Slaves for blue

In the 17th and 18th century slave trade, of all the luxurious fabrics that went through the hands of the West-African elites, blue indigo fabrics were the highest in demand. In Africa, fabrics were valued to the extent that they became the treasure trove of families; the great selling point in any dowry. And humans were sold to get it.

The colonizers made sure that all the fabrics they pressured India to produce were printed in a way that would speak to the African slave traders, as it was their most important currency. Of all colonizers, the Dutch knew best how to meet the demand. The cheapest, locally made African fabrics were used to cover the slaves’ private parts; and off they went to Suriname, with their spirits hidden behind the fabrics (cloth being the second layer above the skin; it is said that the skin and the spirit is caught in the cloth). NPR, Indigo: The Indelible Color That Ruled The World

The trade in these fabrics to West-Africa, to Suriname and to other colonies continued far into the 19th century. The colonizers relied on the fabrics from Europe, despite Suriname having its own cotton plantations. The cotton fabrics that were exported to Suriname were predominantly plain red, white, and, yes, blue cotton, with the occasional checker or stripe.

Red came to be the color of the earth gods, and the Native spirits that already inhabited the rainforests before the arrival of the enslaved men and women from Africa. The winti are known to mix and match, which explains why winti rituals can show all three colors at once.

Red, white and blue: those were the colors that arrived in Suriname, and those were the colors that came to represent their life with the spirits and gods.