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Arts & Culture
Edgar Cairo
1948 – 2000
Writer who gave Surinamese-Dutch literary weight
Edgar Cairo wrote novels and columns in which he placed Sranantongo and Surinamese-Dutch on an equal footing with standard Dutch.
Cairo was born in Paramaribo in 1948 and moved to Amsterdam in 1968 to study Dutch. From the 1970s he published novels such as Kollektieve schuld (1976) and Jeje Disi (1980), bringing Surinamese spoken language onto the literary page.
For De Volkskrant he wrote the weekly column 'Lelu! Lelu!' which taught generations of Surinamese Dutch to see their own language and culture as legitimate. He died in 2000 at the age of 51.
Sources
- Michiel van Kempen — Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur
This biography was compiled from public historical sources. Additions, corrections or suggestions? Contact info@surinameglobalgroup.nl.