Where oh where Wednesday: Suriname

50 years ago much of the world was in turmoil. As a child I was quite interested in maps and flags and countries. We had an encyclopedia - a set of books in which you could find all sorts of information, a paper “Google” if you will - and I would spend hours looking at and copying over the flags of the world. But it was difficult in those years because there were a lot of changes taking place, a lot of new flags. 

Many of the countries that had been colonies were declaring and finding the independence from their colonizers. Africa was changing rapidly, as was much of Asia. Even in South America there was some change. One of the little countries on the shoulder of South America also declared independence. Suriname was a colony of The Netherlands. Although the country at the time barely had a population of 300,000, it was rich in natural resources. 

Even today, Suriname only has a population of around 600,000 of which half live in the agglomeration of the capitol city, Paramaribo. But the country is still rich in natural resources and the population is still quite diverse - a remnant of its colonial past. And it is this colonial past which still calls many from Suriname to the Netherlands. The official language is Dutch and many young people have in the past traveled to the Netherlands to study. 

In 1975 Suriname declared its independence from The Netherlands. This was celebrated recently in The Netherlands by the Dutch and the population which was originally from Suriname. There are approximately 350,000 Surinamers in The Netherlands. At the time of independence, people from Suriname could choose to keep the Dutch nationality and many idd, emigrating to the Netherlands. 

The current president of Suriname is Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, the first female president of the country. She was elected this year by the parliament who are also elected for a term of 5 years. The Netherlands has recently offered official apologies for its part in the slave history of the country. The flag is a red center stripe with a yellow star, framed by a green stripe above and below and a white stripe operating the center red field from the green stripes. 

A special Wednesday

So, things got a bit busy with family - as well they should around these days and I did not get the planned post out on "Whensday". So today you will get two posts: last week's "Whensday" and this week's "Where oh Where Wednesday". 

Whensday: Weddings, Anniversaries and concerts

December is always a very busy month. Besides the holidays (Sinterklaas, Christmas, New Years) we also celebrate Shirley’s birthday and our anniversary. In years past this was not always very easy. For years, up until about 10 years ago, this month was full of Christmas concerts, so anniversaries took a back seat. 

Listen Up! was the a capella group that I sang with for years. The members were all members of the church from various locations in The Netherlands and Belgium. We brought the gospel in our songs and always made sure that our audience could understand what we were saying in our songs. This meant that we projected the words of the songs in the language of the audience, whether we were in Croatia, Germany, France or the Netherlands and Belgium. 

Our Christmas concert was called “Always CHRISTmas” and used songs that told the whole story of Jesus. We even ended the concert with Easter songs, telling of the resurrection. We had several times that guests approached us afterwards and remarked that they had never really known that the baby Jesus and the Jesus who died on the cross were the same person. We were always thrilled to be able to t present at least 4 of these concerts in December. 

Listen Up! stopped in 2012 as all of our families were getting bigger and it was becoming more difficult to get together as often as we needed. You can still hear some of our songs here. 

This December we have already been able to celebrate Shirley and we will tried to be together for at least part of the day on our anniversary. We will probably plan to celebrate in January when there are fewer activities. This will also be the 11th year that we can celebrate our son Stephan and daughter-in-love Natalie with their anniversary (which is the day after ours). And this will be the first year they celebrate as parents, having welcomed Sophia in the summer. 

All of this means that December is a great month to talk of how wonderful it is to be blessed by a wonderful and loving God and Father. We can talk about Jesus. We can talk of love. And we can share family time as God has taught us. The day before Christmas was our 'Love meal' with the church, made more festive (see photo). For Christmas we visited our sister from the church and were able to talk online to our kids. We missed seeing one daughter-in-love, but got to see our new grand baby. We pray that you too enjoy the wonderful moments that come with this busy month. Enjoy each moment fully. 

Where oh Where Wednesday: Suriname

Back in 1982, in the year I came to spend two years in the Netherlands working as an evangelist apprentice, things were not very peaceful in Suriname. Many of you might wonder: What is Suriname? Or Where is Suriname? Many people have the same question. But almost every Dutchman, even today, will know about the country and what happened in December of 1982. 

Surinam is a small country in the northern part of South America, just east of Venezuela, sandwiched between Guyana and French Guiana. Suriname was first colonized by the English in the 17th century. When they couldn’t use the local population as slaves because of sickness and revolt, they transported African slaves to the plantations. 

As a result of the English-Dutch wars at the time the Dutch took Suriname from the English. In subsequent wars between the two European powers other areas in the world were traded back and forth. In the end, the Dutch released what had been New Netherlands (which is now New York) and the English relinquished Suriname. The neighboring country of Guyana was also Dutch but ended up under British rule by the beginning of the 19th century. 

Slavery was abolished in Suriname in 1863 which left a lack of workers for the plantations. At this time immigrants were brought into the country from India, China and what would become Indonesia. So the population of Suriname is very diverse: African slaves, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian workers, original inhabitants and western colonizers have mixed through the years. When I was singing with Listen Up!, we always enjoyed visiting Vero’s parents in the middle of the Netherlands. Her mother is from Suriname but is of Chinese descent.

The country became independent in 1975. A coup was led five years later by Desi Bouterse. In December of 1982 several political opponents of Bouterse were murdered. Since Bouterse led the government, nothing was done - until this year. Bouterse was recently convicted of the murders and received a sentence of 20 years. It is not yet known if he will ever spend any time in prison, since the current prime minister can pardon him. 

The church in the Netherlands has a good connection with the church in Suriname - in the one city of Paramaribo. Most of the country is still quite wild. There is a congregation which is English-speaking and consists of English and Indian members. The other congregation is Dutch-speaking. The church in the Netherlands has helped them in purchasing and building a meeting place. 

Where oh Where Wednesday - Colonies of Belgium and Netherlands

Last week we talked about colonization. The Dutch were busy early on - during the Golden Age. Although we might not always recognize it, we run into remnants of that time and expansion in many places. Hoboken, Harlem, Bushwick and Flushing in New York (which was first New Amsterdam) are good examples. But Australia was also first known as Newe Holland and New Zealand is very clearly from the Dutch “Nieuw Zeeland”. 

But names are not colonies. As mentioned the Dutch colonized in many places around the world due to their commerce and trade. Indonesia was a major colony in Asia. In the new world, the Dutch colonized Surinam (the north of South America) and several Caribbean Islands. 

Indonesia fought for their independence. Surinam became independent but is still dependent in many ways. The Caribbean islands - Aruba, Saint Martin and Curaçao were all part of the kingdom of the Netherlands until most recently when Curacao became its own country. 

In the Netherlands you can still feel the influence of these times in some of the food and peoples in the country. When Indonesia fought for freedom, some Indonesians fought with the Dutch and had to flee to the Netherlands. They brought their culture with them. The Dutch enjoy Indonesian meals and have made them their own - a bit like Americans have assimilated Mexican meals into “American” culture. Loempia, spicy sambal and rice (including a "rice table") are all considered very Dutch any more. As well as a good “cup of Java” (Java is in Indonesia) - coffee. 

Food from the Antilles has also been popular, although perhaps less of a recognized cuisine. Most recently the Dutch have had to deal with various parts of their history colliding when “zwarte Piet”, the black helper of Saint Nicholas, was taken more and more as a symbol of racism by Dutch people of Surinam or Caribbean heritage. “Black Pete” has been around for hundreds of years. But is it appropriate? That is the question some are still dealing with. 

On the Belgian side, it was all about Congo in deep dark Africa. Although the Belgians did not truly bring any of the African cuisine with them to the “home country”, they did bring chocolate. And, like in the Netherlands, there are some, though far fewer, who have raised questions about “Zwartte Piet” who is also part of the Belgian Christmas tradition. 

In the area we work - the south of the Netherlands and East of Belgium - we do not have as much contact with people of color as one might have in the large cities of Rotterdam or Brussels, for example. But these days our world is a global place. The congregation in Maastricht has members of all colors and backgrounds. Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, Curaçao, Ecuador, Germany, Netherlands, Nigeria, Ukraine and the United States (with its diversity) are all represented. God’s family is amazing!