News item | 05-10-2023 | 01:00
“The Dutch government fully recognizes the justice of Tula’s struggle, and that of others who opposed slavery, and looks with regret and shame at the way in which they were treated by historical, administrative predecessors. 228 years after the day of his death, Tula receives rehabilitation from the Dutch government.” With these words, spoken by State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Digitalization and Kingdom Relations), the Curaçao resistance hero Tula was formally rehabilitated posthumously by the Dutch government.
On the occasion of the rehabilitation, the Governor read a letter from the King addressed to the people of Curaçao. State Secretary Van Huffelen also announced the establishment of a Tula scholarship and a chair in the history of slavery.
Reparation and awareness
The rehabilitation took place following Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s apology on behalf of the government on December 19, 2022. As part of this, the government is making 200 million euros available for measures in the field of awareness, involvement and working through the history of slavery. The destination of this takes place jointly with, among others, descendants and stakeholders.
One of the commitments after the apology was the official rehabilitation of Curaçao resistance hero Tula, who was gruesomely tortured and murdered on October 3, 1795. Rehabilitation of Tula by the Netherlands is a long-cherished wish in Curaçao and was an explicit recommendation from the report ‘Chains of the past’. With the rehabilitation, the resistance fighter has now also received the honor he deserves from the Netherlands.
Netherlands: memorable moment
To create recognition and awareness of this part of history in the European Netherlands, a memorable evening was organized in the Korzo theater in The Hague on October 3 in the presence of the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Housing and Spatial Planning Hugo de Jonge. On that occasion, a plaque was presented to the Minister Plenipotentiary of Curaçao with the formal text of the rehabilitation. The intention is for the plaque to travel through the Netherlands to various municipalities where it will provide grounds for participation and dialogue about the history of slavery.
Tula scholarship and chair
To encourage history to be researched more from a Curaçao perspective, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Curaçao, is offering a Tula scholarship for the next four years. Through this grant, a student is given the opportunity every year to follow a full-time bachelor’s degree in history teaching at a university of choice in the Netherlands, whereby the student receives a contribution towards the study costs. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten will also be offered a chair in the history of slavery for the next two years. This is distributed among the educational institutions in the countries.
Tula symbol against slavery
Tula was the leader of the largest slave uprising in Curaçao. On August 17, 1795, the enslaved people of the Knip plantation stopped work under the leadership of Tula. Together with his fellow fighters Bazjan Karpata, Pedro Wacao and Louis Mercier, Tula mobilized almost 2,000 people after enslaved people from various plantations joined them. Tula knew the principles of the French Revolution: freedom, equality and fraternity and strove for freedom for everyone based on these principles. Tula knew that France had abolished slavery and reasoned that the Netherlands, which was occupied by the French at that time, should also abolish slavery. In addition to Tula, other insurgents were also executed after being captured. As a deterrent example to others, Tula was the first to be tortured and executed and then literally put on display. After his death, Tula was described as a criminal for centuries and was not included in history classes at school for a long time.
Struggle for rehabilitation
In 2010, Tula and other leaders of the slave revolt were officially rehabilitated by the Curaçao government as ‘men and women of honor and good name’. At the initiative of the Fundashon Rehabilitashon Tula (Papiamento for the Rehabilitation of Tula Foundation), Tula was officially declared a national hero of Curaçao by the Curaçao government that year.
In the Netherlands too, there has been increasing attention to this resistance hero in recent years in the form of films, musical theater and street names.