Open Letter to the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport (OWCS)

Open Letter to the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport (OWCS)

July 18, 2026

This is a light-hearted nod to the many open letters that have appeared lately. In fact, I think that is a positive development. For a moment, I considered asking someone in my network for the minister's contact details, but I decided to write this letter instead. Let me get straight to the point—people generally do not enjoy reading long texts online.

It is about our slave wall.

This morning, I drove through Banda Bou once again. Along the way, I saw the remains of the old slave wall. Many young people today probably do not know what this wall is, let alone have seen it in its original form. When I was growing up, it stretched for miles, built from natural stones that had been carried and stacked by hand. It was an impressive structure that made the scale and hardship of enslaved labor tangible.

I remember hearing two different explanations for the wall's existence. According to one version, enslaved people were forced to build it simply to keep them occupied with exhausting labor. According to another, it served as a genuine property boundary. Of course, these explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

For many years, the wall has been left to deteriorate, and today only a small section remains. That is why I wonder why at least part of it cannot be restored and preserved as a national monument. At a time when we rightly place increasing emphasis on understanding our history and strengthening our identity, this heritage deserves protection. A restored slave wall would also become a valuable addition to the cultural and historical tourism that Curaçao hopes to develop. I am certainly not an expert, but it does not strike me as an exceptionally complicated or expensive project.

After returning home, I did a little research. To my surprise, I discovered that this is far from a new idea. As early as 2017, José Manuel Díaz wrote an excellent article about a proposal to restore the slave wall and designate it as a protected monument. Unfortunately, nothing ever came of that initiative. That was nearly ten years ago.

Yet it remains an excellent proposal. It illustrates once again how things too often work here: we have no shortage of good ideas and noble intentions, but implementation rarely follows. Perhaps this minister can be the one to make the difference.

Miguel Goede