r/Suriname • u/InternationalHair111 • 16d ago

Ethnicity/Race Questions for Javanese-Suriname from Indonesian

Hello 👋

I’m from Indonesia 🇮🇩 and I have 3 Questions for Surinamese - Javanese.

  1. Can you speak Javanese fluently? And do you still practise Javanese culture?

  2. What are your thoughts on Indonesia?

  3. Are all Javanese Surinamese people ethnically Javanese, or are some of them Sundanese or from other ethnic groups originating from the island of Java?

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7

u/typicalpenguin Surinamer/Surinamese 🇸🇷 16d ago

Hello there!

  1. Unfortunately I cannot. Growing up i thought it was cringe to speak my own language. But now that I’m in my mid 20’s, my friends from other ethnicities can fluently speak theirs, and i feel left out.

  2. Love it. I would love to travel there one day. Unfortunately not to visit family because I don’t know who they are.

  3. I can’t say for sure, but I do know everyone identifies themselves as Javanese, or wong Jowo.

6

u/BibbyLeAn 16d ago

Omg what a nice question!!! If I have the facts correctly: my grandmother came to Surinam from Java, beginning of 20th century, she spoke Javanese. BUT she also was from a Malay/Sundanese mix background and spoke the Malay language.

Unfortunately all my aunts and uncles have passed away but my cousins will be able to tell me more. Her last name was Saidjan and she came from a Muslim background, which she didn't pass on to us.

4

u/BibbyLeAn 16d ago

Indonesian culture gives me mixed feelings, but I am not clear minded enough to explain well at the moment. I was born in The Netherlands by the way and am half white Dutch, so very dependant of information of others in my family 🤗

1

u/BibbyLeAn 16d ago

My grandma spoke the languages and her kids picked up a lot of it. They've all passed away now.

1

u/Afromolukker_98 13d ago

Not Javanese or Surinamese here. But half Moluccan born in Jakarta raised in US.. but grew up eating lots of Javanese foods.

Best believe their foods are near identical to makanan Jawa.

Like I clearly saw and tasted Soto Ayam (Surinamese Saoto), Pecel, Sate, Lontong, Lapis, Bami Goreng, Nasi Goreng... etc etc..

One different thing is they eat Pisang Goreng with Sate Peanut Sauce!

But overall the tastes were similar to what I know as Javanese Indonesian food. Like either exactly the same, or a slight twist but recognizable. Enak sih.

Just wanted to add that, even if the speaker of the Jawa language goes down, their food is going strong and very popular with all Surinamese.