified supernatural beings occupies a central position. These personified supernatural beings can take possession of a human person, switch off their consciousness, as it were, and thereby reveal things concerning the past, present and future as well as cause and/or heal illnesses of a supernatural nature." (C. WOODING, Winti: een Afro Amerikaanse godsdienst in Suriname (Meppel: 1979) 251, Milton A. George's translation.)
According to another Winti expert, S. WOLF, Winti is:
"... the Afro Surinamese (Creole) way of looking at life, a colourful collection of ideas and practices that strongly differs according to regions and historical periods, but whose fundamental features are the belief in a Creator Upper God, the veneration of the foreparents and a pantheon of gods/spirits, who affect daily life so that thereby a harmonious existance may come about. There is here a clear engagement in the reality of existence (salvation), and a striving for the promised land, for God's kingdom, where justice reings." (S. WOLF, Wintireligie als legitieme Heilsweg voor Christelijke Afrosurinamers (Amstelveen: 1993) 6, Milton A. George's translation.)
External links
For information about Winti and other aspects of Surinamese religion
| Afro-American Religions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Religions | Candomblé · Hoodoo · Kumina · Obeah · Palo · Quimbanda · Santería (Lukumí) · Spiritual Baptist · Umbanda · Vodou/Voodoo · Winti |  |
| Deities | Babalu Aye · Eshu · Iansan · Mami Wata · Obàtálá · Ogun · Ọlọrun · Orunmila · Ọṣun · Shango · Yemaja | |
| Roots | Ifá, Oriṣa (Yorùbá) · Lwa (Dahomey) · Nkisi (Kongo) · Catholicism (Portugal, Spain) | |
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