WILLEMSTAD – Tula and the 1795 uprising have secured an important place in Curaçao's history education, but a new study concludes that students are still receiving an incomplete picture of resistance to slavery and colonialism, with many local stories and freedom fighters largely absent from the classroom.
The report, "Vergeten verhalen, Verzwegen verleden" ("Forgotten Stories, Silenced Past"), examines how anti-colonial resistance heroes and freedom fighters are represented in primary, secondary and special education in both the European and Caribbean parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The study was carried out following a 2022 motion in the Dutch Parliament calling for stories of anti-colonial resistance to be researched, archived and ultimately given a more prominent place in education. The research was financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and conducted through cooperation involving the Verwey-Jonker Institute, Movisie and the University of Aruba. Curaçao was among the six Caribbean islands examined.
One of the clearest findings is that Tula stands apart from almost every other resistance figure from the Dutch Caribbean.
The report describes the 1795 Curaçao uprising led by Tula as the principal recurring story of colonial resistance to slavery in Caribbean Kingdom education. In Curaçao and Sint Maarten's shared secondary education objectives, the uprising is mandatory material.
However, researchers found that no other stories about resistance heroes or heroines are specifically required alongside it.
That creates an unusual situation: Curaçao has succeeded in giving Tula a formal place in education, while the wider history surrounding resistance on the island remains considerably less developed.
The researchers conclude that local anti-colonial resistance stories are underrepresented in educational objectives throughout the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. They also found a shortage of updated local teaching materials specifically designed around Caribbean history and the experiences of Caribbean students.
The problem becomes particularly visible when Dutch textbooks are used.
According to the study, teaching materials originating in the European Netherlands devote considerably more attention to colonial history in Indonesia and Suriname than to the six Caribbean islands.
Tula is the major exception.
In the Dutch educational material analyzed by the researchers, Tula appeared ten times. Indonesian independence leader Sukarno appeared 27 times and Mohammed Hatta 12 times, while Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker appeared 14 times.
The researchers argue that resistance by enslaved people is also frequently overshadowed by the role attributed to abolitionist movements in Europe and North America.
They characterize that approach as Eurocentric and inconsistent with more recent historical scholarship.
The researchers nevertheless found examples in Curaçao of schools attempting to correct the imbalance themselves.
At one Protestant primary school visited by the researchers, the Dutch Brandaan method was being used. According to the report, that method contains no coverage of slavery or resistance stories from the Dutch Caribbean islands.
Many Curaçao schools, however, use locally assembled material.
The report specifically mentions the "Mens & maatschappij" teaching package, which provides extensive coverage of slavery and the 1795 uprising.
Importantly, its treatment goes beyond Tula.
Students are introduced to Louis Mercier and Bastiaan Carpata, while the uprising is traced from plantation Knip to Santa Cruz and Porto Marie.
The material also introduces Johanna Lesire, the white plantation owner who, according to the teaching material described by the researchers, sheltered the rebels and encouraged their struggle for freedom.
The researchers identify her as a unique female figure in Dutch Caribbean slavery history.
The material also connects the uprising with the present, including the establishment of August 17 as Dia di Lucha pa Libertat, the Day of the Freedom Struggle.
The overall problem, according to the researchers, is therefore not that Curaçao completely ignores its history.
Rather, local initiatives exist alongside an education system in which comprehensive and regularly updated Curaçao-centered material is still insufficient.
The report also finds that attention to female resistance figures is minimal throughout the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.
Teachers interviewed for the research said they were aware of this imbalance and wanted greater representation of women.
Researchers ultimately conclude that students across the Caribbean part of the Kingdom are curious about resistance in their own surroundings and even within their family histories, but that this curiosity frequently remains unanswered.
The report calls for governments, educational institutions and researchers to work together to identify more local resistance figures, document their histories and incorporate them into teaching.
For Curaçao, Tula therefore appears to represent both an achievement and an indication of what remains missing.
His story has become compulsory history. The report's central question is why so many of the people who resisted alongside him — and others who challenged slavery and colonialism at different moments in Curaçao's history — have not received comparable attention.