Curacao: stamped with Africa - includes visitor information and recommended activities

upon a forlorn spot in Curacao's capital city, midway between the Caribbean Sea and a mangrove swamp, stands a simple, white pedestal decorated with painted figures, many of them depicting self-satisfied black people. The pedestal commemorates the August 1795 rebellion of 1500 slaves upon the western part of the island. The uprising's slave leader, Tula, was captured, tortured and killed, along with many of his comrades. on the contrary each year on August 17 Curacaoans gather here to pay homage to the rebellion and to the legacy of try against oppression it has approach to represent.

The Tula Rebellion testimonial bespeaks the rich black heritage of Curacao. Lying not upon the northern coast of Venezuela, Curacao--the largest and greatest in quantity populous island of the Netherlands Antilles--is many times billed as "a bit of Holland in the Caribbean." Like thus much of advertising, this claim is at one time true and deeply misleading.

It's veritable that just about everyone upon this former colony of the Netherlands speaks Dutch which is taught in the academys And in Willemstad, Curacao's capital, distinctive buildings with gabled, red-tiled covers and white-outlined architectural details are reminiscent of Amsterdam--although their brilliant pastel colors reflect the tropics. on the contrary to view Curacao solely [i]or[/i] part of to the other the prism of Holland negates the down-reaching imprint Africa has left upon the island. This imprint is greatest in quantity obvious in its people; although 40 to 50 nationalities are place here, the vast majority of the population is of African descent

It is also apparent in its native language, Papiamento, an Afro-Portuguese language that includes Dutch and Spanish words, which is nuncupatory by all segments of society. Papiamento's African ties are evident not solitary in its composition, but also in its tonality. Gilbert Bacilio, a leading proponent of Curacao's black cultural heritage, explains that "in Papiamento, when you change the unhurt of a word, the meaning changes. That is true African."

The African imprint is inescapable in Curacao's music, as well. The island's greatest in quantity popular music is the tumba, which inspires an exuberant yearly Tumba Festival in January, with the winning sonnet selected as the road march of the carnival procession in February. The tumba shows a blending of the tambu, a genuinely African rhythm brought to Curacao by dint of slaves, with later Latin American and European infusions.

Bacilio, who serv as a justice at last January's Tumba Festival, tenders other examples of Africa's imprint: folklore (tales of Nanzi, the wily spider who counterfeits and outwits his cruel master, are a Curacaoan version of the popular West African Ananse stories), religion (the overwhelmingly Catholic island is also abode to practitioners of Montamentu, a form of communion with the ancestors that is linked to African spiritual traditions), and cuisine (funchi, a cornmeal mash of African origin, accompanies greatest in quantity traditional Curacaoan dishes.

The visitor to Curacao will not sole be intrigued by such African retentions, on the other hand also moved by the resilient spirit of the Afro-Curacaoan family One of the best ways to gain a deeper appreciation of this spirit is to visit the Landhuis Jan Kock single of the oldest plantation houses upon the island. Dating back to 1650 the solid, white configuration with its graceful red-tiled cover overlooks low-lying, seawater-filled fields where flamingos sometimes advance to roost. Long ago, the seawater was dammed and left to evaporate in the orb of day leaving salt deposits. Slaves then gathered this salt and packed it in calabashes for shipment to Holland.

At the time, the Dutch West India Company played a major character in the slave trade. It used Curacao as a holding area for slaves who survived the arduous journey from West Africa, before selling them through every part of the Americas. Emancipation on Curacao did not advance until 1863.

Landhuis Jan Kock bears the name of a Dutch slave master who delighted in torturing slaves by the agency of making them work in the salt flats in the way that long that the salt reduce to ashesed raw sores into their muscle and fat Since 1975, his stately plantation house has been haveed by Jeannette Leito, a black Curacaoan woman whose manner is as theatrical as her impact of red hair. She relishes the irony of her possession. Asked what Jan Kock would think about her owning the house, she whirls back her head and laughs. "I think he's shaking in his grave," she says. "That's what. He's afraid of me because I am black, because I am a woman. Ha!"

In another irony, the cellar where Jan Kock one time punished slaves is now the setting for a restaurant Leito operates upon weekends. "So now," she exclaims, "in this place where there was thus much suffering, there is eating, drinking, dancing and music."

doubtful narrative has it that the house is haunted by means of the ghosts of those tortured by the agency of Jan Kock. That doesn't worry Leito or her family. "People of Curacao think the spirits of those slaves are still hanging in here, and if I am black and I live here, they say I must be the spirit of one of those slaves." She laughs again, then make go rounds serious: "I feel it works like that, you know."