Things to see and do Jodensavanne

The native village of Redi Doti is a pleasant stopover where you can familiarize yourself with the Kali'na ethnic group and their handicrafts, particularly pottery. Redi Doti means "red earth", named after its ancient location, which you can also visit. The village is relatively young, with around 100 inhabitants. Their main source of income is hunting and fishing, while the women weave dresses and make cassava bread. From here, you can visit the village of Blakawatra and the Cassipora cemetery.

The Jewish settlement chose the Jodensavanne site for its 4 natural springs, one of which is considered to be medicinal: its curative virtues were already described by the first settlers as well as the natives living in the vicinity. For centuries, the spring is said to have provided a small but constant supply of healing water. This hilltop water has even been tested and found to combat constipation. Today, people still go there just to pick up a bottle of this miraculous water.

Around 20 km from Redi Doti, the village of Cassipora is very old, dating back to 1625. It was certainly one of the first contacts between the Arawak natives and the Jewish colony. In Arawak, "cassipoeri" means "creek full of fish", and here we are in the middle of the forest, but very close to a river, and therefore to what is known here as a creek.

The village currently has fewer than 100 inhabitants, but its cemetery boasts 216 gravestones, and according to the records, there were far more burials than known graves at the time (at least 400). This is the oldest Jewish cemetery and the least accessible, since it is hidden in the forest. The oldest tomb dates from 1666, the most recent from 1873.

Towards the end of the ^17th century, the communities of Cassipora and Jodensavanne lived separately, and it was at the end of the ^18th century that the inhabitants of Cassipora moved into the prosperous village of Jodensavanne. True funerary art, the motifs on the tombstones all have religious meanings and deserve close attention, to admire such details as a tree felled by the angel of death, or the hand of God. These tombstones reveal numerous historical features and serve as a veritable open-air archive, so much so that the Jodensavanne site has been listed by Unesco... A place full of history!