Afbeelding
Koning Broos
28 augustus 2021 - 22:46
Sommige ervaringen zijn niet te beschrijven. Als je het toch zou pogen zou je misschien elementen tekortdoen of belanden in een stroom van superlatieven die de belevenis dan weer cosmetisch en goedkoop zouden doen overkomen.
Je vlucht dan schouderophalend in een "Je had er gewoon bij moeten zijn" houding, maar dat doet het allemaal dan weer teniet, omdat die ervaring WEL gedeeld moet worden, zodat andere mensen geinspireerd raken om hem ook te gaan hebben.
Ghana is onze Mekka.
Iedere Zwarte persoon die voortgekomen is uit Afrikanen die zijn gestolen uit Afrika, moet eens naar Ghana!
Onze voorouders zijn van overal toe naar dit punt in West Afrika gesleept. De verschrikkingen die ze moesten doorstaan voordat ze letterlijk door de Door of No Return gedrukt werden, ga ik niet hier beschrijven; dat doe ik elders.
Ze gingen erdoorheen, naar plekken aan de andere kant van de wereld waar zij niet voor gekozen hadden en ze brachten ons voort, tegen alle verwachtingen in, ondanks de hardship, en vernedering en pijn die ze drie eeuwen lang moesten overleven.
Maar dit gaat daar niet over.
Dit gaat over onbeschrijvelijke trots.
Ghana zou verplichte kost moeten zijn voor iedere nakomeling, net zoals het voor de Moslims aanbevolen is om tenminste een keer naar Mekka te reizen.
In Ghana vind je broers en zusters
Jezelf
De kans dat je mooie dingen vindt wanneer je mooie dingen zoekt ... is groot
Ghana is onze Mekka
Naar Ghana ga je niet; naar Ghana ga je terug.
Het land is adembenemend
De mensen zijn authentiek en veerkrrachtig
Het bruist er van ondernemerschap en er liggen kansen voor het oprapen voor degenen die de westerse hype weten te overstijgen en goud weten te herkennen.
Ik ben er voor het eerst, maar ik herken zoveel intrinsiek.
Ik voel me thuis tussen alles alsof ik er altijd geweest ben.
Ik ben er niet voor het laatst.
Zie je, ik belandde toch in superlatieven.
Er is nog zoveel te schrijven.
Ik mocht gisteren Kapten Broos op een plek plaatsen tussen andere vrijheidsstrijders.
De betovergrootvader die ik deel met mijn moeder en tante, mijn broers en zus, mijn ontelbare neven en nichten, onze kinderen.
Ik stond daar ongevraagd namens hen en alle andere nakomelingen die er nog tussen ons zijn en zij die ons voorgingen.
Iemand reageerde elders dat we Afo Broos geen Kapten moeten noemen, maar Granman, Koning. Ik was het daarmee eens.
Dat zei ik ook in mijn speech:
Until the tales of the hunt are told by the lion, they will always favor the hunter We were lions
We are lions I wrote about this yesterday.
How history is fickle. How it only keeps certain people alive. Because we as Africans from outside of Africa often do not get to write our history. We should start telling it.
I was 35 or so when I first heard of Kapten Broos. Nobody in my family told me about him, but they made sure that I got my western education! Priorities eh.
Kap'ten Broos: A fearless leader who chose freedom in the forest over bondage. He chose a hard life because being in servitude would be harder.
Kapten Broos
Captain Broos
This morning I saw someone demand that we call him granman KING And that person was right Broos was a king Kings conquer Kings build kingdoms Kings rule Kings don't back down.
Never.
King Broos never did.
Today is one of those days when we get to write our own hero into history. We get to give him a spot among other Kings and Queens who withstood, who conquered, who ruled.
There's hundreds of these stolen Africans who history has ignored and continues to ignore. So many of their victories that history has minimized and seen as bothersome.
Today Broos stands for all of them.
I'm proud to be here today Broos was my great great great grandfather.
And with me stand my mother Helouise and her sister Hilda, my brothers and sisters, all of my cousins, and our children. All the other descendants of Broos. I'm thinking of my aunt Hortence Deekman who helped me prepare for here and of the painter Remy Jungerman who made this artwork from Kapten Broos' picture.
Those who are no longer with us in the flesh are all here with me today
There's a legend about Broos' grandmother, Ma Amba.
It is said that she was born on the continent and fled slavery the moment she arrived in Suriname.
Her daughter Ma Uwa joined her in the forest later, where Broos was born.
The legend is that Ma Amba never died.
She just got old and one day she up and flew back to Africa.
And she was able to do that because she never ate the white man's salt.
Those who did, could not fly away and return home.
Today we bring Broos home.
A King who has now followed in his grandmother’s legacy...and flown home.
Sommige ervaringen zijn niet te beschrijven
De trots die ik voelde om hier te mogen zijn en daar te staan tussen Koning Broos en andere machtige helden, is zo'n ervaring.
Kapten Broos
Historical figure
Broos Babel, also called Kapten Broos(1821-1880) was the leader of the Bakabusi Suma or ‘Brooskampers’, a group of Maroons who settled at Rorac, a camp behind the RacARac plantation on right bank of the Suriname River, around the abolition of slavery in 1863. A true anti-slavery hero, this 19th century Surinamese freedom fighter spent his life opposing oppression
The Bakabusi Suma lived in the forest far away from the plantations from which they had previously fled. Their habitat, also called Kaaimangrasi, was barely accessible to armed settlers looking for them. The first Maroons lived here as early as 1740.
They often fought against the white settlers and plantation owners. In 1760, a hundred years before the abolition of slavery, the Ndyuka had already concluded a peace treaty with the colonial government and were therefore free and independent.
The camp of Broos and his younger brother Kaliko (born in 1835) was located in the extensive swamps at the upper reaches of the Surnaukreek, a tributary of the Suriname River. Just before the abolition of slavery, the Brooskampers resisted a last attempt by the government to force them to return to the plantations. This with the aim of making the former slave owners eligible for the state compensation per slave. However, the patrol members failed in their intent and retreated to the Rac à Rac plantation. Captain Broos thus became a well-known Surinamese independence fighter.
Broos is the only Surinamese freedom fighter who has been photographed. The black-and-white photo probably dates from 1862 when Broos was in Paramaribo to conclude a peace agreement with Governor-General Van Lansberge. It is then that he received the title of Kapten from the government and was officially assigned to Rorac, a long-abandoned sugar plantation.
After the emancipation of 1 July 1863, the Brooskampers settled permanently in Rorac. Among them are Broos’ brother Kaliko, his sister Mandrijntje, his mother Ma Uwa and his grandmother Ma Amba, who was still born in Africa, in Ghana. Three families emerged from Broos’ camp, of which Babel and Landveld are the largest. However, the Deekman family contains the most direct descendants.
This page on AFRO Magazine is dedicated to his memory.
Descendants mounted the famed photograph at the Asen Mason memorial site in Ghana in 2021. In 2024 they returned to replace the black-and-white photograph with a colorized version.
Descendants also honored Broos' memory by starting a foundation in the Netherlands -The Broos Institute- that boasts of being the first educational institute in the Netherlands to offer university level schooling.