The Slavery, past and present in Aruba Series
Vanessa Paulina, Peter van der Berg, Jeannette Richardson-Baars and Luc Alofs.
Commemorating the history of slavery is crucial to promote understanding, empathy, and awareness and to draw attention to the ongoing challenges against contemporary forms of slavery, institutional racism, and inequality. In 2023 and 2024, we reflect on the abolition of slavery in the Kingdom of the Netherlands; however, in 2023, we still witness human smuggling and trafficking. It is the aim of the University of Aruba and the Coordination Center on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Aruba (CMMA) to address this and related subject matters through a series of lectures addressing past and contemporary slavery from different perspectives and disciplines.
In the second public lecture, we focus on children in slavery and the Aruban educational system.
Based on the educational youth novel, artist Vanessa Paulina shares the story of the Virginia Dementricia as a child victim of slavery in Aruba. Second, dr. Peter van der Bergh will elaborate on the legal regulations concerning the treatment of enslaved children under colonial rule. Luc Alofs presents an overview of colonial slavery in the Aruba school curriculum. Finally, Jeannette Richardson-Baars will present the role of education in fighting human trafficking and migrant smuggling.