{"id":108664,"date":"2021-12-24T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T11:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpstaging.afromagazine.eu\/what-is-christmas-without-a-bigi-bon\/"},"modified":"2021-12-24T11:49:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T11:49:02","slug":"what-is-christmas-without-a-bigi-bon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/what-is-christmas-without-a-bigi-bon\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Christmas without a Bigi Bon?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>

BEFORE I CLOSE OFF 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

I GOT A STORY TO TELL<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the right bank of the mighty Suriname river, on a 125 acre plot of land<\/strong><\/p>\n

There survives a lone Big Tree<\/strong><\/p>\n

It marks the outer border of Bigi Bon, Grote Boom in Dutch, Big Tree in English<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Bigi Bon was the plantation my ancestors were enslaved on in Suriname<\/p>\n

Ironically the official name of this slave camp full of people who had no freedom, was La Libert\u00e9, The Freedom.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I found my great great-great grandmother hidden deep in the archives of this place<\/p>\n

I also found her children and her grand children<\/p>\n

Their friends<\/p>\n

Their relatives<\/p>\n

Their neighbors<\/p>\n

All enslaved Africans<\/p>\n

People with no autonomy, stripped of their past, their future uncertain<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But with only their pride and their resilience to cling to<\/p>\n

They did something amazing<\/p>\n

My great-great grandmother figured out that she herself could be a Bigi Bon<\/p>\n

That she could stand proud and rise victorious over centuries of efforts to quell the spirit of her people<\/p>\n

As we do\"bigi<\/p>\n

She purchased the plantation<\/p>\n

And turned this place that spelled marginalization for her ancestors<\/p>\n

Into an investment for herself and for the generations that would follow after her<\/p>\n

She planted the Big Tree<\/p>\n

And handed it down to her children<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

My grandfather raised his family here<\/p>\n

With his wife, my grandmother, the grandchild of the unbending Granman Broos, king of the Baka Busi suma who lived upriver at Rorac<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

King Broos was a Big Tree in his own right<\/p>\n

I honored him in Ghana this year<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s another story for another day<\/p>\n

\n

https:\/\/t.co\/wRvzVgv217<\/a><\/p>\n

— Afro Magazine (@_Afromag) December 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n