DNA UPDATE || DNA voorzitter Adhin staat stil bij herdenking slavernijafschaffing || JULI 2026

DNA Speaker Adhin reflects on commemoration of abolition of slavery and subsequent path to true freedom “Ef’ yu no abi finga, yu no kan meki kofu.” With this proverb, Parliament Speaker Michael Ashwin Adhin concluded his speech on Wednesday during the national commemoration of the abolition of slavery on July 1, 1863. According to Adhin, the proverb, taken from Guno Hoen’s collection of Surinamese proverbs, underscores that a society can only move forward when people act together. Loosely translated, the message reads: "Without fingers, you cannot make a fist." The Speaker spoke at the Kwakoe Monument at the corner of Zwartenhovenbrugstraat and Dr. Sophie Redmondstraat, where the annual commemoration took place. After the ceremony, a floral tribute was laid at the monument. In his speech, Parliament Speaker Adhin reflected extensively on the significance of the abolition of slavery and the long road that followed to actual freedom. He did this by means of passages from which he had once drawn inspiration, understanding, and realization. He referred to writer and resistance fighter Anton de Kom, who, according to him, described Surinamese history from the perspective of the enslaved and their descendants, and not as the ‘masters’ recorded it. On July 1, 1863, 21 cannon shots echoed from Fort Zeelandia. Over 33,000 enslaved people in Suriname were officially declared free. Chairman Adhin raised concerns regarding the interpretation of that freedom. “Let us be honest about what that freedom was and was not. Who received the compensation? Not the people who had suffered. Their masters received three hundred guilders per person. The freed received nothing, not a cent, no land, no tools. “The perpetrators have been paid and the victims have been left empty-handed,” the chairman addressed the attendees. Moreover, another ten years of state supervision followed, forcing people to continue working on the plantations. According to Adhin, therefore, not only 1863 but also 1873 is an important milestone in Surinamese history. He paid tribute to the Maroons with heroes like Boni, who fled into the forest even before the abolition of slavery and founded their own free communities. Anthropologist Yvon van der Pijl wrote in her scholarly work Levende-doden (Living-Dead): the dead are not dead — they live on in us as ancestors. “Mi a no mi, mi na wi” (I am not me alone; I am us). The struggle did not end with the abolition of slavery. Contract laborers from India and Java also faced exploitation and stood up for their rights. “Maroon and Creole, Hindostani and Javanese, the struggle cuts straight through all those population groups.” for a dignified existence led by our ancestors. De Kom knew it: only “solidarity can unite all sons of Mother Sranan.” Report: CR Photography: TT Videography: TT Editing: TT 🌐: https://www.dna.sr/nieuws/dna-voorzit...