Disclosing Diaries - Keti Koti

On 1 July 1863, the Netherlands abolished slavery – on paper. In reality, the ‘liberated’ of Suriname were compelled to continue working on the plantations for another ten years. More than 150 years later, the wounds inflicted by slavery have not yet healed.

This year, visual artist Sarojini Lewis is contributing to the celebration of the ‘breaking of the chains’ with the film and accompanying spoken-word performance Disclosing Diaries, showing what slavery meant and the effect it continues to have on later generations.

Missionary work

Lewis looked into the history of the Berg en Dal plantation and the descendants of the enslaved Stutgard family. The plantation was operated by an evangelical Christian community called the ‘Hernnhuter Broedergemeenschap’. These Herrnhuters were active in missionary work in Suriname, and forced the plantation workers to give up their own rituals and beliefs.

In her film and performance, Sarojini Lewis investigates gender patterns, intimacy and family relationships among formerly enslaved Creole women and men, drawing on missionaries’ diaries, family albums, studies of colonialism and historical records held in the archives of the Evangelische Broedergemeente in Suriname.

Heavy metal band

For the film’s soundtrack and the spoken-word performance, Lewis worked with Surinamese heavy metal band Ravech, two of whom are descendants of the Stutgard family. Together with them she enacts rituals, stories and sounds.

An exhibition by Sarojini Lewis is still running in Amsterdam’s Scheepvaarthuis building.