Raoul de Jong: Jaguarman
We’re delighted to be co-hosting this special evening with the Centre of Dutch and Flemish Studies at the University of Sheffield, welcoming two visionary artists whose work is reshaping the dialogue between Suriname, the Netherlands, and the global postcolonial landscape: author Raoul de Jong and filmmaker Ida Does.
At the heart of the evening is the highly anticipated launch of the English translation of Raoul de Jong’s seminal novel, Jaguarman. Far more than a memoir, it is a direct challenge to nationally framed colonial narratives — weaving together historical fact with inherited rituals, poetry, and ancestral stories to craft an alternative history of Suriname that recovers what traditional archives often ignore.
Raoul de Jong (b. 1984, Netherlands) is a novelist and journalist whose six books include Jaguarman (2020), a powerful retelling of Suriname’s colonial history through the eyes of an Amazonian ancestor with the power to become a jaguar — nominated for both the Libris Prize and the EU Prize for Literature. He received the Anna Blaman Prize for his entire oeuvre in 2022, and his 2023 Dutch National Bookweek Essay, Boto Banja, debuted at the top of the bestseller charts.
Event Related Books & Products
Jaguarman
Born to a Dutch mother and Surinamese father he doesn’t know, Raoul is barely 30 when he receives an email from a man looking for his son. From this late meeting with his father about his Surinamese ancestry, a mention of a mysterious ancestor who transformed himself into a jaguar,…
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