“I’ve always harbored an insatiable curiosity about my ancestors from India. But it felt as though they were tucked away in precious boxes of gold, copper or silver. Safely stored.
In the nineteenth century, 34.000 Indians, often involuntarily, migrated to Suriname (South America) to work on Dutch plantations. This was after the abolition of slavery. They worked tirelessly under harsh conditions but never stopped dreaming of a better future.
Indian Sparkles is a tribute to them in the commemorative year of 150 years of Indian immigration to Suriname!
This collection of poems comprises the voices of their fifth-generation female descendants: Anjana, Fauzia, Sheela, Pamela, Zieni, Sitara, Teela, Kamla, Naaz, and Reshma. Like me, they reside in the Netherlands, and we believe that ‘If you know where you come from, then you know where you’re going. Even if you know just a little bit.'”