International Visitors Programme
In the run-up to the opening of Soengoe Kondre / Submerged Heritage at the Nieuwe Instituut in September 2023, Jarno Odang and Laurent Agaasie from the platform Saamake Nenge were invited to the Netherlands.
Saamaka Nenge is an online platform that makes the history, traditions and stories of the Maroon culture of Suriname (especially that of the Saramaccans) accessible to a wide audience. The platform seeks to connect to the culture’s African roots, and to the present (keeping the culture alive), while also looking at how the heritage can be of greater value in the future.
To familiarise Odang and Agaasie with the cultural landscape in the Netherlands, visits to exhibitions such as A Sense of Brown at CBK Zuidoost (Amsterdam), Kelly Sinnapah Mary: Fables of Sanbras at Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam), Brave Beauties in Communion at Motormond (Amsterdam) and And then I will be quiet, so I can hear you blowin at Metro54 (Amsterdam).
They also visited the exhibition No Words, Just Threads and had an extensive meeting with Nyanga Weder of the Wereldmuseum, who is actively involved with the Afro-Surinamese and Maroon communities in the Netherlands through the performing arts. Odang also met with Linda Nooitmeer, Chair of the Board of NiNSee (Nationaal Instituut Nederlands Slavernijverleden en Erfenis) for a deep discussion about transnational solidarities, the aspirations of Maroon youth in the Caribbean region and the various forms of resistance being practised by the current Maroon generation. The programme concluded with an exchange with artist Quentley Barbara and a visit to the City Archives in Amsterdam to see the exhibition Famiri/Family: Surinamese-Amsterdam Stories From 1611 Onwards.