Second round for Open Call Slavery Memorial Year: 52 grants

The book ‘Reparations: een zoektocht naar rechtvaardigheid en verzoening’ (Reparations: A Search for Justice and Reconciliation) by Antoine Deul deals with the historical context of the call for financial compensation and other forms of reparations with regard to the slavery past. The book offers Afro-Caribbean and African philosophical perspectives on reparations and (restorative) justice, where it not only concerns money but also repairing disrupted relationships and structural inequalities.

Brandy Snamoeradi is developing a podcast series focusing on the meaning of Sranantongo within the Surinamese diaspora in the Netherlands. The podcast allows for an easy format in which Dutch people with a Surinamese background can share contemporary identity-forming experiences. Each episode features an expert who explains the importance and development of the language.

The project Sound System Ecologies: Music and Visual Culture in the Dutch Kingdom & South Africa addresses questions associated with music, slavery and Black spirituality. It reflects on the impact of forced displacement and enslavement combined with sound in the former Dutch colonial lands and waterscapes. Through listening sessions, conversations and film screenings, the applicants aim to chart the origins and routes of Dutch influence on the social engineering of slavery, apartheid and colonialism.

‘Resignifications: Dark Matter’ is a seven-day interdisciplinary and experimental exhibition and art event that will take place in May 2024 at various locations in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The event combines arts and academic and cultural programmes. It is organised by the DARKMATTER Collective, New York University and Harvard University. The exhibitions and conferences will explore the themes of L’Ouverture, Matter, Fabulation, Polis, Euphoria and Coda.

Eternity Percussion is currently in the process of developing the musical theatre performance ‘Kwasi & Yaw’. During this performance, the actors will theatrically demonstrate the evolution of African percussion, culture and traditions that have been uniquely shaped by the slavery past in both Suriname and the Netherlands.

Het Grote Caribische Verhalenboek contains short stories (both fiction and non-fiction), youth poetry and spoken word texts. The stories focus on the Caribbean part of the kingdom and Suriname, including legends (Kompa Nanzi, Bula Bai), heroes/heroines (Tula, Boni, Broos, Dementricia, Lokhay), contemporary stories and Caribbean nature. The book highlights not only the colonial history, but also the strength and richness of the Caribbean.

Friedrich van der Hans’ publication ‘LAB_Volume One’ deals with the Aruban carnival. It aims to contribute to the archiving and documenting of Aruba’s cultural heritage. It presents a broad picture of Aruban carnival through photographic, audio-visual, oral documentation and scholarly research.

Makuta njo dunia (Money Rules the World) is a multi-faceted project in which research, artistic and editorial production and a public programme are scheduled to be developed between the summer of 2023 and 2024. It will focus on the development of the economy of the transatlantic slave trade and its effects on the growing economy in Europe and specifically the Netherlands. Following research in archives and institutions in the Netherlands and Angola, the project will continue with an educational programme that will lead to a children’s book, a website, a periodical and an exhibition combining new work with museum collections.

This project concerns the reworking of an existing piece by Het Volksoperahuis about the tambú by Curaçao actor/rapper Aldaïr Pieters. The story will be told in different musical styles, similar to other performances by the People’s Opera House. The Caribbean musical canon serves as a starting point here.

‘Kwakoe tori’ is the follow-up to the project ‘Baroque between Utrecht and Paramaribo’, which Holland Baroque realised in 2022. ‘Kwakoe tori’ focuses on an important Surinamese heritage: a whole repertoire of folk songs that, in new arrangements, and framed by relevant stories, will be given a wider audience. More specifically, the project will feature at least five concerts in Suriname and the Netherlands and a curriculum for schools.

Ida Does is a writer of the children’s book Virginia, the first release in the children’s book series AFEFE STORIES, featuring illustrations by Danielle Nijboer. In this series, women play leading roles. The characters lived through slavery under Dutch colonialism. The series explores the historical role of Black women and women of colour.

The Jazz & Vrijheid festival is an initiative of the JOC and Delamar Theatre Amsterdam and is dedicated to the Slavery Past Memorial Year. The aim is to provide a musical perspective on our slavery past: jazz as freedom music.

This project by Joss Umuganwa aims to bring the Rwanda Dancers Group (consisting of 12 people) to the Netherlands to perform the dance in honour of the Rwandan King Rwabugiri.

‘Een Verboden Liefde: One Man Pop-up Spoken Word Roadshow’ (Hidden Love: One Man-Pop-up Spoken Word Roadshow) is a spoken word and educational project. It aims to create awareness and promote knowledge about the slavery past and colonisation through a personal and symbolic love story.

The project Sound System Ecologies: Music and Visual Culture in the Dutch Kingdom & South Africa addresses questions associated with music, slavery and Black spirituality. It reflects on the impact of forced displacement and enslavement combined with sound in the former Dutch colonial lands and waterscapes. Through listening sessions, conversations and film screenings, Lynnéé en Chandra aim to chart the origins and routes of Dutch influence on the social engineering of slavery, apartheid and colonialism.

Mart Radio will be discussing the impact of the slavery past in her familiar, critically connecting way. Scholars, hands-on experts, young and old, male and female, in all respects diverse panels of participants will be invited to discuss this topic live with an audience in the studio. The aim is to break the fatalism with which repercussions are usually discussed in Afro-Caribbean circles and to arrive at a new, liberating and progressive perspective, starting from the agency of ancestors.

Maurice Lede is creating a documentary (series) exploring intergenerational trauma using his own family history and surname.

Het Grote Caribische Verhalenboek (The Great Caribbean Storybook) contains short stories (both fiction and non-fiction), youth poetry and spoken word texts. The stories focus on the Caribbean part of the kingdom and Suriname, including legends (Kompa Nanzi, Bula Bai), heroes/heroines (Tula, Boni, Broos, Dementricia, Lokhay), contemporary stories and Caribbean nature. The book highlights not only the colonial history, but also the strength and richness of the Caribbean.

Moria will be realising several activities throughout the memorial year. These include a compilation of Surinamese (visual) arts on the history of slavery, a theatre performance by cultural association Angalampoe, a cabaret performance by Dino Burnet, Dance (Soko), combined lectures and dance, and a master class in headscarf tying.

Museum Sophiahof will be organising the programme Luisteren naar de Stilte (Listening to Silence). The aim of the programme is to make the history of slavery in Asia and its effects on the present open to discussion, increase general knowledge about it, discuss the vulnerabilities of the slavery past, promote dialogue about it and foster mutual understanding among all stakeholders.

This project by Nationaal Archeologisch-Antropologisch Memoriebeheer will highlight the cultural legacy of Afro-Curaçaoans by searching for their living quarters, their kunukus, their cemeteries and sites related to their struggle for freedom. Living spaces are the locations where they resided, worked, fought to survive and where they came together to celebrate life. This will result in the first visualisation in the form of a digital and physical map of the community’s imprint on the cultural landscape of Curaçao during the colonial period from approx. 1540 until 1954.

Peggy Gemerts will be supported for peripheral programming related to the film Oema foe Sranan (Women of Suriname).

Podium Mozaïek is developing an in-depth programme throughout the Slavery Past Memorial Year. The programme consists of three parts: an in-house stage (co-)production, a podcast series and peripheral programming accompanying relevant performances.

This project serves as a research and presentation of the struggle for women’s suffrage and particularly the Damanam di Djarason (‘Wednesday Women’) in 1940s Curaçao. The research will culminate in a documentary, a play and a publication.

Raynel Ceclia will be creating a documentary about the music group Kanta Orkidia in Rincon on Bonaire. The documentary highlights the importance of this group and how its significance has changed over time. Living members of the group will be interviewed, alongside additional material in the film.

In collaboration, Razia Barsatie and Sarojini Lewis will be creating a new installation about the inner labyrinth. This installation contains elements related to memories of their personal connection with Hindu Surinamese culture. A sense of decay and layered domestic association of the home in the context of Suriname forms the starting point for this project. In the conceptual approach, the inner labyrinth will serve as a route.

Rebecca Baatjes developed a podcast series exploring the identity of Cape Creoles/people of colour from the Cape region in South Africa. The podcast focuses on creatives and journalists with Cape Town Coloured/Cape Creole ancestry, featuring themes of land & space, language, culture and identity & music.

Romana Vrede’s project ‘Tijd Zal Ons Leren’ (TZOL, Time Will Tell) currently consists of a podcast series, an online talk show, various columns and a theatre performance in collaboration with theatre company Het Nationale Theater. This project takes the form of a TV programme focusing on travel (fiction/non-fiction/documentary).

The project ‘DE BONI’S’ by ROSE Stories and co-production partners Theater Bellevue and Theater aan de Rijn takes on the form of an investigation into the communities of escaped enslaved people in the interior of Suriname. The programme features research in the Netherlands and Suriname (desk research, interviews, local visits), artistic research with the artistic team and local communities, the presentation of research results in the form of introductory and follow-up talks, community building (through local outreach) and concluding with the performance ‘DE BONI’S’ (which is not part of the application).

Rovendley Welvaart is developing “Embracing the Past: An Immersive Journey Through Curacao’s Slavery History”, an innovative, interactive and immersive video installation. The aim of this installation is to bring to life the experiences of enslaved people on Curaçao and inform visitors about the complex history of slavery on the island in order to increase empathy and understanding.

For Sulawati, Sabrina Sugiarto researched the Surinamese folk tales about the Watramama (mermaid) and wrote a children’s book about it. Several Watramama are depicted through folk tales. The book tells a layered story of Surinamese culture, history, legends and myths.

In collaboration, Razia Barsatie and Sarojini Lewis will be creating a new installation about the inner labyrinth. This installation contains elements related to memories of their personal connection with Hindustani Surinamese culture. A sense of decay and layered domestic association of the home in the context of Suriname forms the starting point for this project. In the conceptual approach, the inner labyrinth will serve as a route.

With Het Sap Trekken uit Slavernij (Removing the Sap from Slavery), young people are informed about the skills used during slavery, with the aim of learning personal lessons for their own development. Despite the situation, both the enslaved and slave traders worked together to achieve goals. Young people are given the opportunity to share their thoughts, feelings and beliefs.

With this project, Sithabile Mlotshwa aims to generate more attention for the hidden slavery past in the Gelderland region and to show that the colonial and slavery past are intertwined, overlapping and interconnected. Sithabile Mlotshwa’s aim is to visualise the silence of the presence and absence of those who profited from slavery and colonialism in Gelderland. The final work will be presented during the week of Keti Koti in 2024, in the form of a visual archive and installation.

With the project First Nation Creolisation, SKOR Kòrso will be creating a collaborative sculpture in the landscape of Groot Sint Joris, which is being developed by Avantia Damberg, Monika Dahlberg and Giovanni Abath. The sculpture will pay homage to the peoples oppressed during the colonial period, including the First Nation people and enslaved Africans. In addition, two individual works have also been developed by Dahlberg and Damberg, which will be displayed on the premises of Brakkeput Ariba, a country house near a former plantation.

The project ‘De Laatste Verhaaldragers’ (The Last Storytellers) involves an installation of video portraits of interviews with the people living today on and around the former Alkmaar plantation along the Commewijne river in Suriname. This multimedia work of art visualises the historical colonial and current ties between Suriname and the Netherlands, highlighting many colonial relics, such as language, street names, place names, landscape and the DNA of the inhabitants. The installation will take a spot in the permanent presentations of the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar and Verhalenmuseum Frederiksdorp in Suriname.

Through the use of literature, the Utrecht Library, Tori Oso and Keti Koti Utrecht will jointly organise a programme in which the aim is to introduce all the people of Utrecht to the history of the shared slavery past. The four programme components of this project include a pop-up library during the annual Keti Koti celebration in Utrecht, ‘Het nachtkastje van…’ (The bedside table of…): curated Keti Koti bookshelves in 7 library branches, Keti Koti book surprise bags, and a Buku Nanga Kuku series including XL-edition Buku Nanga Kuku (Book with cake).

In collaboration with director Ida Does Productions, Stichting Blue Passaat is realising a documentary film and related programme. The documentary tells the story of Professor Philomena Essed, who in 1984 became the first Black scientist to explore racism in Dutch society with her book Alledaags Racisme and by bringing up the subject in a scientific publication.

EDUZA Foundation is creating the project ‘Papa Koenders ideeën en werk – Exhibition, Lecture and Conversation’. Through this project, Stichting Eduza will be explaining that the core of Koenders’ struggle was to create awareness and be liberated from the colonial mentality after hundreds of years of slavery, with a particularly important role for Sranan Tongo. The project serves as a means of forming one’s own identity and spiritual emancipation.

Mapping Slavery is a public history project, located at the intersection of history and heritage. The aim is to chart the Dutch slavery past as it unfolded in the various cities and countryside in the Netherlands itself as well as in the various former colonies. This edition will be focusing on Curaçao and Cape Town.

Stichting Ocean Film Productions is developing a documentary about Albert Helman. According to Features, the film will not follow the classic pattern of interview excerpts interspersed with image material of the protagonist, city and country, but will be underpinned by Features’ own texts below the image material, counter voices that his texts evoke and short staged acting excerpts. A narrator’s voice will provide historical context.

As part of commemorative year of the abolition of slavery, singer, songwriter, theatre producer Izaline Calister, in collaboration with the Stichting Parea, will be developing a musical theatre performance about her great-grandmother Juliet (1836-1875), who lived through both the period of slavery and its abolition. Introduced with a documentary by Thijs Borsten and Izaline Calister about Tula (the leader of Curaçao’s largest slave revolt), the performance aims to link personal history with public history.

Stichting Schouwburg Aruba is currently working on a multidisciplinary project, focusing on a multidisciplinary theatre performance, spoken word, music, a podcast series, audiovisual material and a multi-purpose programme booklet.

Stichting Tong Tong is an exhibition at the Tong Tong Fair in The Hague, where visitors are introduced to the history of slavery in the Indonesian archipelago through five different themes: scope & descent, labour, resistance, women & children and legacy & reflection. Room is given for reflection and visitors are encouraged to contemplate on this past and their own position in relation to it.

The SSG 2023-2024 Project Plan ‘Surinamers uit de schaduw van de geschiedenis; “Over ‘verborgen’ groepen en episodes”‘ (Surinamese From the Shadow of History: “On ‘hidden’ groups and episodes”’) by the Foundation for Surinamese Genealogy (SSG) includes the preparation, implementation and evaluation of various activities, such as the Great Konmakandra on 7 October 2023, several Mini-Konmakandra throughout the year, exhibitions at the annual meeting and in libraries, lectures and the development and broadcast of the podcast by active volunteers of the SSG.

Stichting Wooko Makandie is responsible for new work in collaboration with Maroon artists from the Netherlands and Suriname, local people in Diitabikie and surrounding regions, and Aukan Maroon youth to express stories about the history of slavery and its repercussions. The story of women who brought rice grains with them during their escape has long been underexposed and forms the subject of this project.

Meet Su Meet Us will be the opening exhibition of the Suriname Museum in Amsterdam. It will form the basis for the Suriname Museum’s core exhibition. Here visitors will be introduced to the shared history and present of Suriname and the Surinamese diaspora in an accessible way, featuring a multidisciplinary collection consisting of artworks, archival documents, artefacts, objects, video, compilations of oral traditions, educational programmes, interactive games and peripheral programming.

The art film ‘When I’m weak, I’m strong’ focuses on comparing and differentiating men of colour, who have arrived from ex-colonies and, as products of the new world, are still directly or indirectly dealing with deep-rooted consequences of the slavery past. This abstract film depicts the complexity of vulnerability among men of colour, raises awareness about this underexposed issue and demonstrates that men opening up emotionally does not make them weak, but rather strengthens them.

Untold will be realising the theatre performance ‘UMA’. The performance is about African women in resistance during the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. The story highlights these women’s struggle against slavery and colonial rule in the Caribbean, South America and the continent of Africa.

The project Kiminá involves a multidisciplinary Tambú performance with music, dance, storytelling and spirituality. Vernon Chatlein will be exploring the various cultural and historical connections around the Afro-Caribbean folk expression Tambú through practice-based research. Viewers will be challenged to recontextualise the Tambú as folklore and as an art form.

Using art as a catalyst, the annual What You See Festival on gender and identity in Utrecht radically captures the imagination, showcases alternatives to the status quo and creates a collective quest for a more inclusive society. In 2023, their main theme will be ‘Old roots, new grounds’, where the combination of gender and cultural background will play a central part. The activities address the degrading exploitation and trafficking of adults and children and its impact on modern society. A focus programme with layered perspectives will be organised, focusing on the impact of the colonial past on the present and looking ahead to the future.

Freedom Trough Healing is an interactive concert at ‘t Zonnehuis in Amsterdam. This event allowed for open dialogue between black women professional and hands-on experts who are specialised in (generational) healing of trauma in combination with music.