Paramaribo
The street Waterkant in Paramaribo
Nickname(s): Par'bo
Paramaribo The location of Paramaribo in Suriname
Coordinates: 5°52′N 55°10′W / 5.867°N 55.167°W / 5.867; -55.167Coordinates: 5°52′N 55°10′W / 5.867°N 55.167°W / 5.867; -55.167
Country	Suriname
District	Paramaribo District
Population (2011)
• Total	244,946
Time zone	ART (UTC-3)

Paramaribo (nickname: Par′bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of Suriname's population. The historic inner city of Paramaribo has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002.

History[link]

1830s lithograph of the market

The area, a trading post started by the Dutch, was taken by the English in 1630, and in 1650 the city became the capital of the new English colony. The area changed hands often between the English and Dutch but it was in Dutch hands again in 1667 and under Dutch rule from 1815 until the independence of Suriname in 1975.

On January 1821, a fire in the city centre destroyed over 400 houses and other buildings.

A second fire in September 1832 destroyed another 46 houses on the western part of the Waterkant.

In 1943, a military plane crashed on its way to North Africa near the city, killing two FBI Agents and other 33 people that were on board. The cause of the aircraft accident was never determined and nearly no remains of the 35 people aboard were found.^[1]

On 7 June 1989, the Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (about 30 km south of Paramaribo) became the crash site of Surinam Airways Flight 764, a Douglas DC-8. This aeroplane crashed on approach to the runway, killing 176 of the 178 passengers and 9 crew members.

The citizens are chiefly of African, Asian Indian, indigenous, Javanese, Chinese and Dutch descent.

Geography[link]

Astronaut View of Paramaribo

The city is located on the Suriname River, approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, in the Paramaribo district.

Climate[link]

Paramaribo features a tropical rainforest climate, under the Köppen climate classification. The city has no true dry season, all 12 months of the year average more than 60 mm of precipitation, but the city does experience noticeably wetter and drier periods during the year. September through November is the driest period of the year in Paramaribo. Common to many cities with this climate, temperatures are relatively consistent throughout the course of the year, with average high temperatures of 31 degrees Celsius and average low temperatures of 22 degrees Celsius. Paramaribo on average sees roughly 2200 mm of rain each year.

Demographics[link]

Historic Inner City of Paramaribo *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	Suriname
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv
Reference	940
Region **	Latin America and the Caribbean
Inscription history
Inscription	2002 (26th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of the population of Suriname.

Paramaribo is famed for its diverse ethnic makeup, including Creoles, Hindustani, East Indians, Maroons, Javanese, Portuguese, Native Americans, Levantine, Chinese, and other Europeans (primarily of Dutch and English descent).

Economy[link]

The city's major exports are gold, bauxite, sugar cane, rice, cacao, coffee, rum, and tropical woods. Cement and paint are manufactured in the city.^{[citation needed]}

Blue Wing Airlines has its head office on the grounds of Zorg en Hoop Airport in Paramaribo.^[3]

Transport[link]

Paramaribo is served by the Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport and Zorg en Hoop Airport for local flights. The Jules Wijdenbosch Bridge, which is part of the East-West Link, connects Paramaribo with Meerzorg on the other side of the Suriname River.

Culture[link]

On Sundays and holidays there is a popular bird song competition. Suriname has only one cinema, which is located in the capital.

Notable landmarks[link]

Paramaribo's Neve Shalom Synogogue

Helstone Monument

The National Assembly of Suriname

Tailor's shop, Paramaribo, 1955

• Suriname Mosque
• National Assembly of Suriname
• Neveh Shalom Synagogue
• Roman Catholic St Peter and St Paul Cathedral
• The Arya Dewaker Hindu Temple

Sports[link]

Paramaribo is the birthplace of several football players; some of them later represented the Netherlands:

• Andwélé Slory
• Aron Winter
• Clarence Seedorf
• Edgar Davids
• Fabian Wilnis
• Henk Fräser
• Jerry de Jong
• Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
• Kelvin Leerdam
• Jeremain Lens
• Maarten Atmodikoro
• Mark de Vries
• Regi Blinker
• Romeo Castelen
• Stanley Menzo
• Ulrich van Gobbel
• Mitchell Tjin-fooh
• Edson Braafheid

Other sports such as tennis, golf, and basketball are also commonly played in Suriname.

Sister cities[link]

• Antwerp, Belgium.
• Hangzhou, China.
• Willemstad, Curaçao.^[4]
• Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

References[link]

External links[link]

• (English) Audio interview with Paramaribo resident about life in Paramaribo

Mighty Sparrow or Birdie (born Slinger Francisco, July 9, 1935, in Grand Roy, Grenada, West Indies) is a calypso singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Known as the "Calypso King of the World," he is one of the most well-known and successful calypsonians. He has won Trinidad's Carnival Road March competition eight times and has been named "Calypso Monarch" eleven times.

Early life[link]

Sparrow was born in Grenada on July 9, 1935, but moved to Trinidad when he was one year old. His birth name is Slinger Francisco. He grew up in Port of Spain.^{[citation needed]}

He was first exposed to music through the choir in Catholic school, and became interested in calypso at 14 when he joined a steel band composed of neighborhood boys. He received his performing name "The Mighty Sparrow" during his early career:

Your calypso name is given to you by your peers, based on your style. In the old days they tried to emulate British royalty. There was Lord Kitchener, Lord Nelson, Duke. When I started singing, the bands were still using acoustic instruments and the singers would stand flat footed, making a point or accusing someone in the crowd with the pointing of a finger, but mostly they stood motionless. When I sing, I get excited and move around, much like James Brown, and this was new to them. The older singers said "Why don't you just sing instead of moving around like a little Sparrow." It was said as a joke, but the name stuck. -Mighty Sparrow ^[1]

Calypso Monarch[link]

In 1956, Sparrow won Trinidad's Carnival Road March and Calypso Monarch competitions with his most famous song, "Jean and Dinah". His prize for the latter was $40. In protest of the small sum, he wrote the song "Carnival Boycott" and attempted to organize other singers to boycott the competition. About half of the singers followed.^[1] Sparrow claims credit for succeeding improvements in the conditions of calypso and steelband musicians in Trinidad, as well as the formation of the Carnival Development Committee, a musicians' assistance organization.^[2] Sparrow refused to participate in the competition for the next three years, but he continued to perform unofficially, even winning another Road March title in 1958 with "P.A.Y.E."

Taking calypso abroad[link]

Calypso music enjoyed a brief period of popularity in other parts in the world during the 1950s. Trinidadian expatriate Lord Kitchener had helped popularize calypso in England, and Sparrow also found some success there. In the United States, interest in calypso was sparked largely by Harry Belafonte's 1956 album Calypso, the first LP to sell over one million copies.^[3] In January 1958, Sparrow, along with longtime rival Lord Melody, travelled to New York City seeking access to the American music audience.^[4] Sparrow had already been recording with Balisier and Cook Records, and with Belafonte's help^[5] he also began to record for RCA Victor. He did not achieve the success he had hoped for; he said in a 2001 interview, "When nothing happened for me, I went back to England and continued on with my career."^[5]

In 1960 Sparrow returned to the Calypso Monarch competition, winning his second Kingship and third Road March title with "Ten to One Is Murder" (an autobiographical song about an incident in which Sparrow allegedly shot a man^[6]) and "Mae Mae." He also began recording for his own label, National Recording.^[1] He continued to enjoy great popularity in Trinidad throughout the 1960s.

Soca[link]

As soca began to supplant calypso in popularity in Trinidad during the late 1970s and early 1980s,^[1] Sparrow embraced the hybrid of Calypso and cadence with the Local (Chutney) music. In 1984 he won his eighth Road March title with the soca-influenced "Doh Back Back." Also around this time, he began to spend at least half the year in New York City, finding an apartment in the West Indian neighborhoods in Jamaica, Queens.^[1] Sparrow continues to write, perform, and tour into the 21st century; in a 2001 interview he mentioned that he had been singing and performing a "Gospel-lypso" hybrid.^[5] In 2008, he released a song supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign, "Barack the Magnificent".^[7] He also did a remake of his "Congo Man" song with fellow Trinidadian Machel Montano on the Flame on album.

Lyrics[link]

Sparrow's lyrics are famous for being witty, ironic, and ribald. He sings flirtatiously of the attractions of Hispanic women in "Magarita," and of East Indian women in "Marajhin." He tells some outrageously frank tales of sexuality in "Mae Mae," "The Lizard" and "Big Bamboo." And there is humorous commentary on West Indian culture to be found in "Obeah Wedding" and "Witch Doctor." Robert Christgau called his controversial song "Congo Man" "a wildly perverse piss-take on African roots, interracial revenge, interracial sex, male-female relations, and cannibalism."^[8] The 1965 song was criticized for its attitudes toward women and Africans, and banned from radio airplay until 1989.^[9]

Sparrow also frequently comments on social and political issues in his songs. During his early career he was a supporter of Eric Williams and his People's National Movement (PNM),^[6] which formed in 1955 and led Trinidad and Tobago to independence in 1962; songs such as "Leave The Damn Doctor Alone" and "William the Conqueror" mentioned Williams directly, while others such as "Federation" (blaming Jamaica for the breakup of the short-lived West Indies Federation), "Our Model Nation" (celebrating Trinidadian independence), and "PAYE" (supporting the PNM's pay-as-you-earn tax system) echoed PNM positions. Sparrow did express discontent in 1957's "No, Doctor, No," but it was comparatively mild, and aimed at holding PNM politicians to their promises rather than replacing them. Sparrow cleverly combined political criticism with sexual innuendo in his mid-1960s song "BG Plantain", which decried the ban levied by PM Williams on imported plantain from British Guiana (BG); plantain, a large banana-shaped vegetable, is a staple of West Indian cuisine, and Sparrow praised the BG plantain as larger, sweeter, and superior to the home-grown Trinidadian variety.

Sparrow's mid-1960s hit "Sir Garfield Sobers," celebrating the great Barbadian all-rounder cricketer, who starred for West Indies teams, anticipated by a decade the knighthood which Garfield Sobers would actually receive in 1975. Sobers is generally regarded as the greatest all-rounder in cricket history. This song's first verse:

"Who's the greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars?

Anyone can tell you, it's the great Sir Garfield Sobers!

This handsome Barbadian lad really knows his work.

Batting or bowling, he's the cricket King, no joke!

Three cheers for Captain Sobers!"

In more recent times Sparrow continues to incorporate social issues into his music. "Crown Heights Justice" is a plea for peace and understanding in the wake of the 1991 Crown Heights Riot in Sparrow's adopted home of New York City. The themes of peace, tolerance, and concern for the poor show up repeatedly in songs such as "Human Rights" (1981), "Capitalism Gone Mad" (1983), and "This Is Madness" (1995).

Sparrow still tours.

Selected discography[link]

• Calypso Kings and Pink Gin (Cook Records, 1957)
• King Sparrow's Calypso Carnival (Cook Records)
• Calypso Exposed (Cook, 1961)
• Sparrow in Hi-Fi (Cook, 1963)
• Hot and Sweet Pepper (Produced by Van Dyke Parks) - Warner Bros, 1974
• 16 Carnival Hits (with Lord Kitchener) - 1992
• Calypso Awakening from the Emory Cook Collection (Smithsonian Folkways, 2000)
• Mighty Sparrow Dance Party Gold 2000
• First Flight: Early Calypsos from the Emory Cook Collection (Smithsonian Folkways, 2005)
• Sparrow Hits on Karaoke - Islandstars Karaoke, 2005
• Mighty Sparrow Sparrowmania!: Wit, Wisdom and Soul from the King of Calypso 1960–1976 (Strut, 2012)

Major Awards and Honors[link]

Song sample[link]

	Mighty Sparrow's "No Money No Love" noicon One of Mighty Sparrow's more well-known songs
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mighty Sparrow

• MightySparrow.com
• Sparrow Discography at Smithsonian Folkways
• Biography at allmusic.com
• Muriel's Treasure for recordings and video
• [1] [Sparrow 40years - complete vinyl listing]

Sizzla
Sizzla Kalonji in 2005.
Background information
Birth name	Miguel Orlando Collins
Also known as	Sizzla, Sizzla Kalonji
Born	(1976-04-17) April 17, 1976 (age 36)
Origin	Kingston, Jamaica
Genres	Reggae fusion, roots reggae, dancehall
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Kalonji, Greensleeves, VP, Digital B, Xterminator Records, Damon Dash Music Group

Sizzla Kalonji, or simply Sizzla (born Miguel Orlando Collins, April 17, 1976, Kingston, Jamaica) is a reggae musician. He is one of the most commercially and critically successful contemporary reggae artists and is noted for his high number of releases.^[1] As of 2011 he had released over 65 solo albums.^[2]

Biography[link]

Sizzla was born in Kingston in 1976 to devout Rastafari movement parents.^[3] Like them Sizzla subscribes to the Bobo Ashanti branch of the Rastafari movement.^[4] He was raised in August Town, Kingston Jamaica where he studied mechanical engineering at Dunoon High School.