After the abolition of slavery, the plantations in
Suriname needed a new source of labor. In 1890, the influential
Netherlands Trading Society, owner of the plantation
Mariënburg in Suriname, undertook a test to attract
Javaneseindentured workers from the
Dutch East Indies. Until then, primarily
Indian indentured workers from
British India worked at the Surinamese plantations as field and factory workers.
On 9 August, the first
Javanese arrived in
Paramaribo. The test was considered successful and by 1894 the colonial government took over the task of recruiting Javanese hands. They came in small groups from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands, and from there to Paramaribo. The transport of Javanese immigrants continued until 1914 (except 1894) in two stages through
Amsterdam.
The workers came from villages in
Central and
East Java. Departure points were
Batavia,
Semarang and
Tandjong Priok. The recruited workers and their families awaited their departure in a depot, where they were inspected and registered and where they signed their contract.
The immigrants were recruited to work on the
plantations. The exception was a group in 1904, when 77 Javanese were recruited specifically to work at the Colonial Railways. From
World War I Javanese also worked at the Suriname Bauxite Company in
Moengo. Immigration continued until 13 December 1939. The outbreak of
World War II ended transplantation schemes.
Population
A total of 32,965 Javanese immigrants went to Suriname. In 1954, 8,684 Javanese returned to
Indonesia, with the rest remaining in Suriname. The census of 1972 counted 57,688 Javanese in Suriname, and in 2004 there were 71,879. In addition, in 2004 more than 60,000 people of mixed descent were recorded, with an unknown number of part Javanese descent.
In 1953, a large group of 300 families (1,200 people), led by
Salikin Hardjo, went back to Indonesia on the ship Langkuas of the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd. They intended to settle in
Java or
Lampung, but their request was not approved by the Indonesian government, and instead they were sent to
West Sumatra. They established the village of Tongar, also referred to as Tongass in
Pasaman Regency, north of
Padang, clearing land and building new houses. They integrated smoothly with the
Minangkabau community, despite the fact that most of the Javanese were Christian. Marriages with the mainly Muslim Minangkabau were common. The current generation is said to identify more as Indonesian than Surinamese, but still maintain contacts with family and friends in Suriname and the Netherlands, sometimes traveling to those countries.
In the 1970s, 20,000-25,000 Javanese Surinamese went to the Netherlands. They settled mainly in and around cities such as
Groningen,
Amsterdam,
The Hague,
Rotterdam, and
Zoetermeer. They are well integrated into Dutch society, but preserve their Javanese identity through associations and regularly organized meetings. Most still have relatives in Suriname and send
remittances, and regularly visit Suriname.
^Aris Ananta, Evi Nurvidya Arifin, M Sairi Hasbullah, Nur Budi Handayani, Agus Pramono. Demography of Indonesia's Ethnicity. Singapore: ISEAS: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2015. p. 270 (based on 2010 census data).
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ISBN0-8130-1625-8
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