Sergio IJssel

What do you do when your mother tongue is dismissed as babble? When people claim that poetry in Sranantongo cannot produce a proper poem, let alone a story - or theatre in the spirit of William Shakespeare?

Sergio IJssel brings Rahan Stuart's monologue to Theater De Liefde. He plays Papa Koenders: the man who dedicated his life to recognition and appreciation of Sranantongo as a legitimate language, and to preserving the cultural values of the Afro-Surinamese.

Julius George Arnold Koenders (Paramaribo, 1 March 1886 - 17 November 1957) was the grandson of enslaved people and became a teacher. From 1946 he published the monthly magazine Foetoe-Boi - loosely translated: errand boy, because he wanted to be the errand boy of his mother tongue. The magazine ran until 1956. Like Anton de Kom, Koenders challenged Dutch colonialism. He had great influence on politician and nationalist Eddy Bruma and on poets Trefossa (Henri de Ziel) and Michaël Slory.