Clarence Breeveld (11 September 1948 – 6 April 2017) was a Surinamese-born Dutch singer, guitarist and educator.

Biography

Breeveld was born on 11 September 1948 in

Nieuw-Nickerie Nieuw Nickerie. Retrieved 17 November 2009. is the third largest city in Suriname with a population estimated at . It is the capital city of the Nickerie district, and the terminus of the East-West Link. Nieuw Nickerie lies on the mouth of the N ...

, Suriname. His parents were ministers of the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

. He started to work for (the Surinamese joint venture of

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

). He started performing music at the age of 13, and performed

Kaseko Kaseko is a musical genre from Suriname. It is a fusion of numerous popular and folk styles derived from Africa, Europe and the Americas. The genre is rhythmically complex, with percussion instruments including skratji (a very large bass drum) ...

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

and

Country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

. In the mid 1960s, he won the Surinam Songfestival. In 1970, Breeveld left for the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

for his teaching degree, and started to work as a physics and chemistry teacher on

vocational schools A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational ...

. Breeveld married with whom he had previously performed as Hannah en Clarence. In 1998, Belliot would become chairperson of the

Amsterdam-Zuidoost Amsterdam-Zuidoost (; "Amsterdam-Southeast") is a borough (''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It consists of four residential neighborhoods— Bijlmermeer, Venserpolder, Gaasperdam and Driemond—as well as the Amstel III/ Bullew ...

borough. They would remain married for twenty years. He would also perform for The Spotlight and the Clarence Breeveld Formation. In 2003, Breeveld and made the documentary ''Katibo Ye Ye'' (the ghost of slavery) where he tried to find his roots by travelling to

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

, and discover more about the African part of the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

. On 12 February 2017, Breeveld performed his last concert, because he had been diagnosed terminally ill. At the concert, he was decorated Commander of the

Honorary Order of the Yellow Star The Honorary Order of the Yellow Star ( Dutch: ''Ere-Orde van de Gele Ster'') is the highest state decoration of the Republic of Suriname. The Order was instituted in 1975 at the independence of Suriname and replaced the Dutch Order of the Net ...

. Breeveld died on 6 April 2017 in

Houten Houten () is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. Population centres The municipality consists of the following towns: * 't Goy * Houten * Schalkwijk * Tull en 't Waal Houten (town) The main town in the municipality i ...

, at the age of 68.

Family

Clarence Breeveld is the brother of , and Borger Breeveld. On 13 December 2012, ''Wan Famiri'', a television documentary about how the family managed to stay close despite significant political differences, was aired on Dutch television. After the broadcast, the family distanced themselves, because the documentary was mainly about the

December murders The December murders (Dutch: ''Decembermoorden'') were the murders on 7, 8, and 9 December 1982, of fifteen prominent young Surinamese men who had criticized the military dictatorship then ruling Suriname. Thirteen of these men were arrested on De ...

and contained very little about the Breeveld family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breeveld, Clarence 1948 births 2017 deaths Surinamese male singers Surinamese musicians Surinamese expatriates in the Netherlands Dutch schoolteachers Honorary Order of the Yellow Star