There is a narrow swampy coastal belt in the north, a somewhat wider savannah lowland just to its south, and, in all of the rest, the Guiana Highlands, which rise above 1,200 meters in the center. Rivers flow from the highlands south, and include the Marowijne(2) along the French Guiana(3) border, the Suriname in the center, which is dammed to form a large reservoir, and the Corantijne(4) along the Guyana border.
Less than half a million people live here, about half of them in the capital, Paramaribo. There is no majority first language. West Germanic languages together account for two in three speakers. These include Dutch, spoken by almost one in three, and several forms of Creole English, spoken by just over one in three. The two most important Creoles are Sranan(5), which serves as the national lingua fraca, and Guyanese Creole English(6).
Just under half the population is Christian, with more Protestants than Catholics, and the majority of Protestants Moravian Brethren. Over one in four is Hindu, and about one in five, Moslem. The remainder, about one in twenty, follow a miscellany of religions, mostly local.
Paramaribo is on the mouth of the Suriname River. In past centuries it served as a haven for Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition in neighboring lands.
Before European contact, Amerindian languages(7) were spoken here, and people followed local religions. More specifically there were speakers of Carib languages(8), including Carib itself, and Arawak(9).
The Dutch conquered the area and then introduced many slaves from Africa. However they forbid them to learn English or to become Christians. The English briefly conqured the Dutch colony but their racism did not include the linguistic prohibition. So their slaves' creoles took root and spread after the English left. These blended their masters' language with aspects of West African languages like tones, and also with elements of Kongo. The Moravian Missionaries furthered the importance of creoles when they began to use them to assist in religious education.
After the end of slavery, the freedmen were ordered by the Dutch never to speak creoles, only Dutch. The chief impact of this was to raise the status of Sranan after and immediately before independence.
(1) Suriname officially.
(2) Called the Maroui in French Guiana.
(3) Guiane française in French.
(4) Called the Corentyne in Guyana.
(5) Also called Taki-Taki or Negro English.
(6) Sranan is spoken by 19% and Guyanese Creole English by 8%.
(7) A controversial language category postulated by Joseph Greenberg.
(8) Some of those who reject Greenberg allow a Ge-Pano-Carib group; others do not.
(9) Some of these who reject Greenberg allow a Andean-Equatorial group that includes the Arawakan group; others do not. Everyone agrees on an Arawakan group.