Teachers would like to discuss the history of slavery carefully, but struggle with it. According to the National Institute for the History of Slavery and Heritage (NiNsee), schoolbooks are often one-sided and the subject feels charged. As a result, the story too often gets stuck in the classroom with plantations and the year of abolition. What is missing is the human aspect and the influence of this past on the present. That is why there was a special day for teachers in Breda on Wednesday with lectures and workshops, because teachers ‘really want to do this well’.
For citizenship teacher Michael Esajas from Rijen and teacher trainer Lucata Linga from Tilburg, one question is central: how do you make the history of slavery meaningful for all students? Both participated in the education day in De Nieuwe Veste in Breda and saw how working methods and conversations can make the subject personal and accessible.
“The day gives tools to open the conversation instead of avoiding it,” says Esajas. Linga adds: “When you explore with students where their families come from, history suddenly becomes personal. Then it is not just about ‘then’, but about ‘we’.”
“Teachers really want to do this well,” says organizer Zaidan Dollison of the National Institute for the History of Slavery and Heritage (NiNsee). “But the school material they receive mainly tells the story of power, from a European perspective. As a result, students do not learn why this past matters in the present. And then the conversation stops.”
According to Dollison, some students therefore do not recognize themselves in their own history, while their classmates experience the subject as a ‘far-away show’. “The history of slavery is not closed. It has an impact on language, images, traditions and in how we interact with each other.”
To make this insight tangible, art historian Bart Krieger unfurled a large Twister rug in his workshop, full of everyday objects with a historical charge. A simple box of chocolate sprinkles refers to the cocoa plantations in Suriname and the human suffering that lies behind them. “I make the impact of the slavery past tangible,” says Krieger. “Then the message will be better received and we can enter into dialogue.”
In her lecture, researcher Joandi Hartendorp emphasized how often the image exists that enslaved people were passive for three centuries. “But there were uprisings, refugee communities and revolutions,” she says. “Freedom was not a gift from the colonizer, but freedom was fought for.”
“It’s not about blame, it’s about recognition.”
By sharing those stories, students get a more complete and human picture. “It’s not about blame, it’s about recognition,” she continues. “When we show students that resilience, dignity and humanity have always been present, they feel seen in their history.”
In a workshop by Noami Nagtegaal, participants worked with family trees and world maps to show that history is not something that ends, but continues. It makes visible that everyone comes from somewhere and that our stories are intertwined.
“Change starts with people who are willing to examine their teaching practices,” Dollison concludes. “You can’t understand the future if you don’t know the past.”