There were two Malaysian TV programmes that I was looking forward to during this Eid Mubarak, “Hari Raya bersama Fara” and “Memo dari Suriname”.
Fara Fauzana is one of TV3’s host I actually adore, I guess her witty and full of humour personality caught my attention well. And “Memo dari Suriname”, I caught the preview about a small Malay community based in South America. Isnt that amazing? I’ve always had a thing for history… say like Islam in China, history of China.. and now there’s Malay in Suriname.
Lucky me, both shows were on air right after each other today, and I was at home flipping through the channels when I bumped into these two.
So briefly, Suriname… pronounced as “Su-ri-na-me” by the locals (heard it from the interview) has a small population but bigger than us, theirs is about 500,000 while ours is only about 380,000. From the population, 20% are those of Javanese descendents.
I’m not really gonna elaborate on the programe but more to my awe, seeing Malay descendants at a place very secluded from the rest of the Malay population.. i.e Asia. Some of them no longer speak in Malay but suprisingly, they speak in very fluent and thick Javanese dialect.. or as we call it “Bahasa Jawa”. For a second there, it didnt feel like it was somewhere in South America. That’s just how amazing it is.
From the programme, it showed that the 1st generation of Javanese people in Suriname came during the colonial times from Indonesia. Mostly came to work at the coffee and sugar cane plantation.
Interestingly, Suriname is one of four non-Spanish speaking states in South America.
But enough of that for now, hopefully there will be a re-run of this show on TV3.
Image taken from here
Borneo Bulletin
Brudirect
Brunei Daily Diary
Brunei Times
Global Voices Online
Posted by Suriname » 参加北京奥运会国家地区代表团名单 on October 5, 2008 at 8:30 pm
[...] Memo dari SurinameAnd “Memo dari Suriname”, I caught the preview about a small Malay community based in South America. Isnt that amazing? I’ve always had a thing for history… say like Islam in China, history of China.. and now there’s Malay in Suriname. … [...]
Posted by OWTEW on October 5, 2008 at 11:25 pm
For one second I thought you were talking about the Cape Malays from South Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX9ZLEyA8eE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Ozh3lx4M0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Malays
Posted by Maurina Hamid on October 6, 2008 at 2:11 am
how amazing is that! hope to catch a rerun of the show.
Posted by bibz on October 6, 2008 at 8:24 am
OWTEW: Cape Malays in South Africa is also very interesting
Maurina: It is amazing
Will try to update you if I bumped into any promo on its re-run. Oh by the way, apparently a Malaysian wrote a novel where its setting was Suriname. He was one of the delegation who went to Suriname for the “Memo dari Suriname” documentary.
Posted by Khairul Azmil Kusman on October 6, 2008 at 10:01 am
Wong Jowo urip nang ngendhi wae, ono wong Jowo Suriname saiki manggon lan kerjo nang Negoro Londo, uripe saiki tambah maju seko jaman embah’ae biyen………………….
Salam seko Wong Jowo Malaysia……….
“Proud To Be A Javanese”
Posted by Khairul Azmil Kusman on October 6, 2008 at 1:40 pm
As a Javanese who was born and live in Malaysia, I’m proud to see a group of kid still can speak their grandparent’s language in Suriname, nowadays hard to find 3th or 4th generation of Javanese in Malaysia who can “ngomong jowo” like their father & mother……………..
Posted by bibz on October 6, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Hello Khairul, I’m afraid I dont understand Javanese dialect. But yes, I felt proud that they are able to sustain their grandparent’s language.
In Brunei, from my own point of view, there are signs that the new generation have lost some of the Brunei Malay. I myself sometimes stumble on my own Brunei Malay, which is different from the standard Malay.
Berkurapak (speaking) in Brunei Malay, from my non-Bruneian friends point of view, sounded a bit similar to Tagalog
.
Posted by Obi Wan Kentucky on October 6, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I was more shocked actually to learn that we Malays have kins so far away tucked in the corner of the world, Surinam. Kesian pon ada, as these relatives of ours obviously seems to yearn for their other halves from the mainland.
I once had the opportunity to visit Christmas Island, a small island in the Indian ocean. Although I didnt get out of the airport, I managed to talk to a couple of resident Malays, to my pleasant surprise. We even conversed in Bahasa. Theirs was of a strange dialect though. But one of them, sang to me ‘Rasa Sayang’…very very weird.
I didnt actually catch the whole Surinam episode in full, but I hope they’d make more of these programs. Let’s bridge this gap between these ‘lost’ malays and us.
Posted by irwan on October 6, 2008 at 6:17 pm
i’m looking the song in the rancangan memo dari suriname…so nice n touching song..if i’m not mistaken,the title is “hujan di lumun pagi”.who can help me to find that song???
tq..
Posted by Suriname » Hoge Raad oordeelt dinsdag over Lucia de B. on October 6, 2008 at 8:15 pm
[...] Memo dari SurinameAnd “Memo dari Suriname”, I caught the preview about a small Malay community based in South America. Isnt that amazing? I’ve always had a thing for history… say like Islam in China, history of China.. and now there’s Malay in Suriname. … [...]
Posted by bibz on October 6, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Obi Wan Kentucky: I agree with you, there should be more of this type of programmes. I always find it interesting and usually do more research after watching it. I guess curiosity beats the hell out of me
irwan: I hope someone out there will know where to find the song
Posted by Khairul Azmil Kusman on October 7, 2008 at 12:34 am
You were right bibz, no matter who we are, no matter where we live, we are came from the same root, a root of Malay archipelago, we should defend our culture, our language & our religion just to make sure it will not disappear.
Posted by gettingpurlywithit on July 9, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Hi, my ancestors are from Java, Indonesia…They were taken from Java to Suriname at the end of the 19th century.
My grandparents, my parents and me were born in Suriname. My parents moved from Suriname to the Netherlands.
I was raised in the Netherlands and am now living in the USA.
It was interesting to read your post…thanks!
Posted by bibz on July 10, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Hi gettingpurlywithit, wow.. now there is a decesdent in the US
Do you speak Jawa or practice some of the culture?
Posted by gettingpurlywithit on July 11, 2009 at 3:37 am
Hi Bibz,
I speak a little tiny bit of Jawa and hardly practice the Jawa culture anymore. I crave for my Mom’s Jawa cuisine though!
Lately been struggling with Cultural Identity questions… I wrote about it on a recent blogpost:
http://gettingpurlywithit.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/struggling-with-my-cultural-identity/
Thank you so much for replying..!