sexuality and social anxieties in the Dutch colonial archive, 1882-1923
- Categories
- Article/Artikel
- Magazine Title
- Tijdschrift voor genderstudies
- Magazine Year
- 2019
- Magazine Number
- 2
- Creator
- Isenia, Wigbertson Julian
- Thesaurus
- seksualiteit, lesbianisme, mati's, kolonialisme, archieven, Nederlandse Antillen, 20e eeuw
- Description
- The author discusses the term 'kambrada' in the Papiamentu language in the context of Curacao. The term refers to a non-sexual female or male companion as well as female same-sex erotic relationships. It assembles the Caribbean terms 'mati' and 'zami'. The author looks for the appearance of kambrada relationships in the Dutch colonial archive: the study 'Curacao en zijne bewoners' (1882), the travelogue 'Naar de Antillen en Venezuela'(1904) and the novel 'E no por casa' (1923). He shows how these source texts, as cultural articulations of sexuality, articulate colonial domination, social anxieties and patriarchy.