Ineke van Wetering

Wilhelmina (Ineke) van Wetering (17 October 1934, Hilversum - 18 October 2011, Huijbergen) was a Dutch anthropologist and Surinamist. She was born on 17 October 1934 in the Dutch city of Hilversum. When she was 10 years old, her father (ironmonger) had been executed by firing squad in the Second World War because of participating in an illegal group who provided hiding places for people who were prosecuted by the Nazi-German army. She finished her secondary school in 1955, when she began her study of sociology at the University of Amsterdam. In her later career she continued her work at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Ineke van Wetering met her life partner, Bonno Thoden van Velzen, during her study, with whom she has been in field from May 1961 to November 1962. After her field work she wrote her dissertation about the role of witchcraft in the Ndyuka society, which is one of the six Maroon groups in the hinterland of Suriname. From 1961 to 2010, she dedicated her work on religion and witchcraft in the Ndyuka society, primarily writing books in cooperation with Bonno Thoden van Velzen. In 2010 Ineke van Wetering was diagnosed with a debilitating disease, nonetheless carrying on her works Makandra vrouwenrituelen en Creools-Surinaamse identiteit in Suriname and Een Zwarte Vrijstaat in Suriname, which has been published in 2013.