Plantations in West Curacao

End of december 2024 I visited 2 of the plantations. I also passed by one other.

Landhuis Ascension: gate was closed; I could only see from the street. Website tells it is reserved for the Dutch Marine. Just next to the Landhuis you have Kas di pal'i maishi - Kunuku House. It is just at the street. This one is a little house with a roof from Mais.

Landhuis Savonet: very close to the road to Westpunt and it has its own busstop. There is a small museum in the building. Nothing special, but you can enter the building. Price was only 5 USD. The landhuis is also the ticket counter from the Christoffel National Park.

https://www.christoffelpark.org/nl_NL

Landhuis Knip: The house is at one side of the road; on the other side of the street you also have some buildings. There is also a museum. I think there is a guided tour for 25 USD, but i had not much time to check, otherwise I would miss the last bus. Website tells 15 USD for ticket.

https://fundashonmuseotula.com/

Despite my downward vote for the "The Plantations in West Curaçao" tentative site, this reflects more my support for a transnational nomination rather than several dozen individual nominations. I visited the Savonet and Knip plantations (the later is closed indefinitely) in December 2022. I did a self-guided tour of Savonet. White columns with a fist grasping a broken chain of bondage are located in several locations in West Curaçao and commemorate events preceding, during, and after the 1795 Slave Revolt.

It just so happened that the day before my visit, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands apologized for the Dutch government's role in the Atlantic Slave Trade, calling it a "crime against humanity". While there was some controversy over the apology, it does seem the straightforward language was appreciated by some as a first step. Western governments tend to tread cautiously on sensitive topics related to genocide, slavery, and other crimes against humanity, regretfully because the "r" word is greatly feared and in some countries political suicide. The House of Representatives (in the U.S.) officially apologized to Black Americans for Slavery and Jim Crow Segregation only 15 years ago and reparations remain contested and far from our current reality. So in regards to Netherlands, this may be a long process and actions tend to mean more than words.

I think any extensive transnational "Slavery" nomination would require several sites located in the Caribbean. The components in West Curaçao are well-suited for this type of nomination. One very small …

A few weeks ago I wrote about my foray into Sinology; after I quit, I went on to study (and finish) Modern and Socio-Economic History. I wrote my master thesis about the Abolishment of Slavery on Curacao. I re-read it before visiting the TWHS Plantations in West Curacao as it is so close to this subject. The slave plantation society at Curacao was atypical, as the island’s soil is not fertile and did not provide enough to make the export of crops profitable. So its mixed produce was mostly eaten by the local population. The plantation owners often had a job in the city as well.

This TWHS has been quite high in the ranking of future Dutch WHS (2019 was once named as the year that it should happen), but doubts have risen and it has been suggested to the Curacao government to think about joining a serial transnational nomination or even seek an extension of the Willemstad WHS (on similar grounds as Trinidad and the Valle de los Ingenios). I have not been able to find any news on its status beyond 2015.

Nevertheless, I looked forward to a visit during my first trip to Curacao in late 2020. The TWHS comprises 4 locations, but I will focus this review on Ascencion. I “visited” the other 3 locations as well, but I found Knip closed and my stops at Savonet & San Juan were superficial as well.

Plantation house Ascencion nowadays can only be …

I went to 3 plantations in one day, and none take very long so it was on the way to one of the best beaches on the island: Grote Knip. There is the "Knip Manor" just outside the driveway with reasonable opening hours. San Juan is also on the way if you take the detour on the smaller road. Once you get to the outskirts of Willemstad it's clear roads. Both of these are on the tentative list because they are untouched, I visited a third one in town (Chobolobo) and took the tour (every hour) but it is a modern distillery and therefore not going to be part of the nomination.

What each landhuis has in common are that the interior decorations in European, or dare I say Dutch fashion. I don't find these exceptionally unique for the interior but they are unique for Curacao. Interesting was to see the slave books, to show who gave birth while working onsite, with a special room for such women.

I wanted to visit Ascension but it is only open rarely (Thursday for a tour and every first Sunday of the month to the public) which didn't fit my schedule at all. It may be the best one to visit though.

Would not be surprised if these get inscribed, as were the coffee plantations on Cuba but I disagree they are.