Kankantri

The kapok tree, in Winti a sacred tree and dwelling place of winti.

The kankantri is the kapok tree, Ceiba pentandra, one of the largest trees of the Surinamese forest. It stands out for its straight, tall trunk, a broad crown and huge buttress roots that rise from the ground like walls. An old kankantri can tower above the whole forest and be seen from far away.

In Winti the kankantri counts as a sacred tree. Many practitioners see it as a dwelling place of winti, and it is often linked with the winti of the earth and the trees, such as Loko. That is why a kankantri is approached with respect. Cutting one down without proper care is considered dangerous: according to a widespread belief it brings misfortune on whoever does it. At some trees offerings are made or cloths are tied around the trunk.

That reverence does not stand alone. In West Africa the same tree is considered sacred in many places, and in other Afro-Caribbean traditions it has a special place too: in Cuban Santería as the ceiba, in Haitian Vodou as the mapou. Across the ocean the tree remained a place where heaven, earth and the ancestors touch.

In dreams a kankantri is often read in a Surinamese reading as something bigger and older than yourself: the family, the ancestors, a force that carries you. Sheltering between the buttress roots can be about protection and safety; a kankantri that falls or is cut down, about the fear that a bond or a tradition is being lost. A dream in which you meet someone at such a tree is sometimes read as meeting an ancestor or a winti, but that remains a possibility. Dreamkin interprets dreams as possibilities and prescribes no offerings or rituals.