Bagasi – what we carry

Emma’s father-in-law gave her a suitcase containing the archive of his grandfather Maarten de Niet. Inside were photographs, political documents, newspaper articles, and a two-faced doll - white on one side, and black on the other. De Niet was Attorney General and Acting Governor of Suriname from 1926 to 1953. Emma’s Surinamese grandparents lived under his rule. They lived only footsteps away yet worlds apart.

Emma travels to Suriname retracing the past and exploring the meaning and impact of the archive. De Niet was involved in the arrest of revolutionary Anton de Kom and the imprisonment of the well-known trade union leader Louis Doedel, who disappeared into a psychiatric institution for life. These arrests still have an impact in the present day in Suriname.

What do these stories and images evoke in the people around Emma, in her father-in-law, who gave the suitcase, and in her own mother, who grew up in a time when her Suriname roots had to be denied? And how should she herself relate to this painful and complex legacy that belongs to her children?