A HINDUSTANI BUTCHER SELLS HALAL MEAT TO BRASILIANS LIVING IN PARAMARIBO SURINAME

The Diversity of Suriname and the Genuine Warmth of its People

My health-conscious friend suddenly stopped at a shop selling meat. I wondered why. Then I noticed the sign: Halal Meat. This was Paramaribo, in Suriname. He explained that he was buying meat for his dog, Thor. I understood.

We were in the Brazilian neighborhood of Paramaribo, and the butcher was a Hindustani Muslim whose ancestors had arrived some 150 years ago from Bihar, India. The language of communication was Dutch. Such combinations are entirely natural in Suriname.

The son of the owner asked my friend, “Where is your companion from?”

“Australia,” he replied.

I had entered the shop from an anthropological perspective, quietly observing who was buying what, and what foods were available. I did not expect what happened next. The owners warmly invited me behind the counter to see the meat-cutting area and the cold storage rooms where the fresh deliveries were kept.

I was touched by this spontaneous gesture of friendliness. Yet, as my days in Suriname pass, I realize this was not an isolated incident. The people here are genuinely warm, tolerant, open, and welcoming, expressing their kindness in many subtle ways, often through food itself.

Food plays a profound role in cultural communication — and, of course, in medicine. Only recently has the Western world begun rediscovering what indigenous peoples have understood for centuries: that food is deeply connected to health, healing, identity, and human relationships.

Before leaving, I noticed a curious collection of currencies at the cash counter — Brazilian reais, Cuban pesos, old Surinamese notes, even an occasional bill from the Emirates. It was a small museum of the journeys and histories that converge in this country. I added to their collection a twenty-peso Mexican note.

The world exists here in miniature — Africans, Indians, Javanese, Chinese, Brazilians, Indigenous peoples, Europeans — all woven together in a small tropical nation on the northern coast of South America. Yet what binds this diversity together is not merely history, but the unmistakable warmth of true Surinamese friendship.