...and thus we sang

... and thus we sang

You will soon immerse yourself in a cultural map of the island of Curaçao. An island in the South Caribbean Sea, just off the coast of Venezuela. But this map is not a traditional map: it is not a shot from a single aerial viewpoint. The island is connected by its umbilical cord to Africa, South America, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal. 

Rather, this map is a web: a non-linear and interactive text in which the reader makes choices that direct the course of the text. A web in which history repeats itself, in which history suddenly skips events and in which history can spiral. This non-linear text is a collection of translations and re-translations of prose and poetry by Curaçao writers, my own poetry, news reports, excerpts from history books and travel guides. 

Part 1 la isla inútil describes pre-colonial times on the island: the traces of the original inhabitants up to and including the "discovery" of the island by the Spanish in 1499. This part uses retellings taken from the work Genial Anarchy (1990) by Curaçao writer Boeli van Leeuwen. 

Part 2 ...and thus we sang describes the arrival of the Dutch in 1634 up to and including the Slave Revolt led by Tula: an enslaved man in Curaçao and leader of the revolt that lasted for over a month in 1795.

Part 3 umbilical cord describes the arrival of 'modern times' on Curaçao, including the arrival of the Shell Oil Company and cruise ships on the island. This chapter also contains several retellings of the work of Curaçao writers and poets. 

This cultural map would not have been possible without the extensive website of the Curaçao National Archives, on which numerous information about the island can be found. Nor would this cultural map have been possible without the DBNL, the digital library of Dutch literature, on which work by many Curaçao writers has now been made digitally available. Including the work of the big three of Curaçao literature: Tip Marugg, Frank Martinus Arion and Boeli van Leeuwen. For a full list of sources, see the source list.