DichtLicht op het verleden / the Rellum family

17 December 2021 - 18 March 2022

DichtLicht op het verleden shares personal stories of Groningers about the impact of the slavery past in their (family) lives.

In the Tschumi Pavilion, meaningful words from poems by city poet Myron Hamming are displayed daily from sunset in the light artwork by Lambert Kamps. Four people from Groningen tell Myron Hamming about the influence of colonial history on their (family) lives. Inspired by their stories, he writes four poems. The poems alternate every two weeks.

The second family story in the series is that of the Rellum family, who come from Suriname. On display from January 18 to February 1.

Underestimation

He said
"It's just a Negro"
and in his deeply felt superiority
did he measure me with the smallest size
His self-righteousness
Did not see the long shadow,
who casts Negligence ahead,
for otherwise he would surely say:
“Ah. A NEGRO.”

From Faja Lobi (1974), poems by Eugène Willem Eduard Rellum

Theo Rellum (1935): “Actually, this proud, self-assured poem by my uncle Eugène captures my entire family history. We were often the first everywhere, fought for our place, in Suriname and in the Netherlands.
Our surname Rellum is a remnant of the slavery past. When slavery is abolished in Suriname in 1863, all enslaved people must be given a surname. Presumably, the plantation manager Muller simply reverses his own name and gives it to my great-great-grandmother Louisa Adolphina. I also call her grandson Johan Rudolf the emancipation man and the 'progenitor' of our family. He becomes a teacher, one of the few professions with career prospects for a black man at the time – because of the color line, all administrative positions were held by white people. At the end of the nineteenth century, my grandfather starts a school at home, with at its peak 84 students, where he is also the very first black teacher in Suriname to teach English. Out of respect for this, a colleague from Suriname names the Rellum Academy of Languages ​​in New York after my grandfather. He also holds all kinds of positions in organizations and committees and is thus actively involved in the emancipation of black people in Suriname and beyond. The absolute highlight of this is his membership of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), of which he becomes the first Creole president in Paramaribo.

“He also mirrors this ambition and freedom for his children. My uncle Albert becomes a doctor in the Netherlands – although he encounters a lot of resistance during his studies here, so he moves to Edinburgh in Scotland, where he graduates and obtains his PhD and only then returns and is taken for full, my aunt Henrietta is known all over Suriname as 'Midwife Jet' and marries a Hindustani – unusual at the time for a Surinamese woman with a Creole background.
My uncle Eugène (surveyor by profession) and my father Julius (teacher) leave for Indonesia in 1928. One to the city of Surabaya on the island of Java, the other to Parepare on the island of Celebes. That's how it is: in Suriname you can be trained to a certain level for certain professions, such as a teacher, but if you want to progress you have to get a MO certificate in the Netherlands. Once in the Netherlands – a big step by the way, because the whole family has to bend over for that trip – my father and uncle met other Surinamese who had been to Indonesia before. They enthusiastically recommend this: good promotion opportunities, large country, somewhat comparable climate. In 1930, my mother and my two sisters travel after our father to Parepare, where my parents both work as teachers at the Europeesche Lagere School and where my father is also director until 1934. After my birth in 1935, we move with all of us to Surabaya. During the Second World War we are in a concentration camp Ambarawa camp 6 on Java, while my father, the language prodigy, has to work as a prisoner of war as an interpreter.

“In 1946 we go to the Netherlands, a country under construction. We end up in Utrecht, where it seems as if they have never seen anyone of Surinamese descent before – I was the only one at the Bonifatius Lyceum and at the conservatory, my sister was one of the first to graduate in sociology. They try to see if I'm made of chocolate, call me "peanut Chinese". In the Netherlands, my parents pass on the attitude of my grandfather and his children to us. To improve your position, to remove the bias of your environment, you have to make sure you can talk and stand up for yourself – that is really what we are prescribed. Knowledge is the only way to really meet. They are advice for life, which are a projection of what my parents experienced firsthand.
Maybe that's why there have been very few moments when I've really felt put aside. I am always way too quick with my answer, have a good reply. That actually applies to my entire family. They did so at a time when they really had to stand up for themselves. My grandfather and his children have wrestled from humiliation, unequal treatment, the idea that they shouldn't be there. They have published and protested when they disagreed with things. The theme of having to start from the bottom up, but also the courage to swim against the current for that very reason, always returns to all of us.”

By Ruby de Vos

Please note: this article has been translated using Google Translate

DichtLicht

DichtLicht by Lambert Kamps (1974) is an installation that “writes” words with lighting tubes. The lamps slowly slide in and out of closed tubes. Words from Myron Hamming's poems are depicted in this way. Lambert Kamps is an artist and designer in Groningen. He studied fashion and design before entering the art academy in Groningen in 1994. He presents his work in galleries, at trade fairs and during local events. The work is located at the interface of art, architecture and design.

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH MONUMENT SLAVERY HISTORY

DichtLicht op het verleden is the first public expression of a preliminary investigation into how visual art can make the shared history of our slavery past visible in public space. The research focuses specifically on a monument yet to be erected to commemorate Groningen's Trans-Atlantic and Asian slavery past, in a meaningful place in public space. Kunstpunt is carrying out this research on behalf of the Municipality of Groningen and in collaboration with organizations and individuals involved. Kunstpunt and Lambert Kamps have developed the art project DichtLicht on the past to contribute to the collective awareness of this subject.

With this new exhibition, Kunstpunt takes over from the Tschumipaviljoen foundation and curator Marinus de Vries, who have managed the pavilion since 1995.

DichtLicht op het verleden is in line with the cultural manifestation Bitterzoet Erfgoed. From February 18 to September 12, 2022, museums, heritage institutions, cultural and educational organizations from the city and province of Groningen will pay attention to the slavery past in Groningen and its impact on the present.