 Is there any time you hear about Africa, what do you hear? You're negative. Mostly they show a negative thing of Africa. At the TV, at the world news, but the good thing of Africa, we don't see it. If you want to see it, you must go to YouTube and Google it or what. Then you will see how Africa is rising. Ghana is a rising country. Albania, Nigeria, South Africa, most countries of Africa are very positive now. And that is why it's very important for Africans to start telling their own stories. So that Africans at the other side of the world can also get to see Africa. We need to connect the dots. Yeah, and I believe in the young ones that they will accomplish that. Because I don't believe that a white man can do more than a black man. We are just humans. Exactly. The one gets the opportunity, the other one next. Not like here in Suriname. When I say something, people don't tend to believe it yet. But the white man says something. They believe? Good morning. It's five o'clock a.m. in Suriname. And we are awake and struck. We are awake at this time because we are embarking on a journey. I call it the spiritual journey, a journey of bridging the garb, a journey of connecting to our own people, a journey of getting to meet our people that found themselves in the new world. And if you're excited to come along with us on this journey, why not just like this video? Now, please, like it. And if you are new here, do me a favor and subscribe to this YouTube channel. I feel like this is very fulfilling. The car is ready. We are about to hit the road to go find our people. They live in the interior. That's how they call it. But another way I would say the inland. So I don't want to talk too much because I don't know how long it's going to take us to get there. But we're going to come along with you guys. So, yeah, let's just go together. This is the car we're using. And this trip is actually more expensive than I thought because our people live far away. But anyway, we've got to do it for you because we need to let you know that you got your fellow Africans living in South America. And we are here in Suriname to bridge the gap and nothing will stop that. So this is our first stop. You're here to pick. Oh, okay. We met him yesterday. Are you the chef? Yes. How are you? I'm good. How do you say hello? Waking up. Waking up? Waking up. Waking up. I'm waking up. Waking up. Waking up. Waking up. I'm so lost. Hi. How are you, man? I'm fine. Good. My name is Lionel. Lionel. Lionel. Lionel. Lionel. Lionel. Not messy. But we call him Chefibia. Chefibia means a small bear. The bear is a goat. He will be your guide. Oh, you'll be our guide for today, eh? For the whole trip. The whole trip. From today until Sunday. Sunday. Yes. Okay. Before we put you back in your accommodation. All right. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Who are we? Milly. Ah, nice to see you. Nice to see you, too. Welcome to Suriname. Thank you. Wow. This is my mom. And all the traditional dishes I will be making, I learned from her. And she learned from her grandmother. And we are going now to the place where her grandmother lived. Oh, wow. Yes. So you are Maroon. Yes. Who are the Maroons? So the Maroons are an enslaved people from Africa who ran away from the plantations and created their own community in the interior of Suriname. So when they brought the Africans in Suriname, there was a few of them in between who said, I will look for my freedom. I will try to escape the seers if there is life out of this. Because the life they had in the plantation was a life or death. So they knew for sure that if they stayed at the plantation, one day they would die. Or maybe they will be treated or you never know. So they took the chance and ran away from the plantations. And they didn't took a bus or a boat or something. They just went into the jungle. So we are representing the Maroon traditional dishes here in town. That's amazing. Yeah. I can't wait to try all the Maroon dishes. You can't wait. We have one there. But that's... Oh my goodness. Like you guys have this. This one. So what's up? Oh my god. But the fruits in here are so huge. The water... They come a bit... Oh my goodness, no. Look at that. Like... This is Africa, man. Did you sleep well? Very well. So you're dad? Yeah, me, my dad. Oh, hey. My name is Maya. Hi. Hey. What do you say? What's your Maya? That's my name, Maya. From Maya? Yeah, from Ghana. You're from Ghana? Yeah. If you didn't say that, we don't know. Just like us. That's a good one. Definitely. I didn't understand what is this trip about. The trip is all about coming in here to connect our people. You know, just like you said, if I didn't speak, you wouldn't know that I'm from Ghana. So... But you're from an organization? No. Just a young man who decided to travel to see and meet my people. That's it. We have a lot of ethnic groups here. Okay. We have people from India, from Indonesia, and they tend to look back from where their ancestors came from. But we, from the African slaves, we don't have the, how you say it, the same feeling like all the people from India and Indonesia have, looking back from... For us? Yes. We need the information and all about Africa where my ancestors came from. We don't have that connection. That connection. Have you ever been to Africa? No. No. No. Is that that's one of the things? We travel to Europe, not to Africa. Now I'm going to change that since I'm here. We also don't have a direct flight. Yeah. That's maybe one of the... Challenges. Sure is. Yeah. And people like them don't need a visa to come to Africa. Or us coming to Suriname, we shouldn't have to apply for a visa. It should be direct for us to connect to... I mean, I'm going to make that dream come true. No, but... That's the goal. Because there's a lot of things going on. One of the things is that our forefathers were tricked and sold to the white man to bring it. So there is an issue there that needs to be solved. Before. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I understand. Because our history was not written by us. But us exactly. It was written by the white man. So they gave us their version. And that's not always the good version, the right version. But we need to work on that. Yeah. You know, one of the things that we don't have is the organizations to help the black people decides on coming together. But helping develop the black people. Yeah. I know in America there are a lot of organizations but it's not known here. And we keep believing that we black people, we cannot accomplish big things. And that's not true. It's a matter of time. Just spoke to your dad and he's telling me that African people from Suriname will go to Europe rather than going to Africa. Yeah. But then I just want to find out, like even countries around, which are also black countries, do you guys visit those countries? Yeah. So, you know, next to the mindset of one thing, to go to other black countries, there's also the logistics about it. Because even like Suriname's in South America, it's even hard to travel in South America because you cannot travel visa-free. It's not that easy. It's a bit more expensive. And also, you cannot just go to the border, for example, you know, it's not that easy. So, all those things hold you back from doing that type of traveling. It's not just the way we think or the way we've been brought up or the system. But it's also just... Do you have to apply for visa to go to, like, let's say Guyana? For Guyana, no, because of the Karikom. But if you want to go to other Latin American, other South American countries, because we are part of the Caribbean community but you are in South America. So, Suriname and Guyana, they are the Caribbean community so we can easily travel within the two countries. But to the other countries in South America, not that easy. I checked something and it's crazy. I don't know if it's exactly the same in here. My ticket that I wanted to buy from here to Jamaica is costing me $700 per person. Caribbean is as expensive as flying to New York. In Africa? Yeah. Traveling from Guyana to Togo, which shares a border with Guyana, is more expensive than me traveling from Guyana to Amsterdam. Wow. Why? All different countries and it's even more expensive than the neighboring. Exactly. So that's another thing that's actually holding us back to connect, to experience each other, to understand each other more and to eventually unify as well. I guess that is intentional. It makes sense now because if you guys, logistics is difficult and it's also difficult for Africans, then they're just preventing us from uniting. I've met people and they ask me, where are you from? It's like, I'm from Suriname. Where is that? It's in South America. They're like, what? I travel all over South America. I've never heard of the countries in the country. I'm like, it's right there on the map. So you are really helping us, not just people from Africa, not just Africans, but the rest of the world to realize that we exist, who we are. So a lot of people don't know Suriname. Yes, we have a small population but we're very diverse and something else that's very important for the world, next to culture and stuff, we are the greenest country in the world. So we have to skip breakfast. Oh wow. So let's have breakfast. The moment that you know that you made it to life is when you travel with a personal chef, man. Whoa. A traditional personal chef. A traditional personal chef from Suriname. Okay. Okay, for breakfast, we will have coconut papa. Huh? Coconut porridge. Coconut? Yes. Coconut porridge. Okay. Our language, we call it coconut papa. What is that language? Samaka language. So coconut papa is made out of coconut and rice. Not much but you can taste it yourself and let us know what you think about it. Coconut and rice. Yes. And it is vegetarian. No meat stuff in it. It's not on the day. A snake. I'll try to catch it. Yay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yes. He just stepped out just because he saw a snake and he wants to catch it. How? Why you guys live with snakes? We are afraid of snakes. So we stopped by at Brocopondo and whenever you see me in places like that I just want to take photos. You know, for people to know that I was also here. And all of those stuff what I will give you is from like the Surinamese people to you. Wow. And it's handmade. So we don't use machines here. We took maybe two, three months to fix this. What? Yes. And if you're slow like me you will take a year. So we will put this one here. Ooh. We will take that off. This one? Yeah, let me do it the right way, the correct way. This is called a banja koto. Yes. Okay. If you translate it, it's like to keep it warm. Okay. Yes. So you put one hand here and the one goes. No, no, no, no, no. Just like this. Oh. Yeah. We have this. And then we tie it here. I hope I do it the correct way. Because okay. When you have a wife, one side stay open. And when you don't have a wife, one stay side close. So when you're going to the village, people will look at you. Oh, is it open? That means he don't have a wife. And you have a wife, so we are protecting you. Oh, please don't protect me. Oh, we are protecting you. I didn't ask you to protect me. Dad, we have this. And that's the upper part. And we also have a camisa. Do you want to wear the camisa right away? Or do you want to? Maybe when I'm going to the village. Yes. Because tomorrow morning, when you're going to visit the the grandma, then you can put the camisa on. But you can take a look at it. My people, and this is the way we are showing love to people who visit us. The love in Surinam has been amazing. Like I said, I feel so emotional whenever I see my people showing me this kind of love that I never expected from the airport to my room to where we are right now. You know, it makes me feel like I cannot give up on what I do, you know. No, I cannot give up. Because this is a journey that I'm on. And I can't believe that all these people are coming along with me on this journey. See, these are our own people. I think I need to give a hug on behalf of all Africans watching me. Hey! Can I just? Sure! I do. That's what we say when we have people. Really? I do. And we say, I too. Oh, I believe it. Oh my God! I want my economy. Yes. We say I do means like the hook is connected. Oh my goodness. That's true. No. You see that this is a part of Ghana, right? Exactly. We say I too. And they say I do. Yes. Oh my God. I think the Ghanaian people copy it from us. I think so. You know, most of our language, we make the sounds. So like, let's say somebody slapped you. You know, if you want to, if you want to express it, how do you say it? We add the sounds to it. And do it like, so obama sum chai! You know, like the slap, you know, it sounds like ching. Like, you people say, I can't go. Oh, okay. I can't go. Yay! It's just like that. So it all depends on how you express it. You just have to add a sound to it. Yes. That's, it's the same here. It's the same here. Yeah, the same here. Like, running and jumping the water, I can't do it. I can't do it. No. We don't do it, right? No, we say the same thing. Okay. And that's why you are at the right place right now, because we will show you a lot more. This is the start from Brocopondo. We are going to the area of... Cipaliveni. Maroon people, let's say that. Start from Brocopondo. We are going back to the interior and our people lived around here, to Cipaliveni. Did you just say gidi gidi? Yeah. Kule gidi gidi gidi. Jumbo kai jufu. I think we should just go. We say gidi gidi. So your mom will tell you, man ye gidi gidi. Like, don't be too fast or don't be in a haste. Just chill. Man ye, that's what we just meant. Yeah, but gidi gidi is like you're faster now. Yes man. As we continue the journey, we stop by at another village that feels so much like home. Like everything in here feels like home. I think I can live here for the rest of my life because, you know, we have this. We eat it in Ghana. How do you guys call this here? Spenancy. We eat this. We have the okra. See, everything, you know, it's more like a backyard kind of farming that we do most of the times in our various homes in Africa. And it's exciting to see that it's exactly the same thing in here. You see, they say you can take an African out of Africa but you cannot take the African in him out of him. That's sugarcane, backyard. This is, see, the same tap. If I had my way, I would have just look this up and put it on me. That's what you do. Look at that. Just look at that. She's doing the same thing. She's shining out there. A few minutes later. You know, it's so hot out here that even the water is hot. You feel at home? I feel like I'm home. I will look for a house for you somewhere here. No, please, don't do it. Don't do it. I don't want to go back. I found myself somewhere in Bronzeware. I'm seeing so many similarities in terms of things I would do in Ghana. Let me use Ghana. I don't know if in your country, in Africa, you do the same thing. But I'm talking to someone coming from Ghana and I cannot see this water right here and just let it go again. Am I going to pay for the water? No, no, no. Where's your money? Have you guys been to Africa before? No, no. Maybe you can bring me. No, I would take you to Africa if you want me to. Yeah, I would. What I'm trying to do, if they go to Africa, they will definitely understand what I'm doing more because I am from Africa. But we see Africa on your page, so we don't have anything about Africa. No, it's different. Because it's like, oh my goodness, I feel like I'm in Africa. You guys brought Africa with you guys. Oh, you feel like you're in Africa now? No, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, it's good. The fiber of Africa is also here. Africa's best kept second. Surrender. We finally made it to Achoni, which is the last stop of the bus. It means that there is no road from Achoni to our final destination. So in order for us to get there, we have to be on a boat. And I couldn't believe that even here, I've got people that watch my YouTube channel. I look at the mic. You know when I start to look at you, when you are in China, you talk, you speak Chinese. Yeah. I say to myself, one time, man, I'm going to learn Chinese. And you know what I do when I come back in Suriname? I'm from here, I live in Huala. Okay. And now I have 20 hectares of, I'm going to start my own ticket. Just to look at you while you talk, do that, do that, do that. Really? I can't believe I see you now, my brother. I have to make a picture. Oh my goodness. I see your face. I say, hey, that's what I'm looking at. Wow. Hey, I'm happy to see you, my brother. Thank you. You see, I see the, I know this direct. This is wonderful. Every time when I go to YouTube, man, I look at you. I swear for my father, my brother. Wow. And it's good that we're meeting in your country. So are you going to take the boat? I'm going to take the boat. I have it with my nephew. Okay. I'm going to take one of the boats. So we're just going to, we're buying the fish and I will see you soon. Okay, my brother. Thank you. I have to see you. There's a lot of, I don't know if you want to use the word similarities, but I want to use the word the same, because this is exactly what we sell. This is cocoa yam, right? Yeah. But what animal is that? Corvissi. Huh? Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. Corvissi. The boat is so busy. I, I really don't know what happens over there, but I'm seeing so many people in here about to take the boat. Hi. How are you? I'm good. You were in a bus yesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. I made a punch for you the melon man. Exactly, the melon, yeah? And what are you doing here? I'm going to the village, going to visit for a few days. But why so many people? Is that a huge village right there? Well, it's, yeah, this is the interior, so there are a lot of villages. Ah! This what you see here, it's nothing. There are certain times of the year where it's very packed with boats, a lot of people come here and go away. How long will it take you to get to your village? With a boat ride approximately maybe two hours. Oh my goodness. But if you look at the water level, Mike maybe take even longer. Ah! Of course, at certain points maybe we'll have to get out of the boat. And walk by feet? Yeah, or we can't go any further. Oh, okay. Yeah. Alright. He's saying at certain days it's even more packed. And, yeah. I hope it doesn't take us two hours though. I forgot to buy something. She's always forgetting to buy something. I think she's always forgetting to buy something. Interesting. Maybe it's going to take us roughly. We have to get out from the boat at this moment. Yes. To walk. Yes, we'll walk through the Sula, and then the boat will take us to the other side of the boat. Why? Because the water is very low, and the boat needs to be light, so that they can pass through the Sula. When we have a lot of people, it will be very heavy, so they will get stuck. We'll get out of the boat again for the second time, and then we're going to pass through. Huh? This way. That's a jungle, man. The jungle. It gives me a vibe of going to the farm with my parent. Now, the same way. Just walking in the forest, so you get to your farm. In the jungle, the mighty jungle. The lion sleeps tonight. Eat the jungle, the mighty jungle. The lion sleeps tonight. I'll eat. I'll eat. I'll eat. I'll eat. The fox in the jungle doesn't have a good voice, man. This is how a typical farm in Ghana looks like. I mean, if you have farms, if you're born in the village, it's exactly the same way. We cut down the trees. We then bend the trees before we start planting. It's exactly the same way, man. When I saw it, I'm like, it's a new farm. And they said, yeah! All of a sudden, it started raining. So, yeah. We just have to sit in the rain. We can't wait to dance the Adua, you know Adua. You know what that means? It means that the whole place belongs to me. I'm sure it'll happen. So, give me the dance, give me the dance. Good. We're jumping to the rocks, man. So, we have to... Hey, hey, don't leave me! Hey, why are you leaving me? Nobody will leave you. Okay. 1, 2, 3. There it is. What about me? Hit you where. Just worth. Just like. Hold, hold. Hold the, hold. The pressure is too much. The pressure is getting worse. So, I'm done. Let's go. You know, I'm the best Olympic swimmer, but you know that my feet does not touch the water, so it was a strange experience for me. No, it was a strange experience for me. It was a crazy rapid, so we got stuck. At some point, we had to just step out to make sure that everything is okay. Look at that. Just look at that. We've got a trend right there. People are pulling. Make sure that we get out of here. It's crazy. It's getting dark and we're still on the boat. More than six hours already. Oh my goodness. We made it. And as you can see, you can't even see me, right? It means we arrived late in the evening. It's almost seven o'clock and we made it to our final destination. So I don't know if you guys can see, they are packing our bags. At the moment, because right behind me, there's water, so we can't cross because the boats cannot come in here. And the tall guy is trying to find the exact place that we're supposed to pass, and he's struggling to find it. So we just, on top of rocks, we don't know where exactly, waiting for a miracle to happen. This is crazy. I don't know if you guys can see. That's the village right there. Just right behind me. But in here, there's water. And we are standing on one of the rocks behind the water. So we just need to figure out how to cross. Look at the spirit of Moses. Oh wow. They are crossing. Just like that. Dude, let me go for my bag and also carry and cross the water. Just like that, man. Cheese.