Part of Wonders of Multilingualism #8: Multilingual Dutch
Full program
Tessa Leuwsha
Mother Suriname - Mama Sranan
The documentary *Moeder Suriname – Mama Sranan* offers us a glimpse into the colonial past through the eyes of a Surinamese laundress. Filmmaker Tessa Leuwsha brings to life the stories of Surinamese women, such as her grandmother, through a wealth of impressive and, in some cases, colourised archive footage.
Multilingual Dutch embraces not only new words or expressions, but also new and under-represented experiences from our shared history and world. Through this film, you will see and discover how the Dutch language carries more stories than we often realise. Through the eyes of a Surinamese laundress, we look at our shared history – and at ourselves – in a different light.
Synopsis: Mama Sranan
She was born in 1905 in a hamlet to a white mother and a black father – a disgrace. Her father is forced to leave, and her mother also disappears. She herself is taunted as a half-breed, does not attend school, and quickly discovers the reality of colonial power dynamics (“we work and they watch”). She has a child, whose father is always away working for the Dutch, and moves to Paramaribo, where she has three more children whom she raises on her own.
Meanwhile, she sees national self-awareness growing. But when all her children move to the Netherlands even before Suriname’s independence in 1975, she follows them, with a heavy heart. She does not settle there: “In Holland, paradise is like a shadow, just ahead or behind you. Never with you.” Yet even there, she manages to find a place where she feels connected to her homeland, her spiritual roots and herself.
The film will be preceded by a short 10-minute introduction by curator Hari Prasad Sacré. After the screening, he will be in conversation with director Tessa Leuwsha.
• Tessa Leuwsha is a writer and documentary-maker based in Suriname. In her novels, literary non-fiction, essays and films, she explores Dutch-Surinamese colonial history and its impact on identity and society. Her acclaimed debut novel De Parbo-Blues and the novel Plantage Wildlust form part of her literary oeuvre. In 2025, Boni, in the Footsteps of the Surinamese Freedom Fighter was published. The book received rave reviews in the Netherlands, Suriname and the Caribbean. Leuwsha also gained international recognition with the award-winning documentary Moeder Suriname – Mama Sranan, which explores the history of Suriname through the eyes of her grandmother, inspired by her book Fansi’s Silence.
• Hari Prasad Sacré is an academic and storyteller. He was adopted from Nepal and lives in Brussels. He researches topics such as language education and transnational adoption, always approaching them from a perspective aimed at strengthening citizens’ self-emancipation. Through his work on multilingual Dutch, he brings postcolonial thinking to Brussels, Flanders and the Netherlands. He is developing an emancipatory vision in which those who were formerly oppressed by the Dutch language can reclaim it and revitalise it with new narratives. He has published on postcolonial thought in international journals such as *Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education*, *Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacies* and *Genealogy*.
