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Video, 40 mins

Whose (Hi)story, Whose Words?

Tessa Leuwsha and David McKay in conversation with Henriette Louwerse

This filmed talk explores the importance of re-writing Dutch colonial stories from new perspectives and the art of translating them. Surinamese-Dutch author Tessa Leuwsha’s novel, Plantation Wildlust, is set in Suriname in the early twentieth century. It depicts the power structures following the abolition of slavery. Leuwsha is “keen to present different role models to depart from victimhood.”  She is joined by David McKay, translator of We Slaves of Suriname.  Written in 1934 by author and activist, Anton de Kom, this is the first history of Suriname from an anticolonial point of view.

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