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The Politics of Passion: Women's Sexual Culture in the Afro-Surinamese Diaspora. GLORIA WEKKER. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. xvii + 313 pp. (Paper US$ 27.50)
This portrait of Creole women's life in Paramaribo, Suriname, is truly a gem. Since 1936, when Suriname Folk-Lore by Melville and Francis Herskovits was published, no account of similar depth and scope on Creole women's private and social worlds has appeared. Gloria Wekker's Politics of Passion is as vivid, as lively and - contested though the epithet may be - as authentic as theirs. The case study that opens the book is exciting, and the rendering of women's intimate conversations in the home country, and their experiences in the Netherlands, creates an impression of being true to life.
The book focuses on the world of mati, working-class women who have evolved a specific social and sexual lifestyle, based on the Afro-Surinamese worldview. I cannot think of any other ethnographic account of intimate relations among women in the African-American diaspora that is as incisive. As Wekker was quick to discover, the difference from the Western lesbian lifestyle she was familiar with proved to be considerable. The "mati work" is disclosed as a cultural complex, characterized by its own ethos, norms, values, and social codes. Wekker opted for a research strategy of active personal involvement. This not only required her to become fluent in Sranantongo, the creole language of Suriname (which her parents had discouraged her from using as a child), but also to familiarize herself with a different cultural code in dealing with lovers. The candid appraisal of the problems she faced during this period of reorientation is much to her credit.
Wekker situates her contribution in the field of sexuality studies. She takes part in current debates on sex and gender, for instance, by tackling the question of whether same-sex sexuality can be best understood under the rubric...