Educational projects are an integral part of this. Cultural expressions are also an inseparable part of advancing knowledge and recognition of the slavery past and its effects. Furthermore, the knowledge center coordinates national research on the history of slavery and its effects in the here and now, and brings together national initiatives.
The knowledge center focuses on the past, the present and future. The knowledge at stake is knowledge in the broadest sense, including the experiences of descendants of enslaved people, and victims of contemporary racism. It is about telling stories, for example about life, and the uprisings on slave ships in the 18th century. But also personal stories of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generations after independence. Besides archives and written history about the history of slavery and the slave trade, explicit attention is paid to spoken history, expressions in art and culture, contemporary slavery or experiences of victims of contemporary (institutional) racism and discrimination. All this (also) in relation to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms/Four Freedoms and human rights.
The center cooperates with many Zeeland and (inter)national partners to achieve this goal, including governments, universities, colleges, other knowledge centers, the Anti Discrimination Bureau Zeeland, social and cultural organizations, socially involved companies and civic initiatives. The center does not only focus on the Netherlands, but also explicitly on Suriname and other countries within the Kingdom. Because the knowledge center is initially intended to have a national character, coordination with other relevant organizations and national initiatives in the context of slavery history will be necessary in its establishment, in which NiNsee, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, among others, play an important role. Current partners active in the Knowledge Center for the History of Slavery Project Group include the Province of Zeeland, the municipalities of Middelburg, Vlissingen and Veere, Keti Koti Zeeland, KITAS, Zeeuws Archief, Zeeland Library, UCR, RIAS, and HZ.