What Happens to Black in the Afro-Surinamese Transatlantic Diaspora?

Abstract

This essay tells a narrative of various contexts in the Afro-Surinamese diaspora that share a struggle around the meanings of Black. What happens to Black in the Afro-Surinamese transatlantic diaspora? Some of the questions addressed are, Which terms have African descendant people in Suriname and in the Netherlands used for themselves in different periods? What have Whites called African descendant people in Suriname and in the Netherlands in different periods? When does Black come to the fore? Who mobilizes the term and for what purposes? This exercise brings forward important features of the Afro-Surinamese “cultural archive”: the orderings of the world, specifically the terms of ethnic self-reference, that Afro-Surinamese forged historically. These terms also traveled to the Netherlands, where they met with clashing cultural-political terms and understandings in the dominantly White Dutch world.