magic and religion in suriname (post 6)

the practice of magic and voodoo in the costal region of suriname goes back years and years, however im tyring to figure out why and how these belief took root and why people seem to believe in something so outlandish and rooted in mysticism. One major challenge is finding different sources of information, simply because this is a very obscure but well known practice in Suriname, it simply hasn't been published all too often for the public, but i managed to find some sources to go off of. some interesting facts i found were that the practice of this mystical art started off as a religion back during the early 1650's, when the dutch took over Suriname, and enslaved its people, the slaves formed this religion known as Winti. Now the dutch found this practice barbaric and against god, so they banned it, which in a weird way, bolstered its growth throughout the slaves, eventually becoming a way to preserve their history and culture. it was banned up until slavery was abolished in Suriname, when the new government took hold, they lifted its ban. this religion known as Winti focuses on gods based on the four elements, earth, water, wind, however they replace the element of fire with the Forrest, representing there closeness with the dense forests of there island. they practiced there "magic" through rituals involving dancing around open fires, and small sacrifices occasionally. now what i eventually plan to focus on researching next would be the types of things these mystical magic rituals accomplish for them, do they cure sickness? curse people? or perhaps help all of the people of Suriname in some general way. this is something that i myself am very interested in, simply because for people to be so convinced that these things really work, they must have seen some sort of miracle to spur their belief.