Johan Adolf Pengel

Johan ( Jopie ) Adolf Pengel (* January 20, 1916, † June 5, 1970 ) was a Surinamese politician and Premier of Suriname.

Pengel was born the son of a teacher in Paramaribo. He was African- Surinamese and the family Pengel came from the wood plantation La Prospérité ( Beersheba ) in the district of Para. He attended secondary school of the Evangelical Broedergemeente and, after his graduation in the Registry of the Court in Paramaribo.

In 1949 he was selected for the National Party of Suriname (NPS ) to parliament ( Staten van Suriname). As founder of the Surinamese Workers Federation and, as a group leader, from 1962 as chairman of the NPS to Pengel has become one of the most influential politician in Suriname.

From 1963 to 1969, Premier Pengel of Suriname.

He was the first Surinamese politician of the self-confident and demanding towards the colonial administration occurred and so many Surinamese was a sense of equivalence.

The bloody race riots in the neighboring country of Guyana in mind, he led, together with Jagernath Lachmon, the chairman of the largest Hindustani party Vooruitstrevende Hervormings Partij ( VHP) called fraternization policy between the two largest ethnic groups, the Creoles and Hindu mangosteens.

Pengel died at the age of 54 years in Paramaribo to blood poisoning.

The International airport of Suriname ( Zanderij ) is named in his honor at Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport. In 1974, a statue of Pengel was unveiled at the Independence Square in the heart of Paramaribo. It was made on behalf of the Surinamese government by the sculptor Stuart Robles de Medina ( see photo).