Hello! I entered CocoaMint's Earth's Unity skin contest where each participant is given a random flag and they have to make a skin using the color pallet of that flag. It's a very interesting and cool concept so I decided to hop on. I do acknowledge that it breaks Rule #3 of the contest (You are allowed to use 1 - 2 colors that are not a part of the palette). I realize that this will disqualify the entry, but I spent a lot of time not only skinning but doing research that I'd like to share with you all :))

I named this skin "Dilip" because in the population of Suriname, according to ethnic group, is 27.4% East Indian, according to Census 2012.

The People of Suriname are of various ethnic, racial, religious, and national origins, but the majority of them are composed of Old-World immigrants and their descendants. What those this mean? Well, the Old-World as it is called, consists of Africa, Europe, and Asia, or Afro-Eurasia, regarded collectively as the part of the world known to the inhabitants thereof before contact with the Americas. The Americas are therefore contrariwise called the New World.

Most who are from the Old-World have a dark-skinned complexation which is why this skin does as well. In previous versions of the skin, I didn't really put much thought or research into the people of Suriname as I was focusing solely on the colors of the flag. Later iterations this was changed as I decided I wanted to further learn about the country which led me to the current style and design of the skin right now.



The pangi is a piece of cloth that can be worn in many ways and traditionally a pangi always has a meaning. When the man wears it, it is referred to as kamisah or kamisa (kah-mee-sah). It can be used for spiritual meaning, for conveying a message, or simply as a fashion statement and or showing your pride in their culture.

Kamisa is same as a pangi but when a male wear it, it’s called a kamisa, over the shoulder as seen in these examples:




Sometimes Surinamese will also generally call a piece of clothing a pangi. It may be used for a breech cloth or shoulder cape and for other purposes such as making a hammock. Descendants of people who were brought from Africa as slaves after the mid-1600s and escaped to live in the forests, eventually obtaining the right of self-government from the colonial powers. Traditionally they made their own clothing, using cotton as the raw material, which they either grew themselves or stole from plantation cotton fields. They most likely spun threads in the same way as the Amerindians, using a spindle at foot height, then wove the threads into cloth on a simple loom. (Could be wrong on this, please let me know)

Nowadays however, the pangi or kamisa has a different meaning. The meaning of the kamisa changes, depending on which shoulder its worn on. If it's worn on the left shoulder, covering the man's heart, it means they are taken (most cases married). If worn over the right shoulder it means their heart is open.

After I did the research and found all this out, I wanted to be respectful of the Surinamese culture and pay proper homage to their heritage. I looked around and there isn't a lot of Minecraft skins that feature a person of color much less one of a different culture. I did my best to try and represent them as someone who isn't from their culture, hopefully I did it right.

Anyway, another thing I found out that I thought was super interesting, is that they have kaseko music, and Indo-Caribbean tradition. Kaseko emerged from the traditional Afro-Surinamese kawina music, which was played since the beginning of 1900 by street musicians in Paramaribo. It evolved in the 1930s during festivities that used large bands, especially brass bands, and was called Bigi Poku (big drum music). Following World War II, jazz, calypso and other importations became popular, while rock and roll soon left its own influence in the form of electrified instruments.

There's so much more that I found fascinating, but I feel like this post is too long now. But yeah, I hope I paid proper respects to the Surinamese and their culture. If any of the information is wrong, please me know so I can correct it. I found all this stuff on the internet so it could be very wrong for all I know.