Aruba's slavery document is inscribed in UNESCO's International Register of Memory of the World (MoW).
ORANJESTAD—The National Committee of Aruba for UNESCO's Memory of the World program (MoW-AW) is proud to announce that documents related to slavery in Aruba are officially registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World register.
The decision took place on 11 April 2025 during an Executive Board meeting of UNESCO in Paris.
The documents in question are part of the collection of the National Archives of Aruba (ANA) and the National Library of Aruba (BNA) and provide clarity about the lives of enslaved people and their descendants in Aruba.
With this inscription, these documents of Aruba are officially part of the existing registration "Documentary heritage of the enslaved people of the Dutch Caribbean and their descendants (1816–1969)," which already had contributions from Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Suriname, and the Netherlands. Corsou also made a new addition to the existing registration and registered it today.
The nomination was prepared in collaboration between MoW-AW, UNESCO Aruba, ANA, and BNA. The inscription recognizes the unique and international value of slavery documents in Aruba as a crucial source for understanding our colonial past and its influence on the present. For MoW-AW, this is a historic achievement. This international recognition gives voice to the large number of people who suffered during the period of slavery and helped strengthen our identity as a people. In addition, the registration in the international register stimulates the work of preservation, digitization, and accessibility of historical documents that have been taking place through the platform of Collection Aruba.
The registered documents are accessible via www.coleccion.aw/mow for schools, researchers, and the community.
MoW-AW will prepare a public celebration to mark this crucial moment and hopes that the achievement stimulates dialogue on the legacy of slavery in Aruba.
MoW-AW, UNESCO Aruba, ANA, and BNA would like to thank all partners who contributed to the nomination, both locally and internationally.
Special thanks and congratulations go to the National Archives and National Library colleagues and our colleagues from Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Suriname, and the Netherlands who worked together to achieve this.