Slavery in Groningen? I never thought about these things being connected before… When thinking about slavery, plantations in the Americas come to mind, or the trading and transporting of slaves by companies like the W.I.C. (Dutch West India Company). Little did I know about all the traces of the slave-trading past that can be found in the city centre of Groningen. And honestly, how could I have known? Walking towards the Groninger Museum on a day quite hot and sunny for the time of year, I thought to myself: “What traces of slavery even are there in Groningen? Not like I’ve even seen them around the city, and I’ve been living here for two years now.” Little did I know how much Groningen’s past is tainted by slavery. At the Groninger museum, together with my classmates, I met up with dr. Barbara Henkes . Dr. Henkes has done quite some research on slavery in Groningen and currently she is working on a similar project in Friesland. In 2016 she published, together with Margriet Fo
Cultural heritage, heritage loss and heritage mediation are recurring topics in the study of Minorities & Multilingualism at the University of Groningen. A Minorities & Multilingualism student is interested in these topics and when in class the example of the Dutch train hijacking of 1977 came up, he was ready and eager to listen. He learned that, almost exactly 41 years ago, one of the most striking and infamous hostage crises in the Netherlands took place. On May 23, 1977, a train was hijacked close to Drentsche Aa river bridge at de Punt on the provincial border between Groningen and Drenthe, in the northeast of the Netherlands. This, together with a hostage taking at a school in Bovensmilde, was done by a group of Moluccan people as a cry for recognition to the Dutch government and people. Though it was an event of great importance for Dutch history and the location is of great symbolic value, the site is not seen as an official heritage site by the state. However, in rece