Anton de Kom was one of the most important fighters for the independence of Suriname from Dutch colonial rule. 'We Slaves of Suriname', a fierce indictment of the exploitation of the country’s black population, appeared in 1934. Eighty years after first publication, it is still a highly relevant account of the consequences of slavery and oppression.

Writer and freedom fighter Anton de Kom, born in Suriname in 1898, became an influential voice in the anticolonial movement of the early twentieth century, a figure comparable to W.E.B. du Bois in the United States.