Christa Wongsodikromo is the fourth generation Javanese-Surinamese diaspora and lives in the Netherlands. After the abolishment of Transatlantic slavery, her great-grandparents were kidnapped and trafficked from Indonesia to Surinam. During that time, Indonesia was exploited under Apartheid and Surinam was the slave colony of the Netherlands. After the abolishment of the Transatlantic slave trade, a new system of forced labour and exploitation was implemented in Surinam, which groups of people from India, China and Indonesia fell victim to.
Since 2013 at the age of 19, Christa Wongsodikromo became politically active and organized multiple anti-racist grassroots collectives in the Netherlands. She started her activism in the anti-blackface movement and countered colonial glorification by organizing protests against the Golden Coach, Efteling Theme Park, colonial statues and streetnames, the National Remembrance Day, lawsuits against blackface which have centered Dutch colonial oppression on the national agenda multiple times in the Netherlands. But her activism and initiatives have frequently put her in harm’s way. She has been the victim of state repression, like preventative arrests and unlawful restraining orders. She has been the target of threats of violence, including by convicted terrorist Vincent Teunissen.
With a multi continental identity from the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and Europe she developed a global analytical ability and as a brown woman she learnt how oppressive dynamics work on a smaller scale. She has coordinated the launch of several startups, initiatives and the political youth organization Radicaal. Christa Wongsodikromo is the secretary of the Indonesian Reparation Committee (Yayasan Komite Utang Kehormatan Belanda) and has been a significant contributor to the University of Michigan Dutch and Flemish studies program’s redesign. Through her organization Nusantara Kita, she is engaged in community building in the Indonesian community in the Netherlands. Currently she is researching her book on the Dutch residential school system in Surinam. Inspired by the vision of Indonesia’s first president Sukarno, Christa wants to contribute to his legacy of creating unity and harmony on a collective and global level.