Boni

Publisher: Atlas Contact 

Following the footsteps of the Surinamese freedom fighter

The year 2025 marks Suriname’s fiftieth anniversary of independence.

Around 1730, a highly pregnant black woman flees the horrors of slavery and gives birth to her son Boni in the Surinamese swamp. He will grow up to become the leader of the Maroons: for over thirty years, he and his followers heroically resist colonial rule. As a teenager, Tessa Leuwsha first read about this mythical warrior in We Slaves of Surinam. From then on, she is intrigued by him: who was he, and what is the story of his courageous mother? What did his actions mean then and now, how does his legacy continue to impact her own life? Tessa Leuwsha travels across Suriname searching for Boni’s roots I Ghana, she scavenges through scant archives and draws richly on oral history. Based on facts and supported by her sparkling literary imagination, she recreates the Surinamese freedom fighter Boni as a flesh-and-blood human being.

Praise:

‘The chief Bonni. […]. In him united the strength and courage of the jaguar with the swiftness of our deer.’ – Anton de Kom in We Slaves of Surinam

On previous work:

‘Leuwsha makes colonial history personal.’ – NRC