Thresholds of Hospitality in Dutch-Surinamese Relations, 1667-2000 Andrea Cole A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Graduate Program in Social Anthropology York University North York, Ontario April 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-38761-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-38761-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Abstract Hosts and guests are in league by the movement of one's crossing a threshold, of entering upon invitation or of transgressing a boundary. That boundary - one that marks one space as 'mine' and 'not yours'; of'yours' and 'not mine' - is itself moveable, interpretive, and ambiguous; and by that so are the host-guest identities located on either side and even in between the territorial line. Hospitality permeates Dutch-Surinamese social and political history; forces of travel and movement have compelled individual subjects to decide on which side of the host/guest line they will fall - though always with some ambiguity. This decision comes with subjective reflection on the part of participants; their individualized understandings of self, nationhood, and belonging. A sense of hospitality ('true' or otherwise) between Suriname and Holland is traced through international migration, past and present. Data for this thesis has been collected through historical review and participant observation. IV Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Kenneth Little, for his enduring patience, guidance, and enthusiasm throughout this project. I would also like to acknowledge Professor Teresa Holmes for the support and wisdom provided to me as a graduate student. Malcolm Blincow and David Lumsden were influential and inspiring academic leaders. My friends in the Department of Anthropology have been incredibly supportive and encouraging. I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional support towards this goal, and especially my father, Douglas R. Cole, for his example in critical inquiry. Thanks to all. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introducing Hospitality and Suriname 1 1. First Impressions 1 2. Taking a Second Glance 8 3. Methodology and Motivation for Research 12 4. A Brief History Exploring Hospitality between the Netherlands and Suriname 23 Connections 23 Hospitality and Movement: Significance of Migration between Suriname and the Netherlands 28 Home and Away 29 Chapter Two: Hospitality 34 Defining Hospitality 34 Working Definitions, Practical Examples of Hospitality 37 Defining Hosts 38 Defining Guests 41 Motivations for Hospitality 41 Limits of Hospitality 43 The Questioned Place of the Foreigner/Stranger 47 Tension of Hospitality in Mongoe 49 Transitions 53 Ambiguity and Tension in Camus' The Guest indicating the Dilemma of Law and Duty in Hospitality 58 Chapter Three: Migration and Hospitality Between Suriname and the Netherlands, 1667-2000 64 1. Tensions in Hospitality 64 2. Hospitality and Territoriality 67 3. Host-Guest Transitions: The "Hebrew Nation" in Suriname 75 4. Movement, Mobility, Freedom: The Early Days of Restricted Hospitality 79 Recalling the Laws and Limits of Hospitality 80 Slavery in Suriname: Can slaves be'guests'? Can slaves be'hosts'? 81 Maroons 84 Hospitality and Indentured Labour in Suriname: The Transition of Guests to Hosts 86 Language 91 Flux Capacity 93 Suriname's Independence Movement 96 'Our' Own Thing 99 Chapter Four: Migration and the Ties that Bind 108 1. From the Open Door to Reluctant Hosts 108 2. Unity, Belonging, and the Decision to Become a Host in the Words of Surinamers 115 3. November 24, 1975 117 4. Anthem 119 5. Becoming/Choosing 'for' Suriname 121 6. Choosing for Holland 122 7. Back to Suriname: Coming'home'for Independence 125 8. 'She's our Mother' 132 Chapter Five: Tracing Hospitality in Dutch Surinamese Literature 135 Writing from the Threshold 148 Conclusion 152 References 162 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCING HOSPITALITY AND SURINAME 1. First Impressions Shall one tell you the truth about this country and about its poor children, when he does not possess the love that makes eyes to see? Without your love, without the love which is your duty - for all colonial property is voluntarily undertaking a duty - salvation will never be possible.. .If you only knew, how beautiful this country is, how intimate life is there... From Albert Helman's Zuid-Zuid-West (1926)1 There is well-known postcard image sold in Paramaribo shops and hotel lobbies. It pictures a mosque and a synagogue standing side by side on the Keizerstraat, emblematic of the supposed peaceful and harmonious cohabitation of Suriname's multicultural population. This familiar trope runs through Suriname's promotional tourism material, articles in the foreign press, and conversational self-image, of Suriname as a 'multicultural world in miniature', a place where diverse cultures exist side-by-side in an agreeable manner, where a synagogue and a mosque can peacefully co-exist on the same street without the kinds of ethnic tensions often associated with certain other cities. For Suriname, a nation of under four hundred fifty thousand residents, the cultural mosaic motif is a carefully constructed identity marker , widely boasted at least in its capital of 1 Cited in Meel 1990:275 21 conducted fieldwork in Paramaribo and parts of the interior of Suriname from July through September of 2004, and lived with a host family in the capital from May through November of 2002 as a Canadian Crossroads International volunteer. During both visits, initial encounters and polite conversation between Surinamers and myself (a Canadian visitor) frequently included a discussion of the 'many cultures of Suriname', which would often be listed off for my benefit "you have the 1 Paramaribo, where approximately half of the total citizenry reside. Utopic words and images differ however from the actual difficulties encountered between 'hosts' and 'guests' who meet on this particular piece of the Guyana Shield today. Despite claims that "we are all Surinamese", the unifying process of nation-making in this small country has always included a carving out of identity and political struggle along ethnic lines in the formal political sphere3, while racial slurs and stereotypes can be overheard on the street corner, in the workplace, and around the domestic front. A continuity in Surinamese political history might be that the Surinamese (national) 'whole' is comprised of various (ethnic) 'parts', and within those parts are found an individual's legacy, personal histories defined and understood by origins, the land from which one's ancestors came, and the social position contemporarily held. That Suriname was a colony of the Netherlands from 1667 until 1975 is a critical and ongoing part of this legacy. To say that Suriname is a country where the various cultures coexist peaceably fits superficially with the tourist lore used to sell the place, with a certain nationalist political rhetoric, and within the hint of pride that boasts Suriname's multi-ethnic complexion in both of these. Superficially because if it is true, then 'peace' must be taken as a relative term: Suriname has seen two civil wars fought on its soil in the last quarter-century since its independence4. Defining a nation, a sovereign state, and indeed the desire for becoming such a state necessarily involves a carving out, a construction, or Javanese, you have Hindustani people living here, you have Amerindians, the Chinese, the Maroons - Aucauns, Saramacans...many, many cultures living here in Suriname". 3 See for example, Hans Ramsoedh, 'Playing Politics: Ethnicity, Clientism, and the Struggle for Power' in 2Cf Century Suriname: Continuities and Discontinuities in a New World Society ed by Rosemarijn Hoefte and Peter Meel (Kingston: 2001) pp 91-110 4 For more on politics of the civil war in Suriname, see: Chin & Buddingh' (1987) 2 at the very least, an awareness of unity. This also necessarily requires a concept of self­ hood, the potential for self-sufficiency, and a vision of independence. It requires that a nation define itself as distinct, that it operate its own borders, defend itself under threat, and determine its own role in foreign affairs. Once these conditions of nationhood come into effect, that said 'nation' - that spot of land with people in between - may be considered 'host' to outsiders who cross the threshold onto its soil.