Johanna Schouten-Elsenhout (11 July 1910 – 23 July 1992) was a
Surinamese poet and an eminent community leader who fought for acknowledgement of Sranan and of the Afro-Surinamese culture.
Life
Schouten-Elsenhout was born in
Paramaribo
Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname' ...
in 1910. She started writing in the notebooks. She is known for poetry that is written without verses.
The poems are written in
Sranan Tongo
Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname.
Developed originally amo ...
and they contain no punctuation. These love poems include lesbian love which is not taboo in the Afro-creole culture.
It is said that she had been composing and writing down proverbial phrases for a long time before she and others recognised that she was composing poetry. She has been called the
Grandma Moses of Sranan
by
Hugo Pos.
In 1987 she was awarded the
Knight of the Order of the Yellow Star.
Erwin de Vries, the Surinam sculptor in Paramaribo, made a bronze bust commissioned by the National Women's Movement, de Nationale Vrouwen Beweging (NVB) for the commemoration of the poet's one hundredth birthday.
Work
In 1963 Johanna published her first poetry book called ''Tide ete'' ''(Done Today/ Vandaag nog''). In 1965 her second book was published: ''Awese'' (Healing Spirit). An Awese is a healing spirit in W''inti'', the Afro-Surinam religion. Both books are "milestones in the emancipation of the language and culture of the Creole peoples of Surinam and of the Surinam Women's Rights movement."
In 2010 a reprint was published to commemorate her one hundredth birthday with translations by D. France Oliveira.
About the creole language Sranantongo Johanna Schouten-Elsenhout said;
"Your language is your culture and that is the most precious possession of a human being. If you have lost it, then you have lost your life force, your kra. Your kra is your own personality. You may be poor, but you have a precious spirit that holds you up." One of Schouten-Elsenhout's most famous poem is ''Uma'' (Woman) of which the first lines are:
Noti no hei so
Lek’ a sten
D’ e bari
In’ dyugudyugu f’ a dei
(Uma/Woman) "Nothing is so glorious/ As a voice/ That calls out/ In the chaos of a day." According to Oerdigitaalvrouwenblad, a Dutch literary publication (Feminist, anti-racist), Hillary Clinton read this poem in 1999 at the UNESCO Conference in The Hague, The Netherlands.
References
External links
Johanna Schouten-Elsenhout at Digital Library for Dutch Literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schouten-Elsenhout, Johanna
1910 births
1992 deaths
People from Paramaribo
Surinamese poets
Surinamese women writers
Surinamese women poets
20th-century women writers
20th-century poets
Honorary Order of the Yellow Star
African diaspora literature