14 Jan 2004 | Anton de Kom - Wij slaven van Suriname

Beyond a doubt did this book have quite an impact back in it's day, the late 30s of the previous century. Now, however, it's dated, bloated and unoriginal.

De Kom, a black Surinamese uses most of this book to describe the history of the Dutch colony of Suriname. Beyond a doubt, at the time, this must have been shocking for it shows that the Dutch were unscrupulous, mean and careless with the natives and with the imported slaves. De Kom also shows that, even in the 30s of the previous century, the situation still hadn't much improved and that blacks and Hindustani were, unnecessarily, dying on a daily basis.

Although it's interesting to see that South Africans didn't develop their idea of superiority on their own, de Kom's story is also awfully dated. Too often, now, have the white atrocities of the past been written about. It's simply no longer very interesting.

The best part of the book are it's last 20 pages or so, where de Kom recounts his trip back to Suriname, the situation he encountered and his treatment by the white government. If only the book would have had more of that.

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