Elmina Java Museum

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The Elmina Java Museum is a museum in Elmina , Ghana , dedicated to the history of the so-called Belanda Hitam . The Belanda Hitam were soldiers who were recruited for the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger in the 19th century in the former Dutch possessions on the West African Gold Coast , which are now summarized under the term Dutch Gold Coast . The museum was founded by the Edward A. Ulzen Memorial Foundation.

history

The Elmina Java Museum

Since Arthur Japin published The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi in 1997, the story of the Belanda Hitam has reached a wider audience . Ineke van Kessel, professor at the Center for African Studies at the University of Leiden met the late Edward Ulzen while researching the history of Belanda Hitam and through him came into contact with his son Thaddeus Patrick Manus Ulzen, who was 10 in September 2000 Meeting of the descendants of Belanda Hitam in Schiedam , the Netherlands . Ulzen had announced on the occasion that his family decided he was looking for a place for a permanent museum to preserve the history of the Belanda Hitam. In 2003 the Elmina Java Museum was opened, which is supposed to remember the history of the Belanda Hitam in general and the history of the Ulzen family in particular.

The Ulzen family

The Ulzen family traces its origins back to Jan Ulsen, a Dutchman from Brielle who came to the Gold Coast in 1732 as an employee of the Dutch West India Company . A year later he died, leaving his son Roelof Ulsen, whom he had brought with him from the Netherlands, as an orphan . Roelof Ulsen was then raised on the Gold Coast by staff from the Dutch West India Company and made a career in local administration, possibly even as the ruling governor on the Dutch Gold Coast from 1755 to 1758.

In 1765 Roelof Ulsen sailed to the Netherlands after 29 years of service together with his son Hermanus, a mulatto . Roelof died on the ship before he had even reached the Netherlands, leaving his son behind as an orphan. After studying in the Netherlands, in 1779 he sailed back to the Gold Coast and to his grandson Manus Ulzen, who had meanwhile been recruited for the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger.

Thaddeus Patrick Manus Ulzen published a book on his family history in 2013 with the title Java Hill: An African Journey: A nation's evolution through ten generations of a family linking four continents .

supporting documents

  1. ^ Van Kessel: Museum voor Afrikaanse KNIL soldiers in Elmina, in the Historisch Nieuwsblad edition May 2003, p. 5.
  2. ↑ Dirk Mellema: Nazaten Brielse slavenhandelaar open museum in Ghana . In: Rotterdams Dagblad , April 22, 2003. Retrieved April 26, 2013. 
  3. ↑ Van Kessel: Museum voor Afrikaanse KNIL soldiers in Elmina, in the Historisch Nieuwsblad edition May 2003, p. 35.
  4. ↑ Van Kessel: Museum voor Afrikaanse KNIL soldiers in Elmina, in the Historisch Nieuwsblad edition May 2003, p. 35.
  5. ↑ Van Kessel: Museum voor Afrikaanse KNIL soldiers in Elmina, in the Historisch Nieuwsblad edition May 2003, p. 15.
  6. ^ T. Manus Ulzen: Java Hill: an African Journey. Xlibris Corporation, 2013, ISBN 978-1-479-79121-7 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

See also

Coordinates: 5 ° 5 '58.3 "  N , 1 ° 20' 48.5"  W.