#mitchell esajas

…, amid the rise of the far-right in the Netherlands. To support every claim that he makes, 37-year-old Mitchell Esajas pulls newspapers, books and photographs out of his backpack. This Amsterdam-born anthropologist is a descendant of people who were enslaved in Suriname during the Dutch colonial period. He believes that the most effective way to talk about anti-colonialism and anti-racism with people who don’t yet understand the concepts is through historical archives. “We can show them that there’s a different historical narrative [that’s backed up] with real material; it’s not just based on emotions, ideologies, or convictions,” Esajas explains. He’s the co-founder of The Black Archives, a project that documents the history of the Dutch colonies and Black emancipation movements in the Netherlands. The Black Archives house more than 25,000 books, documents, works of art and all kinds of materials that reflect on racism, slavery, and development in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. More than 400,000 people of Surinamese descent live in the Netherlands. This diaspora settled in the 1970s, following the country’s independence. Esajas’s parents, for example, arrived in Europe during this large migration. In an interview with EL PAÍS as part of the Afro Consciousness Festival in Madrid, the co-founder of The Black Archives talks about the impact of the body of work that he’s been building since 2015, which is a benchmark in Europe. He also mentions the near future: on October 29, the Netherlands will hold general elections after the collapse of the governing coalition, which included a far-right party that targets migrants and people of color.