Not just a book review:We slaves of Suriname by Anton de Kom

We Slaves of Suriname by Anton de Kom, the first book on Surinamese history written by a Surinamese man, gives a detailed historical account of the horrors of slavery and the transition into ‘free’ citizenship under Dutch colonial rule, telling a story of tragedy and hardship as well as self-love and resilience. As this seminal work of twentieth-century anticolonial literature is published in English for the first time, Phaedra Haringsma reflects on its contents, De Kom’s life and the life the book has taken on after De Kom’s death.