Curaçao’s national hero Tula received official rehabilitation from the Dutch government on Wednesday. Outgoing State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen of Kingdom Relations (D66) spoke a speech in Willemstad posthumously rehabilitated the leader of the slave revolt of 1795. She also announced the establishment of a Tula scholarship and a chair in the history of slavery.
Tula was gruesomely executed by the Dutch colonial rulers for his opposition to slavery. “The Dutch government fully recognizes the justice of Tula’s struggle, and that of others who oppose slavery, and looks with regret and shame at the way in which they were treated by historical, administrative predecessors,” Van Huffelen said.
Tula started an uprising against the Dutch oppressors on August 17, 1795 and demanded freedom and equality, partly inspired by the French Revolution a few years earlier and the release of enslaved people in Haiti. He marched with a rebel army of about two thousand slaves to the governor in Willemstad, but the rebellion was quickly suppressed.
Gruesome torture
A few weeks later, Tula was betrayed and arrested and then horribly tortured. Tied to a cross on the square at Fort Amsterdam, where Van Huffelen gave her speech, all his bones were broken.
On October 3, 1795, he was beheaded and his head was placed on a stick to deter supporters. Two fellow fighters were also tortured to death and dozens of others hanged.
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Van Huffelen acknowledged in her speech that Tula’s wish to break free from slavery was “justified”, that the means he used were “permissible” and that his gruesome execution was “a crime”.
Prime Minister Pisas: unique opportunity for emancipation process
According to the ANP news agency, Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas of Curaçao accepts Tula’s rehabilitation, as stated by the State Secretary. “This is a prerequisite for the healing process and the material and intangible repair that must take place,” he said. Pisas calls the rehabilitation a unique opportunity for the emancipation process of the Afro-Caribbean population of Curaçao.
The rehabilitation was actually supposed to take place a day earlier, exactly 228 years after Tula’s execution, but the ceremony was stopped halfway through due to bad weather. The rehabilitation was already announced at the end of last year when Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized on behalf of the government for the history of slavery.
“This rehabilitation comes late, too late, and did not come by itself,” Van Huffelen said on Wednesday. She praised the “unbridled efforts of a large group of Curaçaoans” who have committed themselves to this.
King Willem-Alexander: Tula arouses admiration and respect
After Van Huffelen’s speech, Governor Lucille George-Wout of Curaçao read a letter from King Willem-Alexander, who writes that Tula symbolizes “the strength of Curaçao”. According to the king, he “arouses admiration and respect for his courage and his leadership, for his resistance to degrading exploitation and for the ideals with which he was ahead of his time.”
After his death, Tula was described as a criminal for centuries and was not included in history education in schools for a long time. In Curaçao he was declared a national hero in 2010 and now Van Huffelen recognizes him on behalf of the Dutch government as a “hero of Curaçao and of all of us”.
With the Tula scholarship that the State Secretary announced, a Curaçao student can follow a bachelor’s degree in history teaching in the Netherlands every year for the next four years with a contribution towards study costs. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten will also be offered a chair in the history of slavery for the next two years.