This is my third time in Ghana.
The first time I came here was in 2021. I learned something then: home was a place I had never been to before.
One of the most striking experiences from that trip, was when I was speaking to a man about living in Europe and I kept mentioning “we Black people, we Black people.” And he kept looking at me like “who are these Black people you’re speaking of?”
He was telling me nonverbally that here, in this place where all of us have this beautiful skin color, we were People, and my distinction of Blackness didn’t make sense here. I realized that my Blackness is a western concept, fixed in between the limitations of Eurocentrism. Barriers that we were placed in. Limitations.
Everything that my people know about ourselves is based on what the colonizer told us that we are. We came out of slavery with European names, identities and religions. And the colonizer is abusing the fact that we don’t know any more what we were before colonialism and slavery. He created an impression about us that everyone, including us believes about us.
We’re like that proverbial goldfish in a bowl. He will never grow into a big fish because the bowl limits him. I don’t know if you’ve seen the reports of people catching enormous goldfish in rivers; they had been released in rivers, where they kept on growing and growing because they were not limited by a bowl.
We are like fish in a bowl. We consistently create extraordinary things that fall outside of the limitations of Eurocentrism … just look at our music, our art, our contributions to science. But when happens every time? Those extraordinary creations are dragged back within the suffocating confines of the dominating Eurocentrism.
When I wrote the previous part of my speech, I could not help but laugh at myself. Because I am here talking about getting outside of the bowl. I will be talking to you about Eurocentrism being so dominating and invading that even in a room with only people of color, without white people present, white people are still present. But it’s funny because I also continuously take part in it. Which language am I using today to speak to you? And I could not help using the phrase “Black people” throughout this presentation.
Apologies beforehand are in order.
Every time I visit my country of birth, there is one thing that disturbs me. My people suffering. I live in Holland, and it’s the same thing over there. My people battling daily under the pressure of white supremacy.
Let me give you a short history lesson about me.
You must know that my country, Suriname, is a multi-ethnic melting pot. This enchanting country is perched on the northeastern shoulder of South America. It is sparsely populated and covered by a thick rainforest.
Suriname was colonized by the Dutch from the late 15th century till 1975. Colonialism brought Indians, Chinese, white people, people from the middle east and of course, Africans.
We were brought there as slaves to work the plantations of the Dutch. For 300 years generations of Africans were forced to work on the plantations for free. We were stripped of our names, of our identities, of our culture, of our religions. Of our past and our future.
By the time slavery was abolished in 1863, we did not know anymore who we were. So they gave us European names … like mine.
We were not compensated for all the years that we worked on the plantations. When slavery ended, the enslavers all received money, for letting go of us, their property.
But we ourselves received squat.
The proclamation that freed us literally said “go and be the best “white” people you can be … And somehow we did. Without support from anyone. We learned how to speak the best Dutch, we became teachers and civil servants.
The colonizers then went and brought other people to work the plantations, first Chinese, then Indians, but these were indentured servants; they received some pay. They were allowed to keep their identities and their names and their cultures. They came off well.
My people were surviving, in a system that was not created for us to thrive. That’s what this entire world is by the way. Colonialism left us in a world that was designed to keep a certain group of people dominant, while the rest is tagging along subservient … unless they realign themselves and become part of that system.
Anyway
Suriname became independent in 1975. When the Dutch left, the country went through a lot of political and economic turmoil. About a half million of us migrated to the Netherlands over the years.
I am one of them.
And both in Suriname and in the Netherlands, my people have largely ended up at the bottom of the ladder.
With their cultures and identities intact, the other groups had the foresight to venture into businesses. So when the economic turmoil started and government started to crumble, it were the people with the government jobs that felt the most hurt.
My people. We weren’t paid for 300 years, so we didn’t have a proper start. And since we didn’t have knowledge of our past, we could not foresee our future. And that future is now!
Now
We are still caught in a system that was created by the colonizer for his own benefit. The Eurocentric system left behind by colonialism is largely still intact, almost 50 years after the colonizer has left.
And in Holland it’s even worse. People of African descent face racism and discrimination at every corner. And our children are consistently underperforming at school. I see them being totally frustrated with trying to fit into education that was not created for them.
It has everything to do with the education system that we have accepted as a norm. The country has not caught up to the realities of today.
The Bureau of Statistics reports that almost 25 percent of the population of the Netherlands has a migration background, meaning that almost a quarter of the country was themselves born elsewhere or at least has a parent who was. In the large cities the percentage is even higher; in Amsterdam up to half of the residents between 6 and 18 years of age have a “non-western” background.
Still Eurocentrism dominates. There is almost no attention for perspectives from outside of the west. Imagine the outdated stereotypes that children grow up with … even children with non-western backgrounds are raised by our education system that teaches them stereotypes about themselves. You should have seen the comic books that I read as a child.
Allow me to emphasize that this does not only apply to the Netherlands. Eurocentrism has a hold on our entire world.
Again I wonder why. Europeans are not a majority factor, but they have been able to make everyone believe that they are.
Meanwhile people of African descent hold on through their resilience. We have always done so. It’s that same resilience that saw to it that I could come back and stand here talking to you today, 2 centuries after Ma Uwa, my great great great great grandmother was stolen from here and was enslaved in Suriname.
Think about it: the enslaved Africans were seen as disposable people. The enslavers didn’t expect us to live through what they did to us. Everything that could possibly be done to a people was done to my ancestors. After they were stolen from here, they were shipped off to new worlds where they endured all hells of slavery. But they survived, relying on their knowledge and their resilience.
And today their contributions to world culture, society, and economy are evident in every aspect of life and enterprise. Agriculture, music, art, science and culinary developments and so on have been greatly impacted by the skills, techniques and ingredients that were brought to the world by Africans. Some quintessential inventions were made possible due to African knowledge and practices. And I could go on!
In the Netherlands the impact of people of African descent on everyday life is enormous.
But the education system fails to incorporate this into the curriculum. If they would, they would be implementing a more global approach to history that emphasizes the importance of all cultures and communities to our understanding of the world. The impact that this would have on our students, and our society at large, would be significant.
But it’s as if they stupidly insist that one part of the country should not reach their full potential. That is so wasteful. It is important for the entire country if every citizen recognizes himself in education. This is how you unlock all the potential of your nation. When a child’s potential is not unlocked, everyone loses.
And all other communities in the Netherlands have understood that the education system doesn’t fit their children, so everybody circumvented it: the Muslims started Muslim schools, the Hindu’s have their Hindu Schools. The Chinese and the Jews also have their own schools. White people have their own schools … all schools are in essence white, aren’t they? The community that doesn’t have its own schools, is the Black community.
Allow me to tell you a personal story.
I am the great-great-great grandson of Ma Uwa’s son, the anti-slavery freedom fighter Broos. He was the leader of a group of warriors who fought back against slavery. They had fled the plantations and built a village in the forest, from where they attacked the plantations. Broos won many battles. In 1862 he traveled to the capital of Paramaribo to sign a peace accord with the governor. That’s when they took a picture of him; it’s the only known picture of an anti-slavery hero from Suriname.
Broos was my grandmother’s grandfather. I am a direct descendant of this great man, but the history books that I was taught from in Suriname, never mentioned this hero, who survived his war against slavers.
History textbooks do mention the people who beheaded, who were caught, who were betrayed, who were burned alive because they resisted slavery.
The conquered.
Not Broos and others who had been victorious and who lived to tell history.
Even in my own family! I had never heard of Broos until I was about 35 years old.
We have been conveniently taught to forget who we are and deceived to disregard what great people we come from. Black people, like me, were raised to see their ancestors as losers. So the system consistently tells us not to fight against oppression because all of our heroes died trying.
And we accepted those lies as our truth.
My people can be the most nationalistic people you will ever encounter! A lot of nationalist pride that is based on the lies that the colonizer told us about ourselves. You will meet Afrikan people from Suriname who will proudly tell you to your face that they are not of African descent. But they look like Africans! Same skin tone, same hair. Their art is the same thing like Africans. When they dance, they dance like Africans! But they will tell you “I AM NOT AFRICAN. I AM SURINAMER!”
I know them. Proud of their Dutch names and of their ability to speak the best Dutch.
We suffer under a historically induced ignorance that makes us not realize the impact that people of African descent have had, because we are not in charge of the discourse about ourselves. But we should, if we want to change our trajectory.
Remember that cliché: to claim your future, you should know your past?
The American sociologist Dr Edward Robinson Jr. said: “Even with all the degrees in the world, you remain miseducated until you learn the true history of your African ancestors.”
We have built our house on quicksand, because that was the only parcel of land they left for us. And our house is sinking.
But what I have learned is that nobody is going to safe us. We have to do it ourselves. We have fought against discrimination, we have held demonstrations against racism. We have marched against marginalization, we have written long intelligent articles about police brutality. We were told to sit down when we stood. We locked up when sat down. We have been shot when we ran. When we don’t run we are seen as threats and we still get shot. We have gone down on our knees and we prayed for better. We stayed strong in our belief that “we shall overcome”. But nothing worked. I know friends who spent days in jail because they dared to see themselves as people who had the right to demand better for themselves and their children.
It’s time to take our fight to another level.
We have to educate ourselves about ourselves in order for us to stand stronger. And we have to teach others better about who we are.
So a few years ago I applied for a permit to start an Afrocentric secondary school in Amsterdam. And the city council said “no! That is segregation!”
My question is, is it really? Isn’t it segregation when we send our children to schools that don’t teach them anything about themselves? Schools that herald the domination of one group and disregard others?
Children, African children are still taught in school that European slavers who shipped their ancestors away from Africa to slave on plantations in Suriname, were the greatest naval heroes of their time. Slavery and colonization are not discussed much. Children still learn terms like “America was discovered” and that Holland experienced a “Golden Age” in the 18th century. Was it a golden age for the people who were enslaved on the plantations? Our children are taught a distorted version of history; a distorted image of who they are, when everybody else learns about themselves in proud terms. Isn’t that segregation?
A school that not only creates a Eurocentric view of the world but also teaches the identity of a marginalized part of the community is not segregation.
And interestingly, the proof is already in the pudding. Research has shown that children who attend Muslim schools do better in life. Their sense of identity, their knowledge of their cultures makes them stronger. Because they are educated in a safe space.
White children are educated in that same safe space. All schools are in essence white, remember?
That safe space does not exist for children of African descent in the Netherlands. Because of the dominance of Eurocentrism the entire world is a safe space for white people. And it can be a pretty dangerous place for our people.
I remember once telling my son to be inconspicuous at school to stay out of trouble. I was stifling him, but it was normal to tell him that, because that’s what my parents told me. We tell our children not to wear hoodies, not to speak too Black. I know Black men in Holland who deliberately always speak with a higher tone to mask their manly Black voices. We code switch. Because we believe that we have to, to not be seen as threats. Even when we’re not.
Isn’t that self-disrespect?
Black men will tell you that they will cross the street if they see a white woman approaching; so as not to make her feel unsafe. I used to do that too, but then I realized that I was disrespecting myself. So I stopped!
I taught myself that self-respect.
Why don’t we make teaching that kind of self-respect part of the curriculum of our own educational system?
The only community of African people outside of Africa who started their own schools after slavery, are the African Americans. They started the Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) out of necessity, because white people were banning Black children from white universities. White schools were not safe spaces for Black children.
There are about 120 HBCU’s throughout the US and since 1837 they have been producing many of the world’s most powerful leaders, entertainers, and achievers. Martin Luther King, Michelle Obama, Ophrah Winfrey, some of the leading African American actors and academics, the first Black female Vice President of the US … they all came from HBCU’s.
It’s more than academics for many who work and learn at HBCUs. HBCUs provide a much-needed sense of nurturing and safety lacking in many non-HBCUs.
A study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology in April 2021, found that African American students who attended an HBCU were less likely to develop chronic diseases later in life than those who attended predominantly white institutions.
Decades of research tell us that HBCUs have been and continue to be the catalyst for educational, economic, cultural and societal gains for African Americans and, to a degree, the rest of the nation and the world. Preparers of the Black professional class, providers of economic opportunity in their communities, molders of cultural originality and cauldrons of intellectual unrest that spurred the evolution of American society, HBCUs have held America accountable to its founding ideals and principles.
HBCUs help close the racial wealth gap. HBCUs account for 13% of all Black college graduates, even though they enroll around 1.5% of all college students. Also, students at HBCUs are 14.6% more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree, according to a 2023 study from the Institute of Labor Economics.
HBCU’s are a treasured American success story
But in Europe, people of African descent don’t have that. There are no formal institutes where we learn our true identities.
We are the only group in the world that is mostly educated by people from outside their communities. A large majority of schoolteachers in the west are white women. They teach our children.
The teachers can’t help it, because that’s the system that they fall under, But isn’t it crazy to expect children to learn to love themselves when the people who teach them, are educated in a system that teaches them to despise us?
Teachers have a tremendous influence over their students and they are caring for our children longer than anyone else. In all fairness, I do not think many of these White teachers enter the profession wanting to harm Black children, but they will hurt a child whose culture is viewed as an afterthought.
So we don’t learn how strong we really are, so we often cannot push back against these consistent attacks.
It should not surprise anyone that our children underperform at schools.
In their report “Subordination and Discrimination in Amsterdam Education,” that they released last month, Professor Maurice Crul, Dr. Carl Steinmetz and Frans Lelie, write about the problems of deprivation and discrimination in Amsterdam’s primary and secondary schools. They write about situations in which students of color are confronted with prejudice, racism and disadvantage. Stories of under-advice, discrimination by teachers and bullying by fellow students are discussed in their report. It also exposes the systematic patterns that lead to disadvantage, such as low school advice and inadequate guidance.
We are at war.
Bob Marley described this war in one of his most iconic songs
Until the philosophy which hold one man
Superior and another inferior
is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Until there are no longer first class
and second-class citizens of any nation
Until the color of a man’s skin
is of no more significance than the color of his eyes
Until the basic human rights are equally
guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Until that day
the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
rule of international morality
will remain in but a fleeting illusion
to be pursued, but never attained
It is not a physical war, but we’re losing it.
We are in a footrace with everybody else and we are the only ones not racing.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that our people are caught in a cycle of mediocrity. In which we don’t strife for better. We walk around defeated, accepting the status quo at the bottom of the ladder. We were told not to look up, so we don’t. Know your place, stay in your lane, act in accordance to your skin color. I have been told those things. You were born as a six, don’t try to be a nine!
And the tragedy is that this doesn’t only apply to my people in Holland, but also to my people in Suriname and the Caribbean. I have also seen that cycle of mediocrity here in Ghana.
Last May I went to a mall in Accra to buy a phone charger, there were 17 young people working in that computershop. 17, I counted them. All smart, tech savvy young people. One Lebanese manager behind the counter. And I wanted to yell at them! How come the 17 of you all don’t start your own computer business? But I know it also has to do with what the system told us about ourselves. That we cannot do it. That we should not work together. That we cannot trust each other. That a business can only be successful when a white man runs it. That our own quality is inferior.
Colonizers left this mindset behind in every place where they have been. And nobody seems to realize the potential that we ignore.
We figure that we should not fix what’s not broken. But even when it doesn’t function? Even when it could use a lot of improvements?
We are floating along in a broken system that was designed to keep one group of people rich and thriving.
But why are they so dominant? Why do we keep accepting the premise that we are a minority? From a global perspective European people are not a majority. According to a 2018 estimate by the United Nations, there are roughly 1.24 billion white people in the world. Between 12 and 16% of the world’s population.
Meanwhile there are 1.4 billion people in Africa. That’s about 18 percent of the world’s human population. And that doesn’t even include the 200 million people of African descent outside of Africa. (Same goes by the way for India and China, both with 1.4 billion people as well.)
And then this: Dr. James S. Harrison, a history and humanities professor, pointed out a few years back that Europe is not a continent. IT IS A SMALL PART OF THE LANDMASS OF EURASIA. WHY DO WE THINK IT’S A CONTINENT? BECAUSE EUROPEANS TAUGHT US. IT’S THE CONCEPT OF WHITENESS, IN WHICH THEY HAD TO TEACH US THAT AFRICA WAS SMALL AND EUROPE WAS A CONTINENT. TO MAKE THEMSELVES SEEM SUPERIOR.
It all has to do with how we are taught to look at ourselves. How the world is taught to see us.
I believe that the solution for our predicament lies in education. And specifically in Afrocentric education. We have to get in charge of the academic discourse about ourselves. We have to create educational systems that teach our African children from an African perspective. Because right now we’re sending them off to schools that don’t teach them who they are and who they can be.
We educate them to fail and then we expect them to excel; we expect our leaders who were educated at European institutes to be able to come back and lead our communities in a way that will serve our communities. That will not work! They have been educated into Europeans, often in our own countries.
Why do you think my country went through economic turmoil? Because our leaders were educated in Holland or in Suriname at Eurocentric institutes. They could not help that even after Holland left, they were still serving Holland! Again, through the European languages that we speak, through the Eurocentric education systems that we maintain, our countries are still what they were when they were colonized.
Which is why I am here today.
I have always lived under the rule that I should leave places better than I found them.
When I applied to start an Afrocentric school and the city council brushed me off, I reached out to dr. Millar to seek a collaboration to set up an African university in the Netherlands.
I mean we are here. Why aren’t our schools?
I was blown away by our shared belief in the power and wisdom that we hold as Africans.
I believe that we, Africans, hold the world’s moral compass. When they made it law that we could be subjugated, we were the ones who told them that it was wrong. When they enslaved us, my ancestors fled the plantations and fought back. Then they called our thirst for freedom a sickness: drapetomonia.
It literally took them centuries to catch up with where we were in our thoughtprocess.
We have always been educating the world, enriching the world. We have always made the world a better place, but everybody, including us, fails to realize it.
Because we don’t teach it to ourselves and to anyone else. But I believe that our principles, our morals, our knowledge, our lessons are an undervalued African export product.
I am here to be your exporter. J
Last May when I was here, I didn’t just visit the computer store in the mall. I also visited several universities and I was blown away by how safe I felt …. How safe these places must feel for the students. I wished I could’ve studied there. I want this for my people.
It’s how we win the war against the lies about us that were sold to us a truth. When the truth is a lie, it’ll set you free
Together with dr. Millar I want to create the first African university campus in the Netherlands, just like the HBCU’s in America. Safe spaces where our people and other people can be educated about who we really are. We have to set that record straight.
Our bond was severed 500 years ago, and we still look alike, but because of the lies that we believed about ourselves we have not been able to find our way back to each other. And we have so much we can learn from each other.
To stop the suffering, to pull ourselves up from the bottom of the ladder, and to reconquer that spot of the leaders that we really are. To be able to rise above the challenges we face. Our education is the key and that education is right here.
We would be fools to continue ignoring it.
To quote Bob Marley again: In the abundance of water the fool is thirsty.
Are we fools?
I thank you for your kind attention.
