11 Facts About Maxi Linder

Maxi Linder the alias used by Wilhelmina Rijburg was a well-known and influential Surinamese prostitute.

Maxi Linder's father was a gold prospector who worked the inland riverbeds and she was raised in town by her mother.

Maxi Linder used her earnings to facilitate the education of impoverished students, who she often discovered on the streets forced to work, rather than attend school.

Many of her charges were sent to school in Suriname, while others were educated in the Netherlands, with Maxi Linder sending money abroad with sailors to pay for their education.

Flamboyant, and refusing to apologize for her chosen profession, Maxi Linder walked the streets in colorful costumes, servicing dignitaries and businessmen of the upper levels of society.

At the age of sixty-eight, Maxi Linder retired from prostitution and became a madame, running an escort service which catered to high-powered clients.

Maxi Linder used her influence to gain financial independence, and bought a home in a respectable neighborhood.

Maxi Linder demanded that prostitutes be respected as workers and legally protected, even insisting that the police prosecute a client who had resorted to violence.

Maxi Linder died on 14 January 1981 in Paramaribo and was buried in the New Peace and Labor Cemetery on Jagernath Lachmon Street.

Maxi Linder adapted the book into a play in 2000 and in 2010 created a musical version.

An organization founded after Accord's death gives tours in Paramaribo to school children and tourists of the places Maxi Linder lived and worked.