Eugène Drenthe
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Eugène Constantijn Donders Drenthe (12 December 1925 in Laarwijk, Surinam – 30 March 2009 in
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,
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) was a prominent
Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...
se
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
and
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...
.


Biography

Drenthe was born in Laarwijk, Surinam, as an illegitimate child of Louise Drenthe and the local police officer who was also the parish clerk. Drenthe used to talk about it as if it was normal. This down-to-earth attitude also characterized his plays which showed the normal life of the Creoles in Suriname. The plays were successful, ''Geheim in het gezin'' was performed 57 times in Suriname. Drenthe produced 25 plays in all, which include ''Rudy'' (1959), ''Kedjaman'' (1969) and ''Djomp abra'' (1977). From 1968 onwards, the plays of Drenthe were being performed outside of Suriname. First to
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,
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, and
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, and later to the Netherlands. Drenthe was one of the founding members and first president of
NAKS ''NAKS'' (Sranan Tongo: , ) is a social and cultural organization which promotes Afro-Surinamese culture and expression in Suriname and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1948 with Eugène Drenthe as its first president, when it emerged a ...
. NAKS was founded in 1948 as a social and cultural organization to promote Afro-Surinamese culture and expression. In 1982 Drenthe started to publish poetry in
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
and
Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (Sranantongo, "Surinamese tongue", Sranan, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language from Suriname, in South America, where it is the first or second language for 519,600 Surinamese people (approximately 80% of the popu ...
. His first publication was ''Skuma/Schuim'' (1982). Drenthe was offered a knighthood in the
Order of Orange Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...
in 1972, but refused to accept it, because he had done nothing special. He moved to the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
in 1977. He died on 30 March 2009 in Rotterdam, at the age of 83.


See also

* Surinamese literature


References


External links


Eugène Drenthe at Suriname View Literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drenthe, Eugene 1925 births 2009 deaths People from Commewijne District Surinamese poets Surinamese dramatists and playwrights 20th-century poets 20th-century dramatists and playwrights Writers in Sranan Tongo