‘For me, the Slavery Memorial Year brought together colonial history and my own family history and made them tangible. The self-evident history as it was taught to me no longer exists. We now look more critically at our past, and personally I see this as an enrichment.’

‘Until my mother’s generation, the history of slavery had an influence on her upbringing and family relationships. Her mother was a direct descendant of an enslaved woman from Paramaribo. My mother was determined to break the chain of this legacy.

I recently heard someone say, ‘I don’t see why black people immediately start talking about racism if something doesn’t go their way, because they actually have all the same rights and opportunities as white people.’ In my view, a lot of people think everyone has the same rights, so there can’t be an issue anymore. Don’t forget that generations of people weren’t permitted or able to do the same things, this is why there are still no equal opportunities.’

‘During the Memorial Year I gave guided tours of the Anton de Kom exhibition. In preparation, I delved more deeply into Caribbean history and read the work of Anton de Kom. I try to translate that knowledge for the public in the guided tours. They ask me all kinds of questions, and also tell me stories about experiences of past encounters between Dutch and Surinamese people. There should be more attention to this in education; school textbooks don’t share enough knowledge on this topic.

It’s important to learn how to engage with different perspectives on the world. Many people are accustomed to being able to say anything they like. Learn to accept other people’s pain, instead of trivialising it. Engage in the conversation and gather knowledge.’

‘My parents raised me with the idea that everyone is equal, but I grew up in a white, racist society. Almost the only example of people of colour that I saw as a child was Zwarte Piet. I unconsciously acquired many prejudices about people with a migration background.

For us as white staff and students of Leiden University, it’s our responsibility to be aware of how the colonial past still has an effect in our present-day society in the way we have learned to look at people, to assess and select them, and to create opportunities. I want to take on my own responsibility in this area, to combat this effect.

What I see is that people in a privileged position are often given the benefit of the doubt and this is much less the case for students and staff of colour. As an academic community, it’s our role to listen to the experiences of students and staff of colour, and to actively contribute to a learning and work environment where everyone can feel at home in all their uniqueness.’

‘The honest story must now finally be told. How it really was and what the ongoing effects are. There must be acknowledgement of what happened. During the commemoration we reflect on the honest story. What happened? How do we deal with it? And how do we make sure it’s never repeated? We need understanding for one another in order to be able to enter into a shared future. We need to live with one another, not alongside one another. We can only do this if there is mutual understanding based on the real and complete story. History must be written truthfully.’

‘Leiden University supported colonialism for centuries. It’s not the case that we’re simply looking at the past with the standards of the present; even then it was contentious. The heroes of those days weren’t necessarily heroes for everyone. What is understood as right and wrong is subject to change, and is different for each person and as time passes. I see myself that I constantly need to redefine my own position on this. Our generation cannot be complacent about this history.’

‘All the chapters of history need to be studied, including the dark pages. The Memorial Year and Keti Koti are an invitation to thoroughly research and acknowledge the role of the Netherlands in the history of slavery. It’s part of our national story and must not be forgotten, however painful it may be. During Keti Koti, let’s celebrate together that slavery was abolished, but let’s also commit ourselves to remember our past and to learn from it

Keti Koti, the Memorial Year and the research project on Leiden University’s historical links with slavery are just a starting point; the history of slavery should be a permanent part of our national narrative. We should see the remembrance of historical slavery as a step forward, without it dividing and polarising us.’

‘As a pupil and then student in post-communist Romania, I regarded studying as a duty more than a privilege. During my first international experiences in Europe, however, overwhelmed by the sudden diversity around me, I still had the feeling there was a bigger world out there. I was to discover that when I moved to Latin America. A whole new world opened up for me – through landscapes, people, knowledge, art and sensitivity.

Working in the field of higher education for the last 10 years (both there and here), systems of knowledge production and reproduction were revealed to me as fundamental in creating more just societies where everyone can flourish, transforming my interest in diversity into a mission for diversity and knowledge justice.’

‘Keti Koti is an unfinished story. A story of our past that still lives on in the present. Last year’s celebration felt to me like a step for everyone in the Netherlands in understanding and seeing Keti Koti as something that’s central in our past and present, not something on the periphery or hidden in our history

The Memorial Year is not an occasion for reassurance, but rather for problematising. This means we have to take steps to repair the past. We have to make space for difficult discussions about reparation payments, institutional racism and discrimination, also within our universities. We have to make space for personal experiences.’

‘In society, white is still the standard – both consciously and unconsciously – in our ideas and systems. I have a privileged background, which allowed me to manage well. But that doesn’t change the fact that in the first instance people register my blackness as the most important characteristic. It seems  that I’m supposed to represent the black population. However, black Dutch people have just as many different backgrounds, opinions, experiences and personalities. I can therefore only speak on my own behalf. I long for a change, where I am rather seen as an individual person than as an example.’