Johan Ferrier

Who is Johan Ferrier?

Johan Henri Eliza Ferrier was born in Paramaribo in 1910 and trained as a teacher before moving into public life. In 1946 he helped found the National Party of Suriname and co-founded the Surinamese Boy Scouts, later serving as its first Chief Scout. He earned a doctorate in education in Amsterdam in 1950 and went on to serve as Suriname's head of education and, from 1955 to 1958, as the colony's prime minister and interior minister. In 1968 he was appointed governor of Suriname, the final person to hold that colonial-era post, and when Suriname gained full independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 25 November 1975, Ferrier was sworn in as the country's first president. He served until 1980, when a military coup led by Desi Bouterse forced his resignation within months. In 1999, Suriname named him the most significant Surinamese politician of the twentieth century, and in 2005 he published his memoirs, "Last Governor, First President: The Century of Johan Ferrier, Surinamese." He died in the Netherlands in 2010 at the age of 99, having witnessed and helped shape Suriname's transition from Dutch colony to independent republic.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Johan Ferrier" · BlackPast.org, "Johan Ferrier (1910-2010)" · Johan Ferrier, Last Governor, First President: The Century of Johan Ferrier, Surinamese (2005)