Kaboel Karso:
A Journey of the Heart

Kaboel Karso was busy at the Javanese Diaspora Conference held in Yogyakarta on August 15-16. He was one of the panelists who shared their stories of living abroad, while trying to preserve their Javanese cultural roots. "There were people from 14 countries yet there was a strong sense of common identity among them," said Kaboel, who saw the gathering not just as a forum to exchange ideas but as a deep reservoir of rukun, or brotherhood to be harnessed.

Kaboel Karso, 58, is an ethnic Javanese from Suriname, a Dutch colony until 1975, located just north of Brazil, along South America's Atlantic coast. His concept of Javanese culture sounds different to that here. He eats saoto rather than soto (soup), and bami, with French-style vermicelli, instead of bakmi (noodle). And he is as likely to croon pop jawasongs in creolized Javanese 'that you can dance to' similar to the kroncong (Portuguese-style Indonesian music) more familiar to Indonesians.

August 25, 2015