The Greatest Colonial Legacy: A People who were never taught their own History

There is an old saying that a people who do not know their history cannot fully understand their present or confidently shape their future. Few places illustrate this more clearly than Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, St Maarten Saba and St Eustatius.

One of the most important observations made by the Bonaire Human Rights Organization (BHRO) in its engagement with the Baku Initiative Group (BIG) is that one of the greatest obstacles facing our islands today is not simply constitutional uncertainty. It is the profound absence of historical and ancestral consciousness.

For generations, our people were educated almost exclusively through the history and national narrative of the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the history of our own islands, including enslavement of Africans and Indigenous Peoples and their heroes, colonial administration, cultural suppression, constitutional developments, received no meaningful attention in the education system.

After 10-10-10, everything was directed toward erasing the local history. For example, the high school curriculum suppressing the local language Papiamento and does not adequately teach Bonaire's history, and there are no proper higher education institutions or universities on Bonaire, requiring all students to migrate to the Netherlands to pursue higher education.

In addition, Bonaire lacks the local heroes reflected in street names, statues, public buildings, and airport names that are common throughout its sister Caribbean islands. Many Bonaireans know more about Dutch history than about the history of Bonaire itself.

Young people graduate from high school without learning local history and how their island arrived at its present political status or how international law has addressed decolonization since the adoption of the United Nations Charter.

The consequences are visible today as BHRO explained to the Baku Initiative Group, one of the greatest challenges facing the Dutch Caribbean is that many of our own people were never taught their colonial and constitutional history.

As a result, some may gladly accept a free trip to attend an international conference or seminar organized by Baku initiative group. Discussions of their own history, decolonization, or constitutional status of our islands, they are often unable to contribute meaningfully. This is not their fault, it is the result of an education system that failed to teach our own history.

This is not simply an educational gap. It is a democratic challenge.

When people are disconnected from their own history, they become more vulnerable to misinformation, constitutional confusion, and competing political narratives. Public debate becomes centered on personalities rather than facts.

Discussions about Bonaire's and the Dutch Caribbean future become increasingly difficult because many citizens have never been given the historical foundation needed to evaluate the available constitutional options.

This is precisely why BHRO believes that education must become a central pillar of the decolonization discussion.

A society cannot make informed decisions if it has never been taught the full story of how it arrived where it is today.

BHRO has therefore emphasized to the Baku Initiative Group that historical education is not merely an academic exercise. It is an investment in democratic participation, civic awareness, and informed public dialogue.

Research that objectively examines the colonial formation of the Dutch Caribbean, constitutional developments, cultural identity, language, and international legal obligations can help fill a gap that has existed for decades.

BHRO, together with its Founder James Finies and the Voz di Pueblo di Boneiru Plataforma, has consistently emphasized that its advocacy is not a campaign for independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Rather, our objective is the return of Bonaire to the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories after being taken of the UN list in 1955, thereby restoring the protections and reporting obligations under Article 73 of the Charter of the United Nations.

We believe this international framework would provide greater international oversight and protection for the people of Bonaire while allowing them to determine their constitutional future through a genuine process of education and information consistent with international law.

The urgency of this discussion is reflected in Bonaire's demographic transformation.

In 2010, native Bonaireans represented approximately 80 percent of the island's population. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics Netherlands today, that figure has declined to approximately 30 percent.

BHRO believes this dramatic demographic shift underscores the need for international protection to help safeguard the indigenous and locally rooted population, its culture, language, identity, and fundamental rights for present and future generations.

History should never be viewed as something to fear. It should be viewed as the foundation upon which every people builds their identity, protects their culture, and makes informed choices about their future.

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