The Kwinti are a Maroon people, descendants of runaway African slaves, living in the forested interior of Suriname on the bank of the Coppename River, and the eponymous term for their language, which has fewer than 300 speakers.
It is similar to the languages spoken by the Aluku and Paramaccan Maroons,[3] and split from Sranan Tongo in the middle 18th century.
[10] In 1769, the Matawai split from the Saramaka, and asked the Government for weapons against the Kwinti who had raided the Onoribo plantation in November 1766.
[17] In 1970, when the Dutch government organised a well published tour with the five Surinamese Maroon nations to Ghana and other African countries, the Kwinti were not invited.
On 30 September 1989, the Kwinti announced that they no longer recognized Lavanti, and demanded a granman for their nation.
[19] In 2002, André Mathias was the first tribal chief to rule as granman over all villages except for those where the Kwinti were in a minority;[21] he died in 2018.