"Most Dutch people do not know our heroes of black resistance"

The Black Archives, the historic black heritage archive, are doing well. As one of the winners of the 2018 Kunst Amsterdamprijs voor competition (35,000 euros), the three initiators will be able to make bigger steps towards their goal, making visible the hidden history of Blacks .

The Black Archives, along with speakers such as Fresku and Akwasi, will be on the program of the Night of History at the Rijksmuseum on Saturday 27 October. For example, the black perspective seems to be more part of the shared story. But the feeling about it is twofold, says Miguel Heilbron (35), one of the founders. "On the one hand, I'm proud and happy with what we've been able to achieve over the last three years, and on the other hand, it's very sad to have had to organize it individually. our stories do not already belong to the collective memory. "

The co-founder of the archive Mitchell Esajas (30 years) adds:" The Rijksmuseum could and should have told us what we are doing Most Dutch people know Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but they have never heard of our own black resistance heroes, such as Otto and Hermina Huiswoud. "

The Black Archives are located on the top floor of the Vereniging Ons Suriname in Amsterdam. In the spacious building of the Zeeburgerdijk, the big boxers of the exhibition Black and Revolutionary: The History of Otto and Hermina Huiswoud are set aside for the next exhibition. "Otto and Hermina are black heroes of the resistance of the 50s," says initiator Jessica de Abreu (29). "We think it's important not only to address the history of blacks with slavery.There was also resistance."

Also read this interview on The Black Archives of 2016: How do you colonize the library?

Heilbron: "Otto Huiswoud was one of the founders of the Communist Party in the United States, he was also politically active in the Netherlands, and he transformed Ons Suriname from a" social club "into a socially responsible society. committed. "From Abreu:" In the Surinamo-Dutch history, the abolition of slavery and the period after the great wave of migration of the 1970s. The Black Archives will fill the void well in recent years. years. "

School Visits

The Historical Archives are a collection of thousands of books and documents, from private collections, partly purchased, donated in part. "Part of the archive has not been opened yet," says De Abreu. Between the shelves, there are tables with different objects with which the story is made tangible. An enlarged letter strangely resembles a check. "This is a bill of exchange.With this letter, when slavery was abolished, the owners were compensated by the Dutch state for taking possession of their property, enslaved. Slaves have not had anything, so you see how white Dutch people have been systematically favored, and sometimes people say it's so far away, but we still carry the names of these owners. slaves. "

The Rijksmuseum also has this letter, says De Abreu. "But we also say that emancipation was also fought, as during the uprising of Tula slaves in Curacao in 1795. You do not hear that over there."

This is the legacy of Miguel Heilbron's parents who initiated the current archives. With his brother Thiemo, Heilbron sought ways to make his collection of books accessible to the public. They partnered with the New Urban Collective network organization. They had already noticed a poignant shortage of educational material on the African diaspora and the history of Afro-Caribbean people.

"It is strange that our stories do not already belong to the collective memory"

With the creation of The Black Archives in 2015, they decided to tell the stories themselves. School visits and the development of teaching materials still occupy a large part of the time. From Abreu: "We do it with love, it's a sense of urgency, a necessity, to tell stories.The problems you now encounter in the public debate are inextricably linked to the past." [19659010] Zwarte Piet

Esajas: "To be honest, three years ago, we had no idea how much material we would find." It's nice to see the debates that are going on right now, Black Pete's example and the police violence directed against minorities, were well before our time. "From Abreu:" Our place in the program of the Rijksmuseum is not hopeless. "For decades, the militants have been fighting for to make our common history better known. "

They are often asked the following question: are the Black Archives they an activist act e? Esajas: "If you say that museums have ignored parts of history for decades, or that Zwarte Piet is a racist caricature, society sees it as an activist." De Abreu: "But there are bigger problems: what does democracy look like for people of color in the Netherlands?" How can we let it take on its full dimension so that everyone can enjoy the Freedom and Equality? "

Racism has become much more visible online, according to Esajas. "You see that white nationalists have gained more self-confidence in recent years, that they have dared to block the road and be as proud of this act …"

Ephemeral Exhibition

Heilbron : "It's worrying.And also that they are confirmed in the mainstream media.We want to show context.The Dutch history has resulted in slavery for hundreds of years. period, racial learning has also developed, on Whites as superior, blacks as inferior.That has been spreading for hundreds of years, "says Heilbron. "After the enslavement, the images are still gone, it is impossible for us to have a minister who literally refers to the racial doctrine and gets it cheaply." Apparently, there is too little of knowledge to condemn this. "

Images of the exhibition that The Black Archives shows on Friday, as a preview of an exhibition next year.

So The Black Archives remains hard-working, looking for ways to make marginalized perspectives visible. This Friday, the pop-up exhibition Our Tori, stories of Surinamese citizens in the Netherlands opens its doors on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Vereniging Ons Suriname. They also responded to the open call launched by the Municipality of Amsterdam to propose a national museum of slavery. De Abreu: "Vereniging Ons Suriname has already hosted several exhibitions and we want to continue to build on this with our partners.Today, we still work mainly with volunteers, but it is a real museum, with a room for debate and dialogue and a coffee for a good cup of coffee.It's finally our dream. "

The exhibition" Our tori, Surinamese stories to the Country – One hundred years of Vereniging Ons Suriname was published on 26/10 (between 18:30 and 22:00), year at the Black Archives, Amsterdam, inl: theblackarchives.nl