Suffisant – Rais.cw

The Suffisant zone consists, besides Suffisant, of the neighbourhoods Muizenberg Bieu, Weis Afó, Quinta Violeta, Monte Carmelo, San Domingo near Rio Canario and Bloemfontein.

When it occupied the island in 1634 the West India Company already held a strip around the Schottegat under its own management. This also included Rooi Canarie, which was laid out in 1662 and is thus one of the oldest former plantations on the island. In 1700 it was described as "the company plantation Rooi Canarie with maize garden at Steene Kooral, including Stevesant alias Stuyvesant" and served as a food plantation for slave camps at Zuurzak and Groot Sint Joris.

The neighbourhoods Suffisant, Muizenberg (Bieu)* and Rio Canario were later historically linked to each other again by Shell: the oil refinery bought up large parts of Suffisant/Muizenberg (and later Groot Kwartier) to house its guest workers, and later formed Emmastad out of Rio Canario for "higher" employees.

In addition there is also a natural connection between these neighbourhoods, formed by the abundant rainwater that flows through them.

The Rio Canario, or Rooi Canarie valley as named by the first Dutch colonists, extends from the southern foot of the high terrace of Seru Fortuna and Sint Jacob to the northern shores of the Schottegat. The rainwater collected by this broad valley flows via natural dams or tanki's and also through the largest dam structure ever built by Shell on Curaçao: the Dam di Muizenberg.

Rooi Canarie/Suffisant

The nine company plantations were all later — except Hato — sold or leased. The last tenant of Rooi Canarie was Jan Hendrik de Lannoy, who bought the plantation in 1796. His son Andries became heir to a very large part of central Curaçao. After Andries' death in 1829 the estate — despite the notorious Rio Canario lawsuit of that year — proved difficult to divide among his heirs. And so part was leased in small plots to mainly Venezuelan contract workers who worked at the refinery. Rooi Canarie and Suffisant were regarded as "difficult plantations" that formally belonged to hundreds of entitled parties but were occupied by the Venezuelan workers who, higgledy-piggledy and from every conceivable material, had built 500 wretched shacks.

The slum districts were an obstacle for the community, but Shell did not intervene and did not concern itself with what happened outside its work terrain. For lack of responsible owners the police — at that time also still under unskilled leadership — stood powerless.

Urbina

The ideal breeding ground, then, for unsavoury elements. And revolutionaries, such as Rafael Simon Urbina, opponent of president Juan Vicente Gomez in Venezuela, who had gone into hiding at Rooi Canarie. Together with Gustavo Machado, a notorious communist who visited Curaçao at set times — sometimes as a tennis champion — a communist cell was founded in 1928. And participants were gathered at Rooi Canarie for a raid. On 8 June 1929, at 9.15 p.m., 2 lorries with 45 men roared through the open gate of the Waterfort — where the police post was stationed at that moment. Armed with machetes and automatic (as later turned out, unloaded) pistols. The Venezuelans then murdered three soldiers.

Urbina wanted only weapons; otherwise he would set the refinery on fire. The ship Maracaibo was placed at his disposal and he left with 197 rifles, 4 machine guns, 38 pistols, some machetes and the governor and the police chief as hostages. The governor had, however, managed shortly before to have the Venezuelan government warned that Urbina was on his way, as a result of which the attack ultimately failed after all. Urbina and "tennis champion" Machado escaped, the hostages were back the next morning, and a state of siege was proclaimed at once. Making use of this, "the grounds of Rooi Canarie-Suffisant, the breeding ground of criminal agitation" were immediately expropriated, and both former plantations were taken away from the owners — "whoever they might be".

Money down the well

With effect from 1 January 1930, 150 hectares of Suffisant and 93 hectares of Rooi Canarie were ceded to Shell at 50 guilders per hectare per year. Thirty hectares were reserved for those who, under old rights, were allowed to remain on the plantation; the government moved the rest to nearby Dein, and by 25 April 1931 the clearance was completed.

The De Windt family refused to sell the piece of land to the government and was put under pressure to accept as compensation 300 guilders and a smaller piece of land at Stenen Koraal. In protest Petrus Frederik de Windt, alias Papa Andries, threw the money into the well at the Medemapark at Suffisant….

Guest workers

By 1937 Rooi Canarie had been practically entirely incorporated into Emmastad, the village that Shell had built near the refinery for its employees. Shell already owned the adjoining Asiento and Valentijn and had always wanted to add Suffisant and Rooi Canarie to expand its housing stock and installations.

When the oil refinery was established on Curaçao in 1918, local labour proved inadequate, so contract workers were recruited from Bonaire, Suriname, Venezuela, the Netherlands and later also the Windward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts, Saint Lucia, Anguilla and Barbados, and Portuguese from Madeira. They were first accommodated, scattered by nationality, in barracks, e.g. Venezuelans at Asiento. The camp at Asiento had to disappear during the second expansion period of the refinery, and three new sheds were built at Suffisant. These were taken into use for the first time in March 1929 and formed the beginning of an extensive complex of enormous barracks at Suffisant, in which all guest workers would later be concentrated.

Workers' camp

In the extensive barracks camps the different ethnic workers were obliged to live together in a camp of their own. The workers' camp was provided with a fence and gate and a strict regime separating the nationalities. British West Indians were exempted from this obligation: as porters, guards and drivers they held a certain position of trust with the oil company. The strict separation was intended mainly for the Venezuelans, but to avoid the appearance of discrimination it was applied to all nationalities. The camp could only be entered on presentation of the Shell pass at the entrance gate, which was built between the Red Cross building on the Suffisantweg and the (present) minimarket across the road, where a guard house was located. The Red Cross building has always stood there: it was very important in connection with, among other things, venereal diseases in the "oil villages", which were largely inhabited by single men. Here were also a bank, an administration and post office for Suriname, the Suffisantdorp, the warehouse for the shops and a small cell.

Beautiful gardens

On both sides, after the entrance gate, followed beautiful gardens, with at the end of the Suffisantweg the barracks camp, on the spot where the Aluminium factory, Satex and Samira mattress factory — all former barracks — are now housed. The camp furthermore consisted of warehouses and workshops, small barracks, large living sheds and a camp shop where employees were allowed to buy goods on ration coupons. Housing in the workers' camps was free, including utilities, as well as medical care at the doctor's surgery in the present maternity clinic at Rio Canario.

Clubhouses

For single workers there were communal kitchens, barracks where they could eat a hot meal in the afternoon and take bread with them as breakfast for the next morning. In total as many as 60 cooks worked in the barracks camp at Suffisant. Besides the dining halls, recreation also came: sports fields, a cycling track (behind Cine Rio), cricket field, theatre hall and clubhouses per ethnic group. Thus the Portuguese clubhouse still stands at the end of the Sportlaan, just before the mattress factory, where the Portuguese barracks — including the present Satex building — lay.

Around the present doctor's surgery, pharmacies and Kolegio Erasmo of the Skol Humanista on the opposite side was "Surinamese territory"; the present Marieta Alberto school west of the Club di Shell was the clubhouse of the West Indian workers, and the Colombians were located behind the present aluminium factory, opposite the neighbourhood centre of Muizenberg.

Free film evening

All nationalities could use the library, which was housed in what is now Kolegio Erasmo, and also the open-air cinema — the later Cine Rio — with 1,200 seats. For 25 cents one could see the best American and Spanish films every Friday at Cine Rio, until the cinemas in Punda began to complain that they were losing customers. Then the films became accessible exclusively to residents of Suffisant. East of the former cinema, tiles with notches for parking bicycles can still be found.

If you had no money for a comfortable seat, you could also enjoy a free film evening on the little hill behind the cinema.

Surinamedorp

Only after the war were the barracks camps converted into housing for the guest workers and their families, and streets were also laid out by Shell, of which the Van Krimpen- and the Sportlaan (so called because of the sports facilities) are the main roads. In the 1950s the workers' camp and the access roads ultimately grew into two real villages: Suriname- and Suffisantdorp.

In Surinamedorp, which was laid out first, west of the access road to the camp — the present Sportlaan — one was at first allowed to live only if the head of the household was a Surinamese. It would later house 4 ethnic groups, each with its own club room and grouped around green spaces such as the Nijhoffpark. The author Ronald Gill writes that residents were allowed to choose a name for their neighbourhood themselves: in the monthly Shell newspaper, De Passaat, a column appeared with news for each population group and in its own language. Kamp, also called Kampoe by Surinamese, was changed to Surinamedorp and was usually simply called "dorp" (village) by the residents.

Single people

The dwellings in Surinamedorp were semi-detached for families, and a guesthouse type with four bedrooms with shared facilities for single residents. These chose the names Hillcrest and Bellmont Cottage (West Indians), Ilha de Madeira and Viva Portugal (Portuguese) and Zonnewende and Soestdijk (Surinamese). Surinamese were good at building kites and organised competitions, the Venezuelans dominated baseball, and the English/Caribbean residents excelled at athletics and cricket.

From camp to village

In the early 1950s Suffisantdorp was laid out on the terrain to the east, bordering the large workers' barracks. In area it was a third of Surinamedorp and consisted of 133 dwellings, with in the middle of the neighbourhood an open heart that was fitted out as a green space/playing field. Here too there were semi-detached family dwellings and dwellings for single workers. Suffisantdorp — now known as Muizenberg Bieu — is full of large mango trees that still recall the many Portuguese, more highly educated workers who were housed here first. Also striking in the neighbourhood are the big wash basins in the garden — washi di beton (concrete wash basins) — in which clothes were formerly washed and which can still be seen at some houses.

The Chinese in the neighbourhood had an extra large washi and therefore decided to set up a laundry at Suffisant, possibly one of the first Chinese laundries on Curaçao.

Cultural melting pot

The Jan Noorduynpark, like the Jan Noorduynweg named after the then Shell director, was the centre between the two residential cores. Here stood a large theatre hall, a tennis court and a stadium. The other names in the neighbourhoods refer, among other things, to rivers, such as the Brokopondolaan, the Coppename-, the Eem-, the Vegt-, the Waal-, the Lek- and the Noordzeestraat, which forms the border between Suffisant and Muizenberg. Surinamedorp was the area at the level of the Noordzeestraat and the Zuiderzeestraat. And Suffisantdorp is nowadays called Muizenberg Bieu.

The strict seclusion of the different nationalities fell away in later years and the neighbourhood became a harmonious mix: English johnny cakes and Venezuelan ayaca's were exchanged back and forth, and many single young people "crossed the border" and also married partners of another nationality, and so Suffisant became a true cultural melting pot.

Green Hotel

For lack of more suitable accommodation, the deep culverts for water drainage in Suffisant and Rio Canario were used by the many single residents as a place to sleep off a night out. These were known as the Green Hotel, because through the abundant water they were always richly overgrown.

And they also formed an excellent shelter for the notorious Tarzan di Mondi, an eccentric who preferred to live in the culvert near Muizenberg Bieu. Because of his unkempt appearance, children from the neighbourhood were afraid of him and always crossed the little bridge built over the culvert here quickly.

Sand and mice

The origin of the name Muizenberg is as yet unknown. Christel Monsanto tells that the above-mentioned De Lannoy brothers had freed enslaved people with the name Muizenberg, possibly because they had lived there. According to older residents of nearby Kurá Piedra, Muizenberg swarmed not only with mice but also with rats and snakes.

There are various claims about the origin of the name Suffisant. It is said to be derived from Stuyvesant or from the French "sufficient". But Brenneker refers to old documents from 1858 indicating that it is derived from Kipi Santu — "tipping over sand" — because sand was sold there.

Strike of the Chinese stokers

During the Second World War, 420 Chinese stokers from Rotterdam went on strike to improve their life-threatening working conditions on Shell tankers. They were interned in the Suffisant camp on the Sportlaan. At the urging of the Shell management, the local police went to the camp to put an end to the strike. During this confrontation 15 strikers were shot dead by the police and buried at Kolebra Bèrdè*. At the location of the camp at Muizenberg Bieu, signs, among other things, have been placed in memory of this horrific event. As thanks for their action, the local police were given the Vaersenbaai as a gift by Shell, and the police association set up its activity centre here. The Vaersenbaai is now rented out to an operator and renamed Kokomo Beach. Vaersenbaai was part of the terrains at Bullenbaai that were owned by Shell as the largest landowner on the island. The terrains at Rio Canario and Suffisant were then held on leasehold.

Dam di Muizenberg

The Dam di Muizenberg is the largest dam Shell ever built on Curaçao. It actually consists of a system of dams connected to each other. There used to be a bridge here too and a mill to generate electricity for Shell.

For young people in the surrounding neighbourhoods the dam was above all popular as a swimming pool. You had to know how and where you could swim, though, because it was actually a kind of marsh. You also had to watch out for the porter, who was dispatched from Shell to the Dam if young people were swimming there.

The dam is nowadays a protected nature area.

Weis Afó

Weis Afo lies north-west of Rio Canario and south of Suffisant. Large water pumps of the refinery used to stand here. It is the surroundings of the detective bureau in the Kaya Joe Pinedo. In this neighbourhood stands the 45-metre-high Ser'i Warawara — one of the four hills with that name on Curaçao. The warawara, in Dutch caracara, is a bird of prey.

Weis Afó probably refers to the adjoining Weis, the grounds at Gosieweg north of the church of Groot Kwartier. Weis is the name of the first owner of these grounds.

Quinta Violeta

Almacen Quinta Violeta was from of old a shop where really everything was for sale. Because of its location just before the entrance of the workers' camp at Suffisant it was much visited by Shell employees, who came shopping by bicycle. The shop on the present Suffisantweg and the neighbourhood are named after a smart villa that once stood in that area.

Monte Carmelo was inhabited mainly by Portuguese and Caribbean Shell workers, and Santo Domingo near Rio Canario lies at the start of the Gosieweg, by the Maternity Clinic. The streets in the former Santo Domingo, Kaya Kazerne and Kaya Militar, refer to the adjoining military barracks and are counted, depending on the utility company in question, sometimes as Monte Carmelo and sometimes as Rio Canario. Santo Domingo lies next to the former plantaadje Bloem Fontein.

Bloemfontein

Bordering Suffisant also lies the piece of land Bloemfontein, once the property of the Jonkheer family and for a long time inhabited by the Lai family, consisting of 15 children. The family was an example of how intensive agriculture combined with livestock farming could serve as the only sources of income. Besides goats and chickens, cows were also kept here. The tropical farm supplied milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables every day to Emmastad, Suffisant and surroundings. For a long time the "landhuis Bloemfontein" also stood here, which was demolished for parcelling and house building on the parcel Bloemfontein.

Facts about Suffisant

The author M.A. Visman writes in Van slaaf tot plantagehouder about the case of Piet — without surname — an enslaved person of Davis Senior, who in 1751 received from governor Faesch a part of the plantation Suffisant as property. Piet's name subsequently disappears from the archives of landowners.
Club Boneriano, where, among other things, cultural events and dance parties are organised, was formerly the military clubhouse.
Suffisantdorp/Muizenberg Bieu lies east of Surinamedorp, north of Quinta Violeta, Monte Carmelo, Santo Domingo near Rio Canario and Bloemfontein, west of Maria Maai, south of Muizenberg Nobo and Sint Jacob and behind Sabana di Huncu, or Sabana Hundu.
Formerly a rooi ran around the whole of Suffisantdorp, but it was filled in at the level of the Samira mattress factory.
Suffisantdorp had only one entrance and exit, so rascals knew exactly when the police were coming after they had played another prank.
In the present Satex building the funeral company El Tributo used to be located. Young people once stole a coffin to go sailing in the Dam of Muizenberg, which was then full of rainwater.
At the Medemapark stood a public telephone from which one could call for free.
The "lomba di dam", the big dam ridge in Muizenberg, runs from the Brokopondostraat to Maria Maai (Amerikanekamp).

*Muizenberg Bieu: see the page Rio Canario, where it is explained as Old Muizenberg, formerly called Suffisantdorp.

*Kolebra Bèrdè is an unconsecrated cemetery near Marchena, where people who had not behaved according to the prevailing Catholic and social rules, including criminals and prostitutes, were formerly buried.