Part of Wonders of Multilingualism #8: Multilingual Dutch
Full program
Tessa Leuwsha
Wonders of Multilingualism #8: Meertalig Nederlands
Mother Suriname - Mama Sranan
A woman looks back on her life, through narration and song. In Mother Suriname – Mama Sranan, filmmaker Tessa Leuwsha uses a stream of fascinating colorized archival footage to illustrate the lives of Surinamese women like her grandmother, who was a washerwoman.
She’s born in a hamlet in 1905 to a white mother and a black father—a disgrace. Her father is forced to leave and her mother also disappears. She’s despised as a half-caste, does not go to school and soon becomes aware of the state of colonial relations (“we work and they watch”). She has a child whose father is always elsewhere, working for the Dutch. Determined to make the most of her life, she moves to Paramaribo, where she has three more children she raises on her own.
Meanwhile, she sees her homeland moving towards more self-esteem. Before Suriname’s independence in 1975 however, all her children move to the Netherlands—and she eventually follows them, with sorrow in her heart: “In Holland, paradise is like a shadow, just in front of you or behind you, never with you.” Still, strong-willed as she is, she finds a place where she connects with her homeland, her spiritual roots and herself.
The film will be preceded by a short 10-minute introduction by Hari Prasad Sacré. Following 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.
