Diorama of a Du, a Dance Celebration on the Plantation
Also titled Diorama van een du, dansfeest op de plantage
Gerrit Schouten (Paramaribo (stad), 1779–1839)
1830
- Medium
- paper, wood (plant material)
- Classification
- diorama
- Dimensions
- height 61 cm x width 69.8 cm x depth 17.1 cm x depth 21.3 cm x height 50.5 cm x width 59.4 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
In progress in the dance tent is a du, a type of role-play with music and dance that was held on the plantations. Both the performers and the spectators were people held in slavery. The lead role was reserved for the afrankeri, the narrator (the woman on the far left). The man in the red suit on the right portrays the colonial authority. During the annual du, enslaved people could give vent to their criticism of this authority or organize resistance in their own language, Sranan Tongo.
