A pangi is a traditional garment worn by Maroons also once known as “bush negros” in Suriname, it can be worn in many ways. At times a pangi can be used for a spiritual meaning for conveying a message, or a style statement. When men wear a pangi it’s called kamisa, and it’s usually worn over the shoulders. If you wear it over your left shoulder, covering your heart, it means you are taken, married. If you wear it over your right shoulder it means your heart is open. The Most Decorative clothes are ones made for men as a appreciation for the labor for the men and the village. The later colorful aesthetics of the cloths come from colors men who were using for canoes, paddles, and household objects.
1: suriname, Native Maroon Men from the Forest (1930s) , photographer unknown
2: Maroon Fashion History by Sally Price, pg,10. R. Price 1976
3: Maroon, Boschneger, Part of the photo album Souvenir de Voyage (part 1), about the life of the Doijer family in and around the plantation Ma Retraite in Suriname in the years, Hendrik Doijer, Suriname, 1906 - 1913.
4: All three are wearing a Kamisa. The young man on the left is wearing an amulet around his neck, the youth on the right is wearing a putu kile around his shoulders. Portrait of three Maroon men and a child in Suriname, between 1910 and 1935
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6: Bush-Negroes of the Aukan tribe, Dutch Guiana by Harry Hamilton Johnston, 1910
7: Pierre Jacques Benoit, 1839
8: Maroon man, 1910. Photographer unknown
9:Suriname, Augusta Curiel, date unknown
10: photographer unknown, 1936-1937.
