The bronze bust of Nicolaas Debrot on a marble base is erected on a plaza named after him in the Punda district of Willemstad. The plaque says (translation): "Nicolaas Debrot / 1902 - 1981 / First Governor Born in the Netherlands Antilles / Writer, Lawyer and Medical Doctor / Founder of Curacao Cultural Center".
Nicolaas (Cola) Debrot (4 May 1902, Kralendijk – 3 December 1981, Amsterdam) was a writer, lawyer, medical doctor and politician. He was the son of a plantation owner. In 1904 he moved from Bonaire to Curaçao, and then when he was 14 he moved to the Netherlands to gain an education. He went to secondary school and universities in the Netherlands, he studied law and then medicine, where he also started his literary career. His debut Mijn zuster de negerin (1935) is best known. In the late 1940s, he returned to the Antilles and lived on Curaçao, where he laid the foundations of Dutch-Antillian literature. Cola Debrot has also been active as a politician. From 1962 to 1970, he was the Governor of the Netherlands Antilles, the first to be born on one of the islands. In 1970 he moved back to Netherlands to dedicate his time to writing.
Bibliography:
Prose
Mijn zuster de negerin (1935)
Senorita Campbell (1938)
Bid voor Camille Willocq (1946)
Bewolkt bestaan (1948)
De vervolgden (1982)
Verzameld werk 3. Verhalen (1986)
Verzameld werk 4. Bewolkt bestaan (1986)
Poetry
Heimwee (in eigen beheer) (1918)
Bekentenis in Toledo (1945)
Navrante zomer (1945)
De afwezigen (1952)
Tussen de grijze lijnen en andere gedichten (1970)
Verzameld werk 2. Gedichten (1985)
Theatre
De automaten (in 'Criterium', 1940)
Bokaal aan de lippen (in 'Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift', 1950)
Op zoek naar de Infanta (onvoltooid)
Verzameld werk 7. Toneel (1989)
Diaries
Dagboekbladen uit Genève (1963, herziene uitgave in 1977)
Verzameld werk 6. Dagboekbladen uit Genève. Over dans en beeldende kunst (1988)
Essays
Ars en Vita (met G.P.M. Knuvelder) (1945)
Het existentialisme, Drie voordrachten met discussie (met R.F. Beerling en Jacq. de Kadt) (1947)
Antilliaanse cahiers (1955)
Dagboekbladen uit Genève (1963)
Verzameld werk 1. Over Antilliaanse cultuur (1985)
Verzameld werk 5. Over literatuur (1987)
Verzameld werk 6. Dagboekbladen uit Genève. Over dans en beeldende kunst (1988)
Wie was Céline? Van cuirassier tot clochard (1989)
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