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| Image: Book embrace of De kleurling, by writer Herman Hennink Monkau |
Surinamese of African descent oft had nifty expectations when moving to The Netherlands. These expectations were non ever realized inward the initiatory off or instant generation. In De kleurling, Dutch-born writer Herman Hennink Monkau writes of the sense of a initiatory off in addition to instant generation Suriname trouble solid unit of measurement inward The Netherlands.
The alter inward conditions was the initiatory off adjustment for early on Surinamese immigrants to post-colonial Europe. Monkau gives exceptional attending to the instant adjustment felt yesteryear those early on immigrants seeking paradise inward The Netherlands: a Dutch-style racism targeted at immigrants of African-descent described yesteryear commentators as a kind of tragic comedy.
The novel's backdrop is a Jazz-infused Holland at the start of the 1930s. While the characters are by in addition to large Surinamese in addition to Dutch, Monkau manages to delicately interweave into the new the 17th century slave history of Suriname's Joden Savanna (jodensavanne or Jewish Savanna)-- transplanted Portuguese Jewry from Brazil.
At this juncture the reader sees Suriname, a pocket-sized province located along the northeast coast of South America. Sharing a southern edge amongst Brazil, inward 1664, a large grouping of mainly Portuguese Jews migrated or were banished (depending on the historical account) from Brazil in addition to started sugar-cane plantations at Joden Savanna, Suriname.
Three years later, inward 1667, the Dutch swapped/traded New Amsterdam (known similar a shot every bit New York inward the USA) amongst the English linguistic communication territory of Suriname. Nearly 2 hundred years later, inward 1863, slavery was abolished inward Suriname. Migration of native Surinamese to the former Dutch colony in Europe followed inward the subsequent years after independence from The Netherlands - thus De kleurling.
Location of Suriname inward South America
About the Author:
Herman Hennink Monkau was born inward Amsterdam. His father is native to Suriname in addition to his woman raise is Dutch. In 1975, Monkau traveled to his father's native Suriname were he successfully skillful civil technology scientific discipline drafting in Paramaribo and wrote every bit a journalist nether the pseudonym “Bakra” from the region. His columns were published in the Het Parool publication betwixt 1983 to 1986.
Monkau moved from Suriname to the California portion of the U.S.A. for a fourth dimension before moving to Italy. Long since moving dorsum to his nativity metropolis of Amsterdam, Monkau published De kleurling inward August 2006. It was published through the Prometheus majority publishers inward the Dutch language. The english speaking globe is waiting on a translation.
Monkau is best known professionally every bit an industrial designer who has worked out of Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, Cosenza (Italy), in addition to Los Angeles. After concluding speaking amongst Monkau inward Amsterdam, he stated that his virtually recent writing projection is a biography of the Suriname-born dark inventor January Ernst Matzelinger.
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