Distancing and Colonial Design: Segregated Asylums to Control Leprosy in Suriname

This chapter is about the dynamic architecture of leprosy control in Dutch colonial Suriname, focusing on two leprosy asylums: one from the period of slavery (Batavia) and one ‘modern’, postslavery establishment (Bethesda). A ‘cordon sanitaire’ was constructed from the mid-18th century onward around leprosy sufferers (mainly African slaves and, after the abolition of slavery in 1863, their descendants and Asian indentured laborers). A ‘spatial architecture’, reminiscent of modern ‘social distancing’, was intended to segregate leprosy sufferers from others. From 1791 until the end of the 19th century, this segregation took place in remote primitive establishments in the rainforest. The last decade of the 19th century witnessed the opening of modern leprosaria, resembling small villages, with one exception again situated in the rainforest. In all asylums, a ‘colonial gaze’ was directed at the patients. The cordon sanitaire mirrored the social distancing and stigmatization of leprosy patients in the macrocosm of the Surinamese society, at the same time reflecting the social distancing (based on class and color) in colonial Suriname related to colonial power relations. The daily life of the patients was linked with both the racially stigmatized microcosm of the leprosy colonies and with the natural environment. The water and the jungle around the settlements constituted natural barriers, acting as the envisaged cordon sanitaire, discouraging patients from running away. The health control regime was, however, not always accepted by patients and their families, who acted out their own agency both in the rather chaotic Batavia asylum and in the more orderly modern Bethesda asylum.