Suriname is a country in South America that was colonized by members of white tribes from the Netherlands. Some Africans enslaved by the Dutch men and women from the Netherlands fled the brutal and inhumane treatment to which they were subjected and lived in the forests of Suriname. One of the more shameful acts of that horrific period was the deliberate drowning of 664 African men, women and children. On January 1, 1738, the “Leusden” a ship owned by the Dutch West India Company was carrying 680 African men, women and children through Suriname when it was caught in a storm. The captain of the ship ordered the crew to lock the Africans below deck where they were shackled. He would not give them the opportunity to swim to safety and sentenced 664 African men, women and children to death by drowning as the boat sank in the Maroni River, and the crew escaped on lifeboats with 16 enslaved Africans who they sold in Suriname.

1. SURINAME INDEPENDENCE 2015
by Murphy Browne
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
© Wednesday, November 25, 2015
On November 25 Surinamese will celebrate 40 years of independence from Dutch
rule. The former Dutch Guiana is today the Republic of Suriname and has been an
independent nation since November 25, 1975. Suriname is one of the smallest
countries in South America at approximately 63,000 square miles. When
Christopher Columbus and his crew sighted the coastland of the country in 1498
it was peopled by the indigenous Arawaks, Caribs and Surinen. The invasion of
their home by Europeans (British, Dutch, French and Spanish) forced the
indigenous people to flee into the interior and into other parts of the
continent.
Beginning in 1593 the Spanish were the first Europeans who attempted to
colonize/settle the land. The Spanish named the country Suriname after the
Surinen who were reportedly the earliest inhabitants of the area. As usual with
the Europeans who came upon land that was not occupied by White people, the
Spanish staked a claim to the land, but did not build a settlement. Between 1600
and1650 several European groups (British, Dutch, Spanish and French) attempted
to build settlements. They all failed because of fierce resistance by the
indigenous people and because the covetous Europeans were fighting with each
other to own the territory. White British travel author Philip Briggs has
written in his 2015 published book “Suriname“ that Sephardic Jews were the
founders of “Torarica“ the first White settlement which was “upriver of present
day Paramaribo.“ Briggs also writes that although there were short-lived
settlements by Dutch and French: “The most substantial settlement for much of
the 17th century was Torarica (also spelled Thorarica.“ In 1651 a group of
English men were sent to Suriname by Francis Willoughby, Governor of Barbados
(appointed in 1650) to establish a settlement. They built Fort Willoughby (now
Paramaribo) and imported Africans to provide the labour necessary to clear the
land and establish successful plantations. By 1663 the British settlement known
as Willoughbyland had 50 sugar plantations approximately 1,000 White settlers
(British and Sephardic) and thousands of enslaved Africans. In February 1667
Fort Willoughby was captured by the Dutch who renamed it Fort Zeelandia.
On February 19, 1674 the British gave up their Willoughbyland plantations and
Fort Willoughby/Zeelandia in exchange for the Dutch North American colony of New
Amsterdam (modern day New York.) The 1674 Treaty of Westminster, signed on Feb.
19, officially ended the third Anglo-Dutch War and the two European countries
exchanged the land they had wrested from the indigenous people of the Americas.
“Ownership“ of indigenous land was transferred and the British got New Amsterdam
(New York City) in North America and in exchange the Dutch got Willoughbyland
(Suriname) in South America. The Dutch expanded their colonization of Suriname
and by 1740 there were more than 400 plantations with tens of thousands of
enslaved Africans working their lives away under the lash and brutality of Dutch
men and women.
Many of the enslaved Africans fled the cruel and barbaric treatment they
received at the hands of first the British then the Dutch and established
communities in the interior of the country. The Djukas as these Africans would
eventually be named thrived in the interior and today they are an autonomous
nation in Suriname. The Djukas signed treaties with the Dutch in 1760 (after
waging almost 50 years of warfare against the Dutch) to ensure their freedom
from enslavement or re-enslavement.
The cruelty of the Dutch and their disregard for the lives of the Africans they
held in slavery was illustrated in 1738 in one of the worst displays of

2. barbarity. On January 1, 1738, the “Leusden“ a ship owned by the Dutch West
India Company was carrying 680 African men, women and children through Suriname
when it was caught in a storm. The captain of the ship ordered the crew to lock
the Africans below deck where they were shackled. He would not give them the
opportunity to swim to safety and sentenced 664 African men, women and children
to death by drowning as the boat sank in the Maroni River, and the crew escaped
on lifeboats with 16 enslaved Africans who they sold in Suriname. This shameful
and horrific act is considered the greatest tragedy of its kind in the Atlantic
slave trade according to African Surinamese historian Dr. Leo Balai. In his 2014
published book "Slave Ship Leusden: A Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck and Murder" Dr.
Balai describes this massacre of Africans orchestrated by Joachim Outjes the
Swedish captain of the ship. This mass murder of enslaved Africans was worse
than the horrific 1781 massacre of 132 Africans on the Zong, a British-owned
ship that was transporting Africans from West Africa to Jamaica. The Africans on
the Zong were thrown overboard so that the owners of the ship could collect
insurance money.
In 1799 the British reneged on the treaty they had signed with the Dutch in 1674
and reclaimed Suriname. Britain was at war with Napoleon and the Netherlands had
been “incorporated“ into the French Empire so were considered fair game in spite
of the Treaty of Westminster. The British retained control of Suriname from 1799
to 1802, then again from 1804 to 1816. In 1816 with the end of the Napoleonic
War and Napoleon“s defeat the British “returned“ Suriname to Dutch control. The
Dutch abolished slavery in 1863 but the Africans were forced to remain on the
plantations where they had been enslaved for another 10 years until July 1,
1873. The Dutch abolition of slavery with a 10 year period of “adjustment“ was
similar to the British system of “apprenticeship“ which lasted four years from
1834-1838. In July 1873 Africans left the plantations where they had been
enslaved and the Dutch hired indentured labourers from Asia. More than 60,000
indentured servants from China, India and Java emigrated to Suriname between
1873 and 1939 on five year indentureship agreements/contracts.
July 1 is a public holiday in Suriname to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved
Africans. Keti Koti which loosely translates as “broken chains“ is celebrated
with many of the African Surinamese women dressed as Kotomisi. The koto is a
traditional dress of the African Surinamese women. Several sources have
identified that the koto was developed during slavery in Suriname in an effort
to protect enslaved African women from rape. In the 2015 published book “Pop
Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean“ by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols and
Timothy R. Robbins there is this description: “Kotomisi, also called kotomisse,
is believed to have been developed by slaves during the colonial period as a way
to “camouflage“ or protect young, attractive slave women from their masters“
sexual interest. As such the dress consists of voluminous amounts of fabric that
nearly completely hides the shape of the woman“s body.“ In an article from
“Jetsetters Magazine“ entitled “Miss Alida Pageant: Free At Last In Suriname“ is
the following description: “The koto is a voluminous form of dress designed by
slave women to hide their figures from the attention of lustful white planters.
A wide tube of cotton fabric is hardened with starch made from the casaba root.
It is lowered over the head, and gathered under the breasts where it is tied.
The portion of fabric above the tie is rolled down towards the waist. Sometimes
additional gathered cloth is worn under the back of the skirt. Over the
shoulders is worn a short cape, tied in front.“
The man who is credited with initiating and leading the struggle for an
independent Suriname was born 25 years after Africans in Suriname were finally
freed from chattel slavery. Cornelis Gerard Anton de Kom was born on February
22, 1898 in Paramaribo. He was the son of a farmer who had been enslaved as a
young man. Anton de Kom was under constant surveillance by the Dutch colonial
government of Suriname. He was imprisoned because of his activism and deported
(1933) by the colonial Dutch government from his homeland Suriname to the
Netherlands. While in exile he wrote and published his book (1934) “We Slaves of
Suriname“ condemning the Dutch enslavement of Africans and the colonization of
Suriname. With the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, Anton de Kom
was (September 1944) sent to a German concentration camp and was killed by the

3. Nazis on April 24, 1945. His body was buried in a mass grave in Germany.
Ironically when his “remains“ were found in the mass-grave in Sandbostel,
Germany he was transported to Holland, where he is buried at the Cemetery of
Honours in Loenen. Suriname“s only university is named the Anton de Kom
University of Suriname in his honour.
De Kom“s activism began the movement which eventually led to Suriname“s
independence. On November 25, 1975 Suriname became an independent nation under
the leadership of President Johan Ferrier with Henck Arron as Prime Minister. On
November 25, 2015 the diverse population of Suriname will celebrate 40 years of
independence from Dutch colonization.
by Murphy Browne
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
© Wednesday, November 25, 2015