The Bakru Speaks Money-Making Demons and Racial Stereotypes in Guyana and Suriname

• Published in: New West Indian Guide Vol. 92; no. 1/2; pp. 1 - 34
• Main Authors: Pires, Rogério Brittes W., Strange, Stuart Earle, Mello, Marcelo Moura
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Leiden BRILL 01.01.2018; Brill Academic Publishers, Inc; KITLV, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies
• Subjects: Analysis; Capitalism; Colonialism; Culture; Demonology; Hindi language; Maroons (People); Money; Price, Richard; Price, Richard (1949- ); Race relations; Religion; Social aspects; Social power; Stereotype (Psychology); Stereotypes; Taussig, Michael; Williams, Brackette F; Guyana; Suriname; Brazil; Rio de Janeiro Brazil; Chicago Illinois; United States > US
• ISSN: 1382-2373; 2213-4360; 1382-2373
• DOI: 10.1163/22134360-09201001

Throughout the Guianas, people of all ethnicities fear one particular kind of demonic spirit. Called baccoo in Guyana, bakru in coastal Suriname, and bakulu or bakuu among Saamaka and Ndyuka Maroons in the interior, these demons offer personal wealth in exchange for human life. Based on multisited ethnography in Guyana and Suriname, this paper analyzes converging and diverging conceptions of the “same” spirit among several Afro- and Indo-Guianese populations. We argue that transformations in how people conceptualize bakulu reveal how supposedly radical moral differences are constructed within and between populations in the multi-ethnic Caribbean. More than figurative projections of monetized inequality or racial and ethnic prejudices, baccoo actively mediate how people throughout the Guianas think about and experience the everyday conduct of economic and racial relations.