Nieuw Nickerie

The name Nickerie probably comes from the Neekeari, an Indigenous people reported in the area in the 1590s; it already appears in the account of Robert Dudley's voyage to the West Indies of 1594–95. The first known settler, Dietzel, arrived in 1718, and the first plantation in Nickerie was approved by Governor Jurriaan de Friderici in 1797. During the British occupation many Scottish and English settlers came to the area and grew mainly cotton and coffee.

The old district centre, Nieuw Rotterdam, stood further downstream and was flooded several times. In 1879 the district centre was moved, and Nieuw Nickerie was built — first planned on a polder created in 1869, then moved further inland. A sea dike was built in the 1940s to protect the area. In 1949 Wageningen, to the east, was founded as a centre of mechanised rice growing.

The town's airport has been in use since 1953, when a small plane named Colibri landed from Paramaribo. In 1995 the management of the harbour, where sea-going ships load paddy rice and bananas and unload farm machinery, passed to the national port authority, and the harbour was upgraded in 2012. The town once had several cinemas, which closed as video and DVD spread. A bridge to Guyana has long been planned but not built, so the crossing is still by ferry.

Hindustanis make up just under half of the town's population, and people of mixed descent, Javanese and Creoles form most of the rest, with small Indigenous and Chinese communities. The town's monuments tell the same story: on the Brasaplein and the Volksplein stand memorials to the abolition of slavery from 1913 and 1938, neem trees planted in 1953 for 80 years of Hindustani immigration, a bust of Mahatma Gandhi from 1972 and a monument of 2023 for 170 years of Chinese immigration, while a monument of 1990 in the Liefdespark marks 100 years of Javanese immigration.

Hindu life is visible on the sea dike, where a temple stands and Hindus from all over the country bring their dead to the open-air cremation ground. The dike itself, nicknamed Klein Scheveningen after the Dutch seaside resort, is where people go for the sunset.

Locals pronounce the name roughly "nee-KEE-ree". People born in the town include the singer and musician Clarence Breeveld, the painter and sculptor Hans Lie and the footballer Ken Monkou; the politician Jagernath Lachmon, whose parents ran a dairy farm in the town, has a bust on the Brasaplein.

The resort of Nieuw Nickerie had about 12,800 people at the 2012 census, down from 2004, making it the third-largest town in Suriname and by far the largest place in its district. It is the end of the East-West Link and a service centre for the polders, and several Paramaribo companies have branches here.

Rice is the backbone of the economy: Nickerie is Suriname's largest rice producer, and bananas are the other main industry. Families also fish on the Corantijn and Nickerie rivers and keep cattle, sheep, goats, chickens and ducks. The harbour handles rice and bananas, the Mungra Medical Centre on Annastraat was the first Surinamese hospital outside Paramaribo, and Bigi Pan has begun to bring ecotourism.

In the early afternoon the town looks deserted as everything closes, then it comes back to life until about seven in the evening, when calm returns. The border shapes life too: the ferry from South Drain to Guyana and the informal boats from the sea dike link the town to Corriverton on the far bank.

Rice from the surrounding polders is the staple, and with Hindustanis the largest group, roti — flatbread served with curried chicken, potato and long beans — and dhal are everyday food, alongside Javanese bami and nasi goreng and Creole dishes such as moksi alesi, rice cooked with salted meat or fish. Chinese restaurants are part of the town's eating scene, as they are across Suriname.

The market halls in the centre sell fruit and vegetables from the district's farms, and fishing on the Corantijn and Nickerie rivers and the cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and ducks raised in the district supply local kitchens. Food stalls on the Brasaplein and the Volksplein sell snacks, and street food such as bara fritters and telo, fried cassava, is common across the coast.

The usual drinks are Parbo beer, brewed in Paramaribo, Surinamese rum, strong coffee and fresh tropical juices, as they are all along the Surinamese coast, with sweet Javanese milk drinks as well.