|  | | 'The Malohkoh Line: Love poems in wood: "Hati den doe " from the bottom of my heart' | | | |
Intertwined as the curving lines are traditionally carved, past, present and future join
together in the Molohkoh Line, woodcarving based on the Saramacan tradition.
Artisan Dona(born 1971), from this Afro Surinamese indigenous tribe explains that the
Saramacan name for woodcarving is paw a paw den doe, which literally means line on line with content. All carvings have positive meanings since woodcarving is only made out of love and respect. The most well-known woodcarving symbol is the never ending knot, symbol of harmonious living, also well-known in Africa and in Suriname most used in silver and gold as the so called " mattenklopper-ring " (carpet beater-ring). The Malohkoh Line has fine and exclusive
carving based on the Saramacan tradition in modern as well as traditional furniture and
ultilities. Dona named this line of sustainable forest products, after his foremother
Ma Lohkoh who was captured from West Ghana, enslaved in Suriname on a plantation which she
fled with her two sisters, thus preserving the African Heritage. Many more enslaved Africans
fled and after 40 years of guerilla signed a peace treaty as free tribes with the Europeans who once thought they could own them. African visual culture was thus preserved and further developed. Woodcarving orginally is the way a man expresses his love for his woman. The women express their love through the same lovely symbols in embroidery of clothes, carving inside gourds and drawing in cassava pancakes for their beloved men. The love poems carved in wood decorate everything and surround everybody in a traditional Saramacan village, woodcarving is on the huts, the ends of the wooden boats, the furniture(mainly traditional benches), the handles of spoons and forks, the peanut grinding boards, the rice winnowing trays.
In Readytex many of these items are for sale in actual or miniature size.
In the fifties the indigenous tradition of love poems in woodcraft, which produced beautiful
and functional objects, were also given to much respected visitors and on a small scale sold
to tourists. Local people also began to develop a taste for this art and the demand was
growing but the interior war of 1986-1992 forced many good artisans to move to French Guyana.
So this country became exporter of Suriname wood carved products and Suriname's locals and
tourists where left with little choice. One of the initiatives that changed this was Dona.
One day when Dona, then 23, was tired of unskilled and underpaid jobs he decided to try
something on his own. With his own creativity, feelings, art and culture and his last 4000
Suriname guilders (1 Us dollar and 50 $ cents) Dona bought a knife, a mirror and a piece
of wood which he decorated with carvings and called it "Hati den doe " from the bottom
of my heart. When he sold the mirror to Readytex, in 1994 he shared his dream with them
and the Malohkoh Line was born. Anno 2005, the Malohkoh Line has more than a dozen finely
carved quality products, a workshop with enough equipment and Dona, his artisan cousin
and their two young families are living of it. In the names of the commercial products Dona expresses his feelings and passes on his proud history.
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