Rudi F. Kross

Back in his native Suriname to see his dying mother, an Afro-Surinamese student from the Netherlands’ former colony finds himself torn between his Amsterdam-based life with his white Dutch girlfriend and a future in his newly independent homeland when he falls for a local Hindostani nurse.

De Kom's grandfather was a slave; as a child, he heard stories about what the white Dutch had done to the Black Surinamese during the time of slavery. Throughout his life, he resisted the stigma of inferiority. He was active in the anti-colonial movement, married a white Dutch woman, and, after his forced emigration to the Netherlands, joined the resistance in 1940–1945. Through the life story of Anton de Kom, aided by conversations with his children among others, an unknown part of the history of Suriname is told.