Bibliographies on the Dutch Caribbean are few and far between. More important, the volumes published recently are all based on library collections in the Netherlands. A significant departure is this volume by Enid Brown, head of Loan and Reference at the University of the West Indies Library in Jamaica. She has compiled a bibliography of publications on Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba located in 12 Caribbean libraries: the UWI libraries in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados; the University of Guyana Library; the National Libraries of Jamaica and Aruba; the University of the Netherlands Antilles Library in Curaçao; the public libraries in St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Curaçao, and Bonaire; and the Anton de Kom University Library in Suriname.
This bibliography is intended for students and scholars who have not mastered Dutch—still the official language in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean islands—and it includes published and unpublished works in the humanities and social sciences written in English. In total, 1,223 entries, including 224 unverified items, are presented in alphabetical order. They include bibliographical details, assigned subject headings, and an indication of the library or libraries that hold the item. The appendixes comprise the addresses of libraries cited, a list of periodicals, a list of joint authors, and a well-designed and comprehensive topical index. The compiler and the publisher are to be commended for producing a carefully designed and easy-to-use bibliography that will undoubtedly be of great value for its intended English-language users.
A browse through these pages suggests that the 12 libraries covered hold the major English-language publications on the Dutch Caribbean. Surprisingly, apparently no periodicals from or specifically about Suriname are available in the Caribbean. (SWI Forum voor wetenschap en cultuur or Oso: tijdschrifi voor Surinaamse taalkunde, letterkunde, cultuur en geschiedenis, for example, both include occasional English-language contributions.) It is also curious that the bibliographic essays titled “Caribbean Studies,” published annually from 1985 to 1991 in the Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe (now the European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies), are included only once (the 1987 edition). The 1986 essay is listed in the “Unverified Items” section with the note “forthcoming.” Another minor point of criticism concerns the interchangeable use of the terms bush negroes and maroons, sometimes in the same entry (Silvia de Groot).
One final remark: do not judge this book by its title. Even though Aruba is not mentioned in the title, this autonomous country is covered. This is perhaps a technical point, but since 1986, Aruba has not been part of the Netherlands Antilles anymore. And no, the great majority of the entries are not annotated: a random sample of two hundred entries showed that less than 4 percent included an annotation. Nevertheless, this bibliography is a welcome contribution to Caribbean studies.
