Aart G. Broek
The Colour of my Island
Ideology and Writing in Papiamentu (Aruba, Bonaire & Curaçao)
Essays, Nederland-Antillen
Ingenaaid, 112 blz.,
ISBN 978-90-6265-648-6 € 13,50
Eerste druk 2010
In the Dutch Caribbean – on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao – an authentic Creole is spoken: Papiamentu. Ever since the days of the abolition of slavery in 1863 texts in this language have been published. Amongst these texts are stories and tales, poems, occasional verse, essays, novels, pamphlets, songs and dialogues for staging, that with an enthusiastic reception were or have been labelled as ‘literature’. These literary texts testify how the people looked at themselves and their fellow islanders of various ethnic groups, their defective past, emerging developments and promising ideals, at visiting outsiders, at the outside world in general, and their mother country, Holland, in particular. The Colour of My Island is a bird’s-eye view to acquaint yourself with those texts that are ever so many reflections of an innate diversity of strong sentiments and stark ideologies.