A Tulaplein or a Jan Christiaanstraat. If it is up to the council members, a new neighborhood in Groningen will be named after resistance heroes against slavery. Who are these (sometimes still hidden) heroes?
Streets are regularly named after resistance heroes of the Second World War, but never after resistance heroes against slavery. ‘That has to change’ thought Jahir Scoop (32). The PvdA spokesman took the initiative for the motion, which he elaborated with D66, GroenLinks and PvdD.
A large majority of the city council in Groningen adopted the motion on Wednesday evening. So there is a good chance that in a few years, as soon as the first new neighborhood is finished, you will be walking on Tulaplein or Jan Christiaanstraat.
Native Indian of Curaçao
In addition to being a party member, Scoop works as a nurse and studies philosophy (‘My boyhood dream was to become homo universalis’). He is well on his way with his studies in health sciences, legal administration and philosophy.
History is not yet in the list, but he can tell a lot about the slavery past. When talking about the enslaved people, Scoop uses “we.” Scoop was born on Curaçao. At the age of 12 he moved to the Netherlands.
“Where other families have boxes full of their old family photos, mine is limited to a page.” He does know that his great-great-grandmother, his grandmother’s grandmother, was a fully native Indian from Curaçao. The family was proud of that. But that’s about it. He does not know more about his family tree. They did not speak about the rest of the family, the enslaved people who were shipped from Africa to Suriname.
“Mommy, what’s Tula?”
Why are street names important according to Scoop? ,,Visibility. A child then asks ‘Mama, what is Tula?’ when they walk across a Tulaplein. This will get the conversation going and those names will get more exposure. That can ultimately lead to rehabilitation.”
“But it’s bigger than that, it’s about how we as people interact with each other. Because slavery, but also the Second World War, shows what happens as soon as we no longer see the other as a human being.”
All kinds of traces of the West India Company (WIC) and the Dutch East India Company can be found in the city, according to an ongoing investigation into the slavery past commissioned by the municipality. “That is why we have to show the other side of the golden age. Making the mistakes visible and learning from them.”
The blue street name signs can contribute to this, he says. But it doesn’t stop there. Places in the city center that are linked to the slavery and colonial past must become more visible, according to the motion.
Broad interpretation resistance heroes
Resistance heroes are not just the people who protested. The concept is broad. On the one hand, it can be the names of enslaved people. On the other hand, well-known Groningen citizens or people born into slavery can also receive a name tag, according to Scoop. “Resistance is not limited to fighting or words. Enslaved people who moved to Groningen and rose in society here, also show that things can be different from the existing norm and how to resist the status quo.”
It remains difficult to properly trace the history of the enslaved people. The information that is available often comes from their ‘owners’ and is therefore not always reliable or complete.
Name options
Rudolf van Bogel
At the age of 16 Rudolf van Bögel left Suriname for Groningen, for the deaf school (because he was deaf himself). He was sent here by the widow of his ‘owner’, Clara Otholina van der Hoop, why he was sent here is unknown. Van Bögel trained as a carpenter, but before he had completed this his ‘owner’ brought him back to Suriname. Yet Van Bögel apparently makes an impression in Groningen, because he appears in documentation.
The institute called him a “negro child” in its final report. He was born in Africa and enslaved in Suriname.
John Christian
Jan Christiaan was the black servant of Jacob Appius from Groningen. He worked for a number of years in Suriname, where Jan Christiaan was already his enslaved house servant. In 1775 Appius bought a house in Sappemeer and went to live there with his sister and servant Jan Christiaan.
It remains unknown how Jan Christiaan experienced this. It is known that he was baptized in 1774 in the Reformed Church of Hoogezand. After the death of Appius, Christiaan left independently for the city of Groningen.
Ben Claessen
The earliest example of a person of color in Groningen that we know by name is Bene Claessen. In documents he is referred to as the Morian, this term used to be used to indicate someone with a dark complexion.
In 1649 he wanted to marry Ide Jansen from Warffum. But that was canceled because ‘the marjaen’ had not been baptized, according to the church council of Groningen. Getting baptized was also not an option, the church blocked this. That is all that is known about the Moriaan, or Bene Claessen.
Christian Monday
Christiaan Monday was born in 1787 in Makassar, one of the largest cities in Indonesia. It is located on the island of Celebes, named after a VOC governorate. His mother was probably an enslaved woman, but died when he was still young. He grew up as an orphan and the twin brothers Smit from Scheemda bought the young Maan. The brothers worked for the VOC and took Monday back to Groningen.
Once in Groningen, Monday married Geesje Jans Perdon, a skipper’s daughter. He lived with her in the Kleine Appelstraat until his death in 1858. A newspaper stated that ‘he was always the object of curiosity’. His nickname was ‘Black Monday’.
Marten Douwes Teenstra
A prominent abolitionist in Groningen was Marten Douwes Teenstra, who wrote several books in which he explained his views against slavery. During trips to South Africa and Suriname, he saw with his own eyes how the enslaved people were treated by the slave owners.
He described the appalling conditions in his books. In 1842 he published the book The Negro slaves in the Suriname colony and the expansion of Christianity among the pagan population . People did not immediately embrace his views, but the tide turned in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Tula
Now Tula is a national hero of Curaçao, but that was different in the past. For a long time there was a negative image of the resistance hero.
In 1795 he led the largest slave revolt on the island, where two thousand enslaved people resisted the Dutch rulers. The reason was great dissatisfaction on the plantations. For example, the enslaved people had to work on Sundays to buy their own food, something that went against the agreements made. In the end, the uprising cost his life, it was sentenced to death and horribly murdered.
An image of Tula has circulated in Winschoten for years. Fifty years ago, Toos Hagenaars in Curaçao made a statue of the resistance fighter. But the island did not want the artwork: too naked and made by a white person. The artist is now in talks to give the artwork a place on the island.