Official Name: | Matta |
Other Name: | Korhopa |
Settlement Type: | Village |
Pushpin Map: | Suriname |
Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
Pushpin Mapsize: | 300 |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Suriname |
Subdivision Name1: | Para District |
Subdivision Type2: | Resort |
Subdivision Name2: | Zuid |
Leader Title: | Captain |
Leader Name: | Wendeline Sabajo |
Population As Of: | 2022 |
Population Footnotes: | [1] |
Population Total: | 500 |
Population Density Km2: | auto |
Timezone: | AST |
Utc Offset: | -3 |
Coordinates: | 5.4525°N -55.3228°W |
Matta (Lokono: Korhopa;[1] also Matta Karupa[2]) is an indigenous village of Lokono[1] Amerindians in the resort of Zuid in the Para District in Suriname. The village can be accessed from a road which branches off the Southern East-West Link.
Matta has a school and a clinic.[3] Matta is connected to the road network of Suriname, however the road was unpaved. In 2012, the government promised to pave the road.[4] In August 2018, the road was finally upgraded.[5] The economy of the village is mainly based on growing cassava.[2]
The village has been allocated a communal forest. In 2018, 203 hectares of the forest were awarded to[6] Creditmarket Investment Company NV who already started to clear the forest to make way for a planned industrial estate.[7]
On 13 August 2020, Captain Michael Karwofodi (67), the village chief, was murdered.[8] On 16 August, six teenagers aged 13 to 18 were arrested, and have confessed to the murder.[9] They were from the village and had been removed from the community house by the chief for misbehaving.[10] They confessed that they intended to rob Karwofodi of his money and juwelry.[11] On 21 June 2022, Raphael S, the leader of the group was sentenced to 12 years for murder and robbery.[12]