Postcolonial context
Curaçao’s society is shaped by colonial times (Roe, 2016). Its complex and disruptive history of colonialism and slavery will not be covered entirely for the sake of this study, which focuses on the implications of Dutch colonialism for Curaçao’s contemporary society. The indigenous population of Curaçao (the Caquetios) was – after the island was invaded by the Spanish in 1499 – almost in its entirety transferred to Hispaniola to be sold as slaves (Oostindie & Stipriaan, 2021). The shared history between Curaçao and the Netherlands begins in 1634 when the island is taken from the Spaniards by the West Indian Compagnie (WIC). By 1665 the WIC started bringing in enslaved people from West-Africa, turning the island into a slave market (Roe, 2016). Besides being a transit place, many were enslaved on Curaçaoan plantations and remained on the island. With the bankruptcy of the WIC in 1791, Curaçao became a Dutch colony. Ever since the abolition of slavery in 1863, the formerly enslaved Curaçaoans have been in a position of social and economic disadvantage (Allen, 2014). They were moreover excluded for many years from political participation (Allen, 2014).
The local establishment of Shell in the beginning of the 20th Century marked the start of the industrialization of Curaçao (Roe, 2016). The growing economy attracted an enormous influx of immigrant workers of diverse origins. Once the economy started to deteriorate, Shell fired over half of its employees. According to Roe (2016), the black working class was most negatively affected by these events. On the 30th of May 1969 (now referred to as ‘Trinta di Mei’), a labour protest broke out at the refinery. What began as a protest against low wages, turned into a social uprising resulting from the build-up frustrations about poverty and the enduring marginalization of black people – although it was not initially deployed to resolve these deeper lying issues (Roe, 2016). The situation escalated into a violent revolt, and was eventually put down by the Dutch military. ‘Trinta di Mei’ is regarded an important turning point in Curaçaoan history, after which the situation of the black population improved with respect to education, employment, and political participation. According to Roe (2016) however, racial inequality nevertheless persisted.
In the wake of post-World War II decolonization, Curaçao becomes part of the Dutch Antilles in 1954 – a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands – and is no longer a colony (Allen, 2010). The Dutch Antilles consisted of the six islands Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao (administrative capital), Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius. This island federation had autonomy over internal affairs, but were subject to the jurisdiction of the Dutch Kingdom with respect to foreign affairs, defence, nationality and cassation (Allen, 2010). In the following decades, the political divide around this structure grew among Curaçao’s society, reflected in heated discussions and multiple advisory referendums about potential constitutional reforms (Allen, 2010). According to Allen & Guadeloupe (2016), the political discussion shows the complexity of managing Curaçao’s racially diverse society.
The debate resulted in a constitutional reform in 2010. This entailed that Curaçao would become an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Netherlands Antilles would cease to exist (Allen, 2010). In practice, the level of autonomy was limited. During the negotiations it was determined that the Netherlands maintains financial supervision over Curaçao in exchange for a remission of accumulated debts from the time Curaçao was still a part of the Dutch Antilles (Sharpe, 2022). A subsequent condition was the introduction of Dutch laws and institutions (Sharpe, 2022). If Curaçao does not adhere to appeals from the Netherlands regarding financial management, the Dutch government may withdraw collaborations or ignore aid requests. The Netherlands moreover remains responsible for foreign policy and defence (Bloemhof, 2019). The fact that the Netherlands has the final say in many respects and had increased supervision, has led some to refer to the current political structure as neo-colonial (Sharpe, 2022). The evaluation of this structure amongst the Curaçaoan population is highly divided. Perceived advantages include economic benefits, security, higher living standards, relief aid and possession of a Dutch passport, as opposed to perceived disadvantages such as political interference, brain drain and national identity issues (Sharpe, 2022).
In the conversations I had in Curaçao, I observed that racial categories were often used as markers for social differentiation. Given the appeared relevance of racial categories, it is paramount to discuss the meaning and historical contextualization of race. The idea of race emerged together with the modern nation state, in a context of colonialism (Lentin, 2004). It is evolutionary adaptive to make us-vs-them categorizations, but the basis on which we define the in-or out-group is socially constructed (Hacking, 2005). Nationalism directed us-vs-them categorizations towards who did or did not belong to the nation (Hacking, 2005), and these ideas were racially defined. Over the course of the nineteenth century, race was biologically defined (Abu El Haj, 2007). The scientific project of race biology was entangled with the context of nationalism and colonialism, as biological definitions of race were used to legitimize racism in political context (Lentin, 2004). After World War II, a biological understanding of race became challenged. ‘Race’ was largely replaced by the concepts ‘ethnicity’ or ‘culture’ within social science (Wade, 2002). These latter concepts where thereby essentialized and allowed for a continuation of race in a cultural form (Visweswaran, 1998).
Even though the notion of race was found to be invalid in the context of biological science, and is now understood as a social construct within social science, it still bears implications in society. According to Bonilla-Silva (2010:9), although race is constructed, it has a social reality, meaning ‘‘it produces real effects on the actors racialized as ‘black’ or ‘white’’.
The concept of 'race'
The concept of 'nation'
I have drawn upon Benedict Anderson’s (1983) conceptualization of a nation as an ‘’imagined political community’’, meaning the concept gains legitimacy for it exists in the minds of people. Anderson argues that people experience a sense of community even though they will never know most of the people belonging to the nation- in that sense the community is imagined. Anderson (1983) continued by defining nationalism as a mode of political imagination. Following, nationality is interpreted as social construct as well, by Anderson compared to gender, in the sense that everyone can, should or will have one. In line with Anderson’s approach, Oostindie (1995) describes national identity as the shared subjective experience of a national character. Operationally, national identity is generally understood in terms of a shared culture, language and sometimes a shared religion and a shared history (Barnard & Spencer, 2010).
Identity in general is a relational concept, relating multiple entities by asserting sameness (Wodak et al., 2009). It can only be described in relation to other entities; one cannot identify sameness without addressing otherness. Identity is dynamic and situated in place and time (Wodak et al., 2009). It should therefore not be approached as a static or objective entity. National identity will in this study be approached as a shared subjective experience subject to change, as well as dependent on place and time. Despite its constructedness, national identity does have a social reality, producing real effects - as is the case for race.
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