Moengotapoe | A cavalcade of black sport utility vehicles pulled up at a small village in a jungle clearing in a remote corner of South America. A tall, heavyset man with thick gold chains hanging over a tight shirt emerged from the largest car to a chorus of cheers.

The man, Ronnie Brunswijk, the child of subsistence farmers, had left the village of Moengotapoe in eastern Suriname in search of a better life 50 years ago. He was returning now as one of Suriname’s richest, most powerful and popular men, to bring electricity to his long-neglected community composed of the descendants of people who escaped slavery, known as Maroons.