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Migrants reveal their literary talent

On Tuesday evening two migrants to the canton, Sigit Susanto from Indonesia (on the left in the photograph) and Kanber Colak from Kurdistan, read out some extracts of their literary works in front of a captivated audience in the city's Altstadthalle. The evening was organised by the Zug Integration Network to look into the aspect of what it is like writing when living abroad and how living in Switzerland changes the way expatriates regard their home country.
 
Shortly after his arrival in Switzerland, Susanto recalled how he could not believe how difficult it was just to be able to get a permit to fish in Lake Zug. "It was such a complicated procedure, almost as bad as applying for university. I just had to accept that different countries have different customs," he said. Actually, presenter of the evening Manuel Gysi was well able to understand the frustration expressed and added, "I come from Stein am Rhein in the canton of Schaffhausen, where you have to take an examination before you go fishing."
 
Zug-resident Susanto was born in 1963 on the island of Java in Indonesia and got to know his Swiss wife when he was working as a travel guide. He has been writing for some time, both stories for Indonesian magazines as well as travel guides. What is more he has even translated "The Trial" by Franz Kafka into Indonesian.
 
Kanber Colak, who was born in 1977 in a Kurdish area of eastern Turkey, has lived in Zug since 2005 and works as a translator for the Caritas charity organisation in Lucerne. "It is not just a matter of translating the words, it is about interpreting the culture, too."
 
He began writing following his experiences as an immigrant to Switzerland and on Tuesday evening he read out a letter he had written to his yet unborn daughter. "You will not find out that you are a foreigner until you attend kindergarten. Yes, you will be born here, but you will not be from here. Don't worry, you will be able to talk of having two places you call home. You will be able to speak Kurdish and High German."
 
Gysi was interested to know, as on Swiss census forms, in what language both speakers thought, to which Susanto replied that he wrote in Indonesian first. "Fantasy is always better in your mother tongue," he said and added that friends then help with the translation into German.
 
Colak added that it was all very well encouraging migrants to attend German lessons but it was not so easy if you have no contact with the locals. "You need friends or colleagues at work to be able to learn the language properly," he said. 
 
In continuing his tale about the fishing permit, Susanto explained that he had wanted to go fishing with some friends who had come over from Indonesia. They were enjoying themselves one evening with much laughter when a neighbour told them to be quiet. "It was then that I started telling ghost stories," said Susanto. "Nobody laughed anymore. You cannot say we do not bow to what the locals want," a remark which went down very well with Tuesday night's audience.
 
In fact Susanto would like to found a literary club for foreigners who have moved to Zug, so that once a month they can present the texts they have written in their own language and perhaps to help each other with the translation into German.
 
He has already been successful in organising an "interactive reading action" when last summer people were able to pick off poems written on pieces of paper placed in the railings of the deer enclosure by Lake Zug, or, if they wished, write one. The event proved very popular with local author Max Huwyler and many passers-by and will take place again this coming August.
 
Anyone interested in the activities of a literary group can find further information on www.integrationsnetz.org and through info@integrationsnetz.org 
 
 
 
 


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