Surinamese Maroons (also Marrons, Businenge or Bushinengue, meaning black people of the forest) are the descendants of enslaved Africans that escaped from the plantations and settled in the inland of Suriname.

Colonial warfare, land grabs, natural disasters and migration have marked Maroon history.

There are six major groups of Surinamese Maroons,[2] who settled along different river banks:

The Surinamese Maroons have developed a system of meaning-distinctive intonation, as is common in Africa.

It is a syncretization of different African religious beliefs and practices brought in mainly by the Akan and Fon enslaved peoples.