PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Florida-born rap artist Rick Ross packed maybe 10,000 fans into the Andre Kamperveen stadium in Paramaribo last Saturday. Bearded, bald-headed and big-bellied, he looks a bit like the prison officer he once was. He shares his name with the former drug trafficker Rick “Freeway” Ross—who once tried to sue the rapper for name-theft. His lyrics win few good-behaviour awards.
The crowd went wild. But the real star of the show was Ronnie Brunswijk—alias “Bigi Bravo”—a former guerrilla leader, now a successful politician, whose Romeo Bravo promotions company fixed up the gig. Bigi Bravo warmed up the crowd. He rapped. He danced. Bald-headed like Ross, but not quite as big-bellied, he gave out US hundred-dollar banknotes to some of those near the stage and threw handfuls of lower-value Suriname dollars into the crowd.
“I want to make all the poor people in Suriname rich,” he said. “If you need a hundred dollars, call Bravo.” He promised the crowd a Rihanna concert for later this year, and perhaps Beyoncé. Then he launched a bid to be the country’s next president. Ronnie Brunswijk leads the General Liberation and Development Party (Algemene Bevrijdings—en Ontwikkelingspartij, or ABOP), a junior partner in Suriname’s coalition government.