A blog about everything and nothing
I often blog about the history and cultural experience of the African diaspora, and then specifically the African Surinamese diaspora. Since Suriname is an ethnic and cultural melting pot, there are however, several other diasporic communities. One of those communities is the Surinamese Indian diaspora or the Hindustani as we call them in Suriname. After […]
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Even though a lot of historical records have been digitized, researching your Surinamese family history can still be tricky at times. For instance, the enslaved Africans in Suriname only received a family name upon manumission or emancipation. This makes digging through the slave registries still a very tricky process. You constantly have to check and […]
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Content warning: This blogpost contains material that may be considered very disturbing to some. Discretion is advised. When doing research, I sometimes stumble upon very lurid stories. This is one of them. The following text contains an English summary of the newspaper article displayed in the image below. Semire, an enslaved woman of about 30 […]
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A painting containing the actual faces of rebels who participated in one of the most well documented slave revolts.
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Frequent readers of this blog, know that I love to write about my home-country Suriname. About all the ways in which mother Africa is still very much present in the souls of Surinamese people, hundreds of years after their ancestors were snatched away from her bosom. I write about our resilience, our music, our pride. […]
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Dear Cecilia, I will start off by saying that compared to the other letters I’ve written, this letter has been the hardest so far. I’ve started a couple of times but then stopped to post other things, which is something I normally don’t do. I may even end up drastically editing the post after I’ve […]
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Dear Serafina, When I found out that your picture, this picture, existed, I felt several emotions raging through my body. Surprise, because who would have known that after all this digging around for clues, that there still would be actual imagery of you. Excitement, because I would finally be able to attach a face to […]
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In Suriname there is an odo or saying: Mi na bana bon, o moro y’e trowe doti tap’ mi, o moro m’e fatu. Translation:
Read More![Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of World Cultures [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://anaelrich.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/tropenmuseum_royal_tropical_institute_objectnumber_10019375_portret_van_een_marron_vrouw_voor_haa.jpg?w=700)
Sometime ago I found this gem of a movie/documentary on Youtube by Herman van der Horst called Faja Lobi, which translates to “Burning Love”, the name of a popular flower in Suriname, my country. The flower is also commonly known around the world as Ixora.
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I traced part of my family history back to 1490. It was really simply. I just googled the Sephardic name,
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I’ve been listening to a lot of old Calypso songs lately. This one really encapsulates my feelings as a child of the African Diaspora. Ancient Rhythm By Singing Sandra (2003) From across the continent that some once described as dark I feel a vibration, feel a rhythm, feel a spark When my spirit is feeling […]
Read MoreThis is a fragment from the documentary Katibo Yeye. It’s a pity they didn’t post the whole documentary online. Every African (in diaspora) should see this video. Especially From the 06:00 minute mark on, it gets very interesting. It amazes me every time I see it…:-) There are some ignorant Africans in Diaspora that claim […]
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Ana Elrich 