Curaçao author and pro-independence fighter Frank Martinus Arion, RIP

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

Writer Frank Martinus Arion dies

Today, 16:09

The Dutch Antillean writer Frank Martinus Arion (78) has died. He died last night after a brief illness at the hospital in Willemstad.

Arion wrote in Dutch and Papiamento. His most famous book is Dubbelspel (Double Play), his first novel from 1973. …

Arion was the doyen of literature in Curaçao, says correspondent Dick Drayer. He was politically active and supported the independence struggle. He was also an advocate of Papiamento. On the origins of this language, he wrote a thesis on which he graduated at the University of Amsterdam.

In 2008 he gave his royal medal back in protest against the “recolonization process” by the Netherlands. He felt that the Dutch government interfered too much in Curaçao.

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