In the Suriname rainforest off the northern coast of South America, Ndyuka boatman Boggi Josef Adijontoe, nicknamed Boogie, makes a living transporting cargo and delivering essential goods, working on the Maroni River, the border river between Suriname and French Guiana. He barters for goods with the supplies he brings to the locals, who complain of the rising prices. Boogie is the lead subject in Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan and Tolin Alexander’s documentary Monikondee, aka Money Land, a documentary rich in subjects for academic study including colonialism, forced migration, capitalism, environmental issues, greed, race, and social issues.
Boogie discusses how the city people call them “maroons” (runaways), but they prefer “fiiman” (free people). Their ancestors freed themselves from slavery and like the indigenous people, they live in the rainforest. In 1975, their country gained independence, but the colonial legacy turned out to be an iron cloth, divided and ruled by inequality, corruption, uproar and unresolved land rights.
Four years after independence, the army staged a coup, calling it a revolution, turned into a military dictatorship, and the interior war began. Since then, his people and the indigenous people, one group known as the Kalina, have been moving between the forest and the city. An older Kalina woman discusses how when the Europeans arrived, they established plantations, and together with the Arawaks, the Kalina devised a plan to drive out the whites. But someone betrayed them, and that’s how they lost their land to the Europeans who colonized them.
Later when the land was mined in the forest behind their village, their land was declared a nature reserve for sea turtles, and the sea turtles had land rights that the Kalina did not. Monikondee has eye-opening facts like this that show how little the colonialists think of the indigenous people who live there.
Boogie discusses how his people, the Ndyuka, were the first fiiman to make peace with the Dutch whites in 1760. However, any agreement with the whites is only valid as long as it benefits them, and as soon as gold was discovered, the Dutch forgot the agreement, and the Ndyuka were forced to move. Boogie admits that now he’s complicit in supplying the gold miners with oil saying, “Money has become our master,” as he barters oil for a propeller for his boat.
Later an Aluku woman discusses how the money system is “undermining our communities, that they are no longer self-sufficient with bartering,” how their ancestors lived off their vegetable gardens. A native wife talks about how since they started using money, they share less with each other and don't cooperate as much. All this shows the effects of capitalism on these indigenous people.
Boogie is an intriguing subject who makes a living in any way he can in his colonized land. He has friends who help him down the river when needed, including in one tense scene when they have to travel down raging river rapids. Boogie is criticized at one point by an older Aluku woman for supplying oil to the gold miners when she says, “Gold talk isn't accepted by the Aluku people. Our leaders don't want it. Look at the water…look. Will you clean it?” She has to buy water while there is water right there because drinking it makes her kids sick. This brings up the theme of environmentalism showing how the gold miners are ruining the water supply.
The filmmakers aptly capture the different areas with beautiful cinematography and long shots of Boogie traveling on his boat transporting goods. The documentary could use a better edit for pacing, possibly cutting down on so many of Boogie’s boat rides. It is difficult to grasp the details at times because the subjects, what indigenous group they belong to, or the different areas that Boogie travels to aren’t labeled, making it difficult sometimes to understand the context of scenes.
Music works well throughout, like drum music setting the tone during the rapids scene. At one point an older native man sings a hauntingly beautiful sad song about Brazilians stealing their gold and polluting the river. Recommended.
How can Monikondee be utilized for academic study in the classroom?
Monikondee is rich in topics to study in class and is ideal to screen in classes covering South America, the rainforest, environmental issues, and colonialism and how it affects indigenous people, like forced migration to other areas. This documentary could fit well in both high school and college courses, and could lead to research assignments for students for further study on the region or topics. Distributor EPF Media regularly publishes useful Press Kits and Study Guides for their films, so keep an eye out for those for Monikondee on their website, which can be useful for planning discussions and questions for students.
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