Raoul de Jong

I have recently read books by two Gen Z authors, born 1984 and 1996 respectively, who write as if they are still children. They write as if they resist growing up. Their childish books were written when they were well into their twenties.

Dagboek van een puber. Notities van een onvolprezen wonderkind is (or purports to be) the authentic diary of Raoul de Jong, written when he was 12 years old.

Is it interesting? Yes, in a way it is. Firstly, it could be read as a time capsule. It describes the year of a child in the year 1997, as a young high school kid. It is also pretty daring of the author to publish it. It is not annotated, but the author has added comments, and extra text to tie up fragments. It is not clear whether any text was left out. In fact, there is nothing to prove that it is entirely authentic, although it rings true.

The book is interesting for several reasons. It is a ego document of Raoul de Jong, who is now a developing young writer, with several books to his name. Much of his exploits and ideas as a young adolescent are recognizeable to older, and probably also younger readers.… (more)

Boto Banja, of Het geheim genootschap der dansende schrijvers by the young Dutch author Raoul de Jong is an essay with characteristics of a travelogue and literary criticism. Raoul de Jong's first book, Jaguarman was a similarly surprising book consisting of a journey in search of his own cultural roots and the identity of his father. This essay seems a further exploration.

Raoul de Jong's roots lie in Surinam, and the history of his father's side of the family is tied with the colonial history of the Netherlands and Surinam, and the slave trade. In Boto Banja, of Het geheim genootschap der dansende schrijvers De Jong describes how coloured sailors preserved a dance that they performed on vessels, the Boto Banjo. This dance is related to voodoo practice and goes back to the cultural roots in Africa. However, there are also moments in the essay where the author seems to suggest steps of the dance are related to the gait of sailors on the high seas, as a boat would rock on the waves.

The dance, and a (musical ?) instrument, the banja, are also tied to a novel, Banjo, published in 1929 by the Jamaican writer Claude McKay. The novel describes a band of sailors who while away their time making music and dancing. From this trail, De Jong describes his discovery that there was a worldwide network of coloured writers who sang and danced, as the title suggests Boto Banja, of Het geheim genootschap der dansende schrijvers: a secret society of dancing writers. He goes on to suggest that Anton de Kom, one of the foremost Surinam poets and writers, had a dancing school.

The author's attempts to sail in a catamaran from Haiti to Venezuela or Surinam is a third thread in this curious book.… (more)