Historical Ties Among Suriname, The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, and The Netherlands

Introduction

History has produced a myriad of cultural overlays in the Caribbean and the adjacent region of South America, a prismatic legacy of centuries of intrusion by rival European empires into both the African and the opposite American sides of the Atlantic and the consequent sporadic exchange between the European invaders of the various local territories and peoples they claimed to control. The result is a mixture of peoples, languages, religions, and all other aspects of human culture, creating new colors and new sounds that are reflected in enrichment of the respective European and African languages involved, as well as in creation of new hybrid languages. It is in this context that one can speak of “Caribbean” literature and art from Suriname and the Netherlands, which otherwise might not be considered part of the Caribbean (just as inclusion of the Netherlands Antilles in the Kingdom of the Netherlands is also somewhat counter-intuitive). In other words, this complex has a defining principle similar to Paul Gilroy’s concept of the Black Atlantic. ¹ The present essay will trace a brief historical backdrop suggesting the main cultural connections which generated the literature and other art forms that owe their origins to the Dutch participation in this African and American saga.

The technical skill the Dutch gained in their constant struggle at home with the sea proved to be of great value in establishing their bases along the delta regions of the South American continent. ² The United Provinces States General granted the United East India Company, a trading company founded in 1602, a subsidy and a monopoly for Dutch trading in the world from the Cape of Good Hope through the Pacific. The West India Company, founded in 1621, was given the trade monopoly in the Americas and West Africa and a special mission of supporting the war effort against Spain through privateering as well as trade. Both Companies freely employed non-Dutch officials, soldiers and clergy: Belgians, Germans, Britons, Frenchmen, Poles and others. The societies which evolved in Dutch colonies were characteristically multi-national, multi-racial, multi-religious, and guided primarily by the same overriding commercial imperatives which governed in the Netherlands. This commercial nexus largely determined the shape and scale of the empire and the character of Dutch life and attitudes in the colonies. It also contributed significantly to developments in the Netherlands.

Of the types of trading in which the Dutch engaged, it was the African slave trade which is most important for present purposes; for that initially provided the bulk of the new populations in the Americas after the savage decimation of the natives under the impact of the European exploitation of the so-called New World. The native populations of the Caribbean islands and the Guianas were too small to meet the labor needs of the colonizers. Moreover, for the West India Company the lure of profits in the human cargoes which most easily satisfied this need for migrant labor was irresistible. At least by 1604 Dutch merchants were accepting orders from Spanish planters on Trinidad for slaves. These were black market transactions, since only the official asiento, the license granted by the Spanish crown for shipment of African slaves to the so-called New World, could legalize the commerce. The Dutch also used Indonesian slaves extensively in their Eastern empire and some Japanese slaves at their base at Nagasaki, which shows that they had not specifically targeted black peoples initially. ³ This changed dramatically, however, when the West India Company grasped fully the potential for profit in the African slave trade. This is what provided the main thrust for the heavily African influence on the population of the Dutch American territories.

In August 1637 Johan Maurits, the Company’s governor in Northern Brazil, led a fleet of nine ships in the capture of the Portuguese fortress at Elmina on the Gold Coast. Luanda and other Portuguese coastal settlements were soon to experience the same fate. At first the main sources of slaves were Guinea, Angola, and the Congo; the main Dutch market was in Brazil and the Antilles...