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Rice is a keystone crop in all Maroon communities in Suriname and French Guyana today and they cultivate hundreds of traditional varieties. Historically, rice can be considered an indicator crop for successful marronnage in the Guianas. Unraveling local variety names can reveal the history, farming systems, spiritual significance and probably the diversity of rice in Maroon communities. We interviewed 67 rice farmers (96% female), collected over 400 rice specimens and built a database with 284 unique rice names from our own fieldwork and previously collected names. The process of naming a rice variety is complex, but there are recurrent patterns among the five Maroon groups we studied. We categorized names referring to morphology, agronomy, animals, humans, and rice brought from specific regions or by other Maroon and non-Maroon groups. Very few names are shared between Maroon groups. When we showed the farmers six rice varieties from outside their village, all recognized African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and pende (O. sativa with spotted husks). When a variety was unknown, an initial name was given based on its morphology. Maroon rice names are truly unique as they reflect the varieties that were available, the history of plantations and marronnage, climate aspects that influenced the selection of farmers, the many separate groups of runaways joining the Maroons, the adaptation to the Amazonian ecosystem, and their contacts with outsiders. Our results show that unravelling Maroon rice names leads to a better understanding of the close connection between the process of marronage, locally developed agricultural practices, and connections to West Africa. These historical origins continue to exist and form a unique Maroon system of variety exchange, farm management and crop diversity.

Given the few written documents left behind by those who escaped slavery, the analysis of African agency in the transfer of crops and knowledge in the successful establishment of Maroon communities benefits from other disciplines, such as oral history, ethnobotany and linguistics. Here we report the histories of several enslaved women, who escaped in the early periods of slave rebellion in Suriname. They played a crucial role in ensuring food security for their runaway communities by bringing rice seeds hidden in their hair. We combined information from ethnobotanical surveys, Maroon oral history, archival documents and published accounts to show how Maroon farmers safeguard their agricultural diversity and cultural heritage by cultivating rice varieties that still carry the names of their female ancestors who took along these seeds during their flight to freedom. We trace the routes of the Saramaccan ancestors Sééi, Yaya and Paánza, Tjowa of the Matawai, Sapali, Ana and Bapi of the Aucans, and describe the rice varieties named after them. The legends of these female ancestors acknowledge the importance of women in Maroon survival. Maroon women’s agricultural knowledge probably contains much more neglected oral history on how their ancestors obtained food crops from plantations or Amerindians.