When Lucia
Nankoe was shown a photograph of writers from the French-speaking Caribbean
recently, she was able to identify everyone by name. The same goes for the main
authors from the Anglophone and Dutch-speaking countries in the region.
 |
| Lucia Nankoe (Photo: Monique Kooijmans, Amsterdam, June 2013) |
Nankoe, a
Surinamese scholar and lecturer at the University of Utrecht in the
Netherlands, is among those working to bridge the Caribbean linguistic divides
that are a result of colonialism.
Fluent in
English, French and Dutch - three of the languages spoken in the Caribbean -
she is able to understand a wide cross-section of works, and to examine the
area’s history and literature from different perspectives. She is equally
interested in fostering debate about the impact of slavery - a tragedy common
to the islands.
Her latest
project is De slaaf vliegt weg (The
Slave Flies Away), a thought-provoking look at the portrayal and perception of
slavery in the arts. Co-edited with Jules Rijssen, a researcher and filmmaker
also from Suriname, the book has been used as a basis for public discussions
about slavery.
In the Dutch
city of Leiden, Nankoe and Rijssen recently hosted an open debate that examined
the attitudes of the descendants of both slaves and slave-owners to their
mutual history.
 |
| Sculpture by Jamaican artist Laura Facey: "Their Spirits Gone Before Them". Part of the Slave Route Project © Laura Facey |
“It’s evident
that the issues about slavery are very much alive, and this was clear from the
many questions posed,” Nankoe told SWAN. “Members of the public obviously think
that more should be discussed at the national level than
has been done up until now.”
The book is
timely as this year the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, is
“celebrating” the 20th anniversary of the Slave Route Project, an initiative
that was created to heighten “understanding of the history of the slave trade
in societies carrying this memory” and to promote intercultural dialogue.
August 23 is
also the UN’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its
Abolition. The day is observed annually “to remind people of the tragedy of the
transatlantic slave trade”, and it gives people “a chance to think about the
historic causes, the methods and the consequences”, the UN says.
The date
recalls the uprising that began in Santo Domingo (now Haiti and the Dominican
Republic) in August 1791 that “weakened the Caribbean colonial system” and led
to the abolition of slavery and independence for the island. “It marked the
beginning of the destruction of the slavery system, the slave trade and
colonialism,” says the UN.
The
organization is also preparing to launch the International Decade for People of
African Descent (2015-2024), which should further help to advance dialogue
about the 400 years of the trade in humans and its lasting effects.
Nankoe’s The Slave Flies Away comprises essays
edited from lectures given in September 2009 in Amsterdam at an international
conference on the relationship between historical novels and the imaging of the
Netherlands’ history of slavery.
The speakers
included the book’s co-editors and a multi-lingual roster of academics who explored
the role of art forms on the public perception of slavery, and discussed
the function of art in current debates about slavery's effects, particularly
on the descendants of those enslaved.
The book
focuses on the work of artists such as Letitia Brunst, Remy Jungerman, Frank
Creton, Elis Juliana, Natasja Kensmil, and Ras Ishi Butcher, all of whom have
portrayed slavery in one form or another. It includes literary
contributions from a number of writers, including Rijssen.
Nankoe’s next
project, still in its infancy, is a book with historian Jean Jacques Vrij that
will comprise photographs from 1863, when slavery was abolished in Suriname. She believes that with the rise of nationalism and racism in many areas of the world, it's imperative to discuss these issues.
Meanwhile, her literary studies (she holds a degree in Modern Literature from the French
university La Sorbonne) are continuing. Books she has edited include De komst van de slangenvrouw en andere
verhalen van Caribische schrijfsters (The Arrival of the Snake Woman and
Other Stories by Caribbean Writers), a collection that introduced several
authors to a Dutch audience for the first time.
