Sinterklaas or Sint-Nicolaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include De Sint, De Goede Sint and De Goedheiligman. Many descendants and cognates of "Sinterklaas" or "Saint Nicholas" in other languages are also used in the Low Countries, nearby regions, and former Dutch colonies.
Petrus Norbertus Donders was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest and member of the Redemptorists. He served in various missions in the Dutch colony of Surinam. He started working in the capital Paramaribo, but is predominantly known for his work in and around the leper colony Batavia, where he died in 1887. Peter Donders was beatified as 'Apostle of the Indians and Lepers' in 1982. The miracle needed was found in the cure of a Dutch child from bone cancer back in 1929.
Cynthia Henri McLeod is a Surinamese novelist known for her historic novels and whose debut novel instantly made her one of the most prominent authors of Suriname.
Zwarte Piet, also known in English by the translated name Black Pete, is the companion of Saint Nicholas in the folklore of the Low Countries. Traditionally, Zwarte Piet serves as an assistant to the saint and distributes sweets and gifts to well-behaved children.
Jules Sedney was a Surinamese politician, and Prime Minister of Suriname from 20 November 1969 to 24 December 1973. In 1980, he became governor of the Central Bank of Suriname, but had to flee the country in 1983 after a dispute with Dési Bouterse. Sedney returned to Suriname in 1989.
Elisabeth Samson was an Afro-Surinamese coffee plantation owner. She was born in about 1715 in Paramaribo to a freed slave, known as Mariana. All of her other siblings had been born as slaves and were emancipated by her half-brother Charlo Jansz. Raised in the home of her half-sister Maria Jansz, Samson was taught to read and write by her brothers-in law who also trained her in business. She began acquiring property at the age of 19, but was banished from the colony in 1736 after being convicted of slander. Her appeal, heard by the Dutch Parliament, was successful and she returned to Suriname in 1739.
Johanna Schouten-Elsenhout was a Surinamese poet and an eminent community leader who fought for acknowledgement of Sranan and of the Afro-Surinamese culture.
Astrid Heligonda Roemer is a Surinamese-Dutch writer and teacher. The Dutch-language author has published novels, drama and poetry, and in December 2015 was announced as the winner of the P. C. Hooft Award, considered the most important literary prize in the Netherlands and Belgium, which was presented in May 2016.
Joceline Clemencia was an Afro-Curaçaoan writer, linguist, feminist and independence activist. She advocated for the Creole language spoken in Curaçao, Papiamento, to become an official language and was successful in the struggle, having created both language schools and texts to further its cultural significance. She was in favor of full independence of Curaçao from the Netherlands.
Silvana Hildegard "Sylvana" Simons is a Surinamese-born Dutch politician and former television presenter. She served as a member of the House of Representatives between 2021 and 2023 on behalf of BIJ1, an egalitarian anti-racist party founded by Simons in 2016.
BIJ1, formerly known as Article 1, is a political party in the Netherlands. It was founded in Amsterdam in 2016 by Sylvana Simons, a television personality who was formerly connected to another party, Denk. Edson Olf has led the party since September 2023.
Maxi Linder the alias used by Wilhelmina Rijburg (1902–1981) was a well-known and influential Surinamese prostitute. In her heyday, she had access to the highest social and political figures. She used her earnings to fund the education of disadvantaged youth and made the first attempt in the country to organize sex workers.
Verene Albertha Shepherd is a Jamaican academic who is a professor of social history at the University of the West Indies in Mona. She is the director of the university's Institute for Gender and Development Studies, and specialises in Jamaican social history and diaspora studies.
Jeanne Henriquez is an Afro-Curaçaoan educator, historian and activist. She published articles and made videos to explore the history and impact of colonialism on her Curaçao community. After teaching for over two decades, Henriquez became the director of the Center for the Protection of Women. She worked to alleviate domestic violence and provide educational and employment training for low-income women. She has worked with the Museum Tula to develop materials to reclaim the history of Afro-Curaçaoans and the African diaspora throughout the Caribbean. She was awarded the Cross of Merit from the Government of Curaçao for her activism for women and the Afro-Curaçaoan communities.
The Foundation George Mosse Fund of the University of Amsterdam is a Dutch foundation (stichting) that aims to promote gay and lesbian studies. It was founded in 2001 at the University of Amsterdam, with a bequest from George Mosse's inheritance, given out of appreciation for the cultural-historical education and research on homosexuality in Amsterdam. The foundation is known primarily for its Mosse Lectures and its QueerTalk events.
Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) is a Dutch organization that campaigns against the Zwarte Piet character in the culture of the Low Countries. Zwarte Piet is traditionally part of the annual Christian feast of Sinterklaasavond in the Netherlands, Belgium, some territories of the former Dutch Empire and the Dutch diaspora on the evening of 5 December in the Netherlands and 6 December in Belgium. Saint Nicholas Day is also celebrated in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Europe and the Middle East. In the folklore of the Low Countries, Zwarte Piet is portrayed as the dark-skinned Spanish Moor companion to Sinterklaas.
Jeane Sophie Everdine Redmond was a Surinamese physician and activist.
Annette Krauss works as artist, writer and educator. Krauss is a member of the Read-in collective and her projects include Read the Masks. Tradition is Not Given, Hidden Curriculum, Sites for Unlearning, and Spaces of Commoning. She is course leader of the Master Fine Arts at the HKU and Elise-Richter-Peek Post-Doc researcher at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Gerda Alexandra Havertong is a Dutch-Surinamese actress, television presenter, actress and singer. She is well known for being a recurring character in Sesamstraat, the Dutch version of Sesame Street, since 1984.
Twie Giok Tjoa is a Dutch organizational sociologist and feminist, specialising in diversity and inclusion at work and in society as a whole. Born and raised in a Peranakan Chinese family in Surabaya, Indonesia, she fled with her parents to Suriname in 1962 to escape the persecution of Chinese people in Indonesia. She studied organizational sociology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and, back in Suriname, became the first female director at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Youth Affairs.
