Photo by SurinameBlogger (DeviantArt)
About 14.7% of the population or 80,000 people in Suriname is Javanese descendants. Quite a lot, right? Suriname is a small country in South America with a population is only about 590 thousand. Then, how can there be a lot of Javanese in Suriname?
To know the answer, we have to look back at history at the end of the 19th century when slavery in Suriname is banned. Back then, Suriname was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century. One of the values that they have is their farm and mines. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which ban slavery in the USA. Hence, the Dutch released 33,000 slaves in Suriname and it makes their economy threatened due to a lack of human resources.
In order to strengthen the economy in Suriname, the Dutch signed contracts with labor from many countries, including Java as one of their colony. During 1890-1939, there are 34 arrivals of Javanese laborers with a number of 32,956. The photo you saw up there is monument of the first batch of Javanese laborers when they arrived at Suriname. Even though they are allowed to come home after the contract is over, only one-third of them came back to Indonesia since they chose to continue to work there.
These days, the identity of Java in Suriname is not only in the blood of the Javanese. The Javanese language still can be heard spoken among the people. They also named some places and regions with Javanese names. Furthermore, Javanese traditional foods and drinks are also can be found in Suriname.
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