By: Isabelle Romee Best and Dr. Suzanne Manizza Roszak

Archives are seductive spaces. In their vaults, they hold the dreams and longings of those who have come before us. With these words, Sonja Boon begins her memoir What the Oceans Remember. Boon’s book explores Dutch colonial history through the lens of her personal experience delving into archival materials in both the Netherlands and Suriname.

For centuries, the European colonial project was represented in western literature and culture in ways that concealed the harsh realities of colonialism. These narratives often ignored, erased, or inadequately acknowledged the strength and resilience of colonized and enslaved people.

Many people are familiar with literary and artistic resistance to imperialist ideologies within a Dutch context. But how much do we actually know about contemporary writers who use the English language to bring attention to the history of Dutch colonialism? So far, little research has been devoted to this topic. This may be because these authors do not fit neatly into conventional academic disciplines: English literary studies tends to focus on the legacies of the British empire rather than the Dutch one, while Dutch literary studies by definition seeks to analyze Dutch-language works. Yet authors who write in English offer valuable and at times urgent insights into how Dutch colonialism operated and continues to shape the present.

Contemporary Authors in the Surinamica Collection
The Surinamica collection at the Allard Pierson also includes works by contemporary writers, which makes it an excellent jumping-off point for highlighting these perspectives. With this blog series, we invite readers to become acquainted with a selection of remarkable authors from Guyana, Suriname, and the diaspora. These writers, including Beryl Gilroy, Sonja Boon, and Susi and Simba Mosis, bring Dutch colonial history to life for an international audience through their English-language works.
The books we discuss — such as Gilroy’s historical novel Stedman and Joanna (1991), Boon’s memoir What the Oceans Remember (2019), and the Mosis sisters’ Hidden Pages: The Story of Sapali (2023) — paint a powerful picture of what it means to survive and thrive despite colonial violence.

Stedman and Joanna rewrites the historical account recorded by John Gabriel Stedman (1744–1797), a narrative shaped by the unreliable perspective of a colonizer figure. The novel simultaneously gives voice to Joanna, an enslaved woman who had previously been largely silenced in the historical record. Hidden Pages, on the other hand, is explicitly aimed at younger readers and makes vivid use of soundscapes and evocative illustrations.

Ranging from historical fiction to memoir and rooted in archival materials, heritage collections, and oral histories, these authors’ works expose the painful realities of Dutch imperialism and dismantle the false narratives on which the colonial system was built. Books like those by Gilroy, Boon, and the Mosis sisters not only are crucial for uncovering historical truths but also are highly relevant in an era when right-wing political movements seek to exploit the same ideas about racial difference and white supremacy that once underpinned the colonial project.

Small Exhibition
With this in mind, a small exhibition is now on display in the Verhalenkabinet at the Allard Pierson. This exhibition highlights the voices of the abovementioned writers and connects their work to other heritage objects from the Surinamica collection. This winter, we warmly invite you to read along with us and visit the exhibition. Dive into What the Oceans Remember or Hidden Pages and discover the insights these books have to offer. (Don’t forget: adults are more than welcome to read and enjoy children’s books too!) From the opening of the exhibition in February 2025, you will also have the opportunity to share your own impressions of the reading experience.

NWO Research Project
Through the project Creativity, Resilience, and Surinamica, we examine how English-language authors like Sonja Boon, Beryl Gilroy, and Susi and Simba Mosis critically reinterpret Dutch colonial history. Their works, based on archival materials, heritage collections, and oral histories, shed light on the painful realities of colonialism. By linking literary works to other objects from the Surinamica collection, we aim to foster a more diverse understanding of our shared colonial past. Throughout 2025, a small exhibition will be curated in the Verhalenkabinet at the Allard Pierson, along with a series of blog posts and events on this theme. This Impact Explorer project is affiliated with the NWO Open project Fetishizing and Unveiling Dutch Colonialism, led by Dr. Suzanne Manizza Roszak (University of Groningen), and the Surinamica project, led by curator Isabelle Best (Allard Pierson).