Reggie Baay
(Netherlands, 1955) won much praise for his books about the njai, women in the Dutch East Indies who lived in concubinage and had children with Dutch men. He debuted in 2006 with the semi-autobiographical novel De ogen van Solo (Solo’s Eyes), dealing with the rootlessness of people from the Dutch East Indies. Gebleekte ziel (Bleached Soul, 2012) is a novel based on historical fact about the son of a Balinese nobleman sent to the Netherlands to be "bleached", to erase his indigenous identity. Daar werd wat gruwelijks verricht (Something Horrible Happened There) is a non-fiction book about the unknown history of slavery in the Dutch East Indies. In 2018 he published the documentary novel Het kind met Japanse ogen (The Child with Japanese Eyes), a personal quest and historical investigation into the life of his father.
Past events
Book of My Life: Reggie Baay
Writers tell us about their favourite book, followed by a book-signing session.
Unmasking Colonial Myths
Are we dealing with stubbornly clinging myths about colonial times, also in our literature?
Letters from Overseas
Nine authors present a letter they wrote to someone in a (former) colony, as an ode to the enslaved Wilhelmina, who sent a never-delivered but recently opened letter to her former master in 1795.
Forgotten Slavery in the Dutch East Indies
When slavery comes up, the Dutch think of Suriname and the Antilles, and not about the more than 260 years of slave trade in the Dutch East Indies. Reggie Baay wrote about this in Daar werd wat gruwelijks verricht (Something Terrible Happened There).
Around the World with Umar - Stories from Home
Umar Mirza (My Mosque is just it) talks to writers about migration. The barren cold, the great getting-used-to, we know about those aspects of migration by now. But what goes on beneath the surface? Reggie Baay, Nadia Bouras and Fidan Ekiz offer a rare view of the inside of uprooted lives. With music by the Iranian master percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazawi. In Dutch.
The Other Colonial History
Flemish author David van Reybrouck and Reggie Baay look at the perspective of people who witnessed history themselves. Historian Tjitske Lingsma, the author of het verdriet van Ambon, talks to them about their search for the other history of the colonies. In Dutch.
The world goose board
Adriaan van Dis, Cynthia McLeod, Reggie Baay and Thomas Rosenboom play the World Goose Board, led by Paul van der Gaag. A risky journey round the world, full of stories. Dutch spoken.
