In Southeast, yesterday marked the commemoration of the great Curaçao slave revolt of 1795. One of the leaders of the revolt was the enslaved Tula, and after the ceremony, a statue of him was unveiled.
For a long time, Tula was portrayed as a criminal. After the revolt, he was forced to sign a false statement claiming that he wanted to kill white people in Curaçao. Eventually, Tula, along with many other rebelling slaves, was executed by the colonial government. However, the revolt in 1795 marked a turning point in the history of slavery in the Caribbean, explains Dyonna Benett, a specialist in multicultural heritage.
The Tula Revolt “On his initiative, and with the help of several allies, not only from Curaçao but also from surrounding Caribbean islands, various movements and organizations were formed to fight for the freedom of the enslaved people in Curaçao,” says Benett.
“The conditions were already bad, but they became even worse. For example, they had to work on Sundays and received little to eat. So that was one of the reasons why the revolt broke out,” adds Mitchell Esajas from The Black Archives.
Fighting for Equality Tula had a significant impact on the history of Curaçao, and that impact is still felt today.
“What we see today is that Tula fought for equality,” says Benett. “For the ideals of freedom. Even though we feel he did a lot for us, those are ideals we still strive for today. There is still no justice and no equality everywhere.”
Education on Slavery History According to Esajas and Benett, it’s also important for Amsterdam residents to learn more about Tula. Education plays a crucial role in this. “We’ve developed these posters so that children and students can learn to look at history—and the present—through different perspectives. History books have been written from a very one-sided and Eurocentric point of view,” says Esajas.
Benett agrees: “School is the first and most important step in education. How come I don’t identify with the history of slavery when it’s the history of my ancestors? Because we haven’t sufficiently addressed the history of slavery in our education.”