Albert HelmanCritiques

Tedious, atmospheric novel about a Huguenot family on the run in the 17th century, attempting to run a sugar plantation in the jungle of Surinam, experimenting with enlightened principles (free slaves, harmonious community).

As one expects rather than providing an alternative way of making a piece of jungle productive to everyone’s benefit, the experience becomes a bitter one, turning everything on its head, with the jungle as ultimate winner after claiming three fatalities. It is the story of Raoul, who marries Josephine and takes responsibility for her two sisters Agnes and Cecile. After the edict of Nantes (offering protection for protestants in France) is renounced in 1685, they sell their farm and move to Holland, where they all feel miserable. They then decide to pursue a dream of a new start in the jungle of the West Indies (Surinam) and travel there by ship. The captain of the ship advices them on a potential foreman, the harshly racist Willem Das, a man of the planters’ world, who enters in a partnership with the weak Raoul and his strange, liberal ideas. Willem treats the slaves badly, sexually abuses the black women at night, while running a tight ship on the plantation. The latter has been given by the governor to Raoul. Raoul chose a site far removed from the other plantations, so as to enable his experiment with liberal ideas without interference from other conservative planters. Agnes is vigorous in taking up farming and she is impressed by Isidore the foreman of the African slaves. At the same time she despises Willem Das, who in turn is quite smitten with Agnes. When he asks Raoul for her hand, the latter is faced with a dilemma. Agnes declines the request out of hand, and Raoul begrudgingly respects her wish. This sets the stage for adversity after adversity – drought, deluge, ant plague.

The drama peaks when Willem Das decides to give in to his urge to molest Agnes. Isidore protects her by hitting Willem on the head, necessitating Raoul to act. Contrary to his nature – he incarcerates Isidore. When two neighbouring planters discover the fate of dying Willem they demand ‘proper’ punishment for the slave Isidore. While the argument rages, one of the planters shoots Isidore, who drops dead. This proves the final straw. Agnes retreats from active life, going local in the hut of the slave women. Cecile dies of disease. And the ants wreck havoc. When finally Josephine proves to be pregnant, Raoul concludes it is better to leave, providing for a suitable environment for his new born. They leave the colony and embark the same ship that brought them at the invitation of the captain. The ship takes them to England, where Raoul soon finds work among fellow Huguenots.

Over time their collective memory of the silent plantation becomes nostalgic, less bleak. When the son has become a young adult, lovingly raised by his story telling aunt Agnes, he desires to find out about the plantation of her stories. Of course the jungle has reclaimed the plantation, Cecile’s grave can not even be located. Gaston decides to withhold the truth from his family. Life goes on.

In an afterword, added in 1980, Helman provides some background info on the process of writing this ‘classic’ Dutch novel on colonialism and slavery. Soon after his arrival in the Netherlands in the early 1930s, Helman had submitted a first chapter as an entry to a literature competition. His novel was snubbed, but once published became a success. However, translations for the American and British market fell through on account of its hint at an interracial love relation (between Agnes and Isidore). Later Helman wrote another novel on the silent plantation from a female perspective (in diary form, entitled the flaming silence (laaiende stilte)). For Helman, the book remained pivotal for his career as a writer, though he had his regrets about some parts of it (the novel reflects his own ‘misplaced’ longing for the jungle, as a young man).

For the present day reader, the going is tough: tedious, long winding sentences, applying archaic Dutch at times. A slow burner that successfully portrays an ominous atmosphere, driven by a sense of futility.

De ik-figuur kijkt vanuit Nederland terug naar het stille, mooie Suriname. Naar de eenzaamheid van de mensen die daar anders is dan in het drukke Nederland. Het heimwee naar de tijd dat de Indianen nog ongestoord konden leven. De angst dat de "oude bewoners" van het land zullen uitsterven. Maar ook het welhaast onvermijdelijke daarvan.
Een prachtig boekje, in 1926 voltooid. Helman eindigt met de woorden: "Mijn arm, arm land...."

De van oorsprong Surinaamse schrijver Albert Helman is vooral bekend van zijn in 1931 verschenen anti-koloniale roman De stille plantage. Minder bekend is dat hij van 1932 tot 1937 als verslaggever van o.a. De Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (NRC) en De Groene Amsterdammer in Spanje verbleef. In De sfinx van Spanje beschrijft de stilist Helman zijn waarnemingen in het Spanje tijdens het begin en de eerste jaren van de Spaanse Burgeroorlog.

Helman is daarin allesbehalve een neutrale toeschouwer: zonder te kiezen voor één van de partijen aan de kant van de Republikeinen, kiest Helman wél partij voor de Republikeinse kant, waar de tegenstrijdigheden tussen de verschillende fracties zich, naarmate de burgeroorlog vordert, steeds scherper doen gelden. De betrokkenheid van Helman met de verdedigers van de Republiek doet denken aan de manier waarop George Orwell in Saluut aan Catalonië zijn eigen verbondenheid met de Republikeinen beschrijft. Dat De sfinx van Spanje wel wat van Orwells herinneringen weg heeft is niet zo raar: beide schrijvers kenden elkaar en deelden een kantoor in Barcelona. Maar waar Orwell daadwerkelijk deelneemt aan de gewapende strijd en zich aansluit bij de milities van de POUM (een revolutionaire links-communistische partij), komt Helman tot de conlusie dat in zijn handen de pen een beter wapen is dan het geweer.

Al in 1937 had Helman in de gaten dat wat zich in Spanje afspeelde in feite de voorbode was van een ‘Europese oorlog’ tussen Duitsland en Italië aan de ene kant tegen een alliantie van Engeland, Frankrijk en de Sovjet-Unie aan de andere kant. Zijn hoop dat de inzet van de Spaanse bevolking niet voor niets zal zijn geweest, zou al gauw in bloed gesmoord worden.

De sfinx van Spanje verschijnt in een geannoteerde uitgave met een nawoord van Michiel van Kempen, buitengewoon hoogleraar West-Indische Letteren aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Surinam's leading writer produced a history of Kerstens, a department store in the heart of Paramaribo (on Domineestraat), founded by Moravian missionaries in the 18th century.