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Johannes King

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Johannes King
Johannes King (~1870)
Born
Adiri[1]

circa 1830[a]
near plantation Haarlem and Maho, Kampong Baroe, Suriname[3]
Died24 October 1898(1898-10-24) (aged 67–68)[4]
Maripaston, Bigi Poika, Suriname
NationalitySuriname
Occupation(s)writer, missionary

Johannes King (born: Adiri circa 1830 - 24 October 1898), was the first Maroon missionary, and the first important writer in Sranan Tongo.[1][5] King belonged to the Matawai tribe,[1] and performed his missionary activities for the Moravian Church.[6]

Biography

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Adiri was born as a son of granman (paramount chief) Kodjo of the Matawai,[7] near the plantations of Haarlem and Maho in Suriname.[3] Adiri was born and raised in a completely illiterate society.[6] In 1852, Adiri moved to Maripaston. During this period, he fell ill, and the illness lasted many years.[7] In 1855, Adiri started to receive visions: a strange god pointed at an alien religion, told him to go to the city, and be baptized.[6] Adiri went to Paramaribo, where he met van Calker, who was the preacher at the Moravian Church. He didn't stay long, and returned to his village soon after. Adiri returned in 1860, and had taught himself to read by then.[7] He had used an A.B.C. (alphabet) book, and Singiboekoe, a book with psalms from the Moravian Church in Sranan Tongo.[8] Once again he didn't stay long, but when he returned home, he started to build a church in Maripaston.[6] In 1861, he returned to the city, was baptized, and changed his name to Johannes King.[7]

Missionary

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King first started to preach under his own people for which King was paid by the mission.[6] King was briefly granman when his brother died, but opted to be solely a preacher.[9] In 1864, he was sent to the Ndyuka for a dual purpose: The Moravian Church had up to then been unable to reach the Ndyuka,[10] and the Matawai wanted to make a peace treaty with the Ndyuka. In 1864, King published a book about the visit in Sranan Tongo.[6] The book is hard to read, because he uses an autodidactic spelling and often confuses a with h.[b][2] The original is archived by the Moravian Church in Zeist.[11]

Author

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During 1864 and 1865, King wrote and published over 1,000 pages on his visits to various tribes.[1] His most important works are a 1868 book about the religions and customs of the Maroons, the 1886 Skrekiboekoe (book of horrors), which deals with his visions, and a 1886 history of the Maroons.[7] King also wrote dresibuku, a medical book, but decided to keep it secret.[6] The fast majority of his writing are archived by the Moravian Church in Zeist or Herrnhut.[1]

Legacy

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On 29 May 1958, the Johannes King Hospital in Stoelmanseiland was named after Johannes King.[12] In 1973, the dairies of Johannes King were published in Sranan Tongo as Life at Maripaston with summary in English by Henri Frans de Ziel.[1]

Notes

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  1. ^ Johannes King was vague with dates and periods. His year of birth is generally believed to be 1830, but it could be as high as 1837[2]
  2. ^ In the Dutch_orthography, the letter name for a is [aː] and the name for h is [ɦaː] which sound similar.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Johannes King (1830-1898)". Werkgroup Caraïbische Letteren (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Suriname: Spiegel der vaderlandse kooplieden". Digital Library for Dutch Literature. 1980. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Antiquariaat". Parbode. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  4. ^ "Johannes King". Digital Library for Dutch Literature. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  5. ^ "Surinaamse schrijvers en dichters". Digital Library for Dutch Literature (in Dutch). 1989. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Creole drum". Digital Library for Dutch Literature. 1975. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Johannes King 1830 - 1899. Een mens met grote overtuiging". Digital Library for Dutch Literature (in Dutch). 1964.
  8. ^ "Schrijvers prentenboek van Suriname". Digital Library for Dutch Literature. 1979. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  9. ^ "De Matawai en de Moravische Broeders". Suriname.nu (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  10. ^ "Levende-Doden ~ Tussen kruis en kalebas". Rozenberg Quarterly (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Repertorium van Nederlandse zendings- en missie-archieven 1800-1960". Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands (in Dutch). 8 February 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  12. ^ "60 jaar ziekenhuis Stoelmanseiland feestelijk gevierd". Medische Zending.sr (in Dutch). 20 June 2018. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
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