Curaçao is NOT a melting pot, where many cultures have come and thoroughly mixed together! Curaçao is a mosaic, where many cultures have come together in the same place, maintained distinctive ethnic groups, and yet have found a cement that binds them, that cement is Curaçao Culture. Within this mosaic the largest tile is African-descendent, accompanied by numerous other tiles representing the Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Libanese, British West Indians, Surinamese, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant and other ethnic groups.

Due to historical circumstances, the primary groups to begin the early formation of Curaçao Culture, were the Africans and Europeans (primarily Dutch and Jews), at opposite ends of the social scale. Spawned from these groups the African-descendent tile of the mosaic developed the largest proportion of the population, and together with the early Europeans the widest variety of mixed persons. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Curaçao Culture grew as children were born to parents from the island, and participated in the lifeways of Curaçao during that time. However, dramatic changes began in the early-middle 20th century, when the oil refinery and later World War II resulted in the introduction of various other ethnic groups into the community. One of the more influential of these introduced groups were the Surinamers, who came as civil servants, teachers, and police, thereby demanding a social position closer to the Dutch colonials than to the African-descendents. Of additional significance was the passage of a law in 1949, requiring that children born on the island after that date were to have the nationality of the father. This further isolated the children of these many other ethnic groups, to be born on Curaçao but having separate nationalities. Thus, both the historical precedent of the Africans as the early dominant factor in Curaçao Culture, and each groups own ethnic boundaries, constricted their full participation, and resulted not in a mixed ‘melting pot’ society, but rather in the segregated tiles of a mosaic bound by a cement of Curaçao Culture.

Before Papiamentu was the dominant language on Curaçao, there was an African-based communication used by the slaves called Géné, in which the phrase ‘vipe kokui’ meant a child born on the island. With the further development of Papiamentu, the phrase ‘yu di Korsow’ came to refer to a person born on, or ‘child of’ Curaçao. Such that there is no equivalent ‘child of’ phrase for Papiamentu speakers on the islands of Aruba and Bonaire, where African cultural contributions is smaller, it would seem that the African emphasis of this term is predominant.

There seem to be two primary versions of a Yu di Korsow, first there is the legitimate Yu di Korsow, which has but one qualification, being that the person is born on the island. An extremist view of the legitimate Yu di Korsow would further require that the mother of the child born on the island also be a Yu di Korsow. Beginning in the 1940’s and fluorescing around 1969, the issue of what is a Yu di Korsow became a significant preoccupation for the Curaçao community, resulting in adaptations with a second version of the Yu di Korsow.

The second version of a Yu di Korsow places active and constructive participation within the Curaçao community, linguistically, dietarily, culturally, and economically, as the primary factor for qualification. These include persons who dedicate their personal endeavors to the benefit of Curaçao regardless of birthplace or ethnic origin. In the event of severe group stress or crisis, the legitimate birth factor would always be used as a barrier to exclude the participant Yu di Korsow, thus their status is never completely accepted. Indeed it appears that this cultural adaptation is a relatively opportunistic mechanism to incorporate constructive individuals within the realm of the Yu di Korsow, however with the ability to exclude them if needed.

It is important to reiterate here that there is a relation, yet difference, between being a Yu di Korsow, and being a member of the broader Curaçao Culture group. The former, has earlier roots and is relatively exclusive to the African-descendent populations with some unique early white European-descendent individuals also represented as Yu di Korsow, while the Curaçao Culture involves contributions from the various other ethnic groups. Thus most traits of a Yu di Korsow would fall within the boundaries of the Curaçao Culture group, however Curaçao Culture supplements this with contributions from the other ethnic groups. Such that both physical and behavior factors are decisive in establishing Yu di Korsow ethnicity, with an emphasis on some form of African-descent connection. As an example, during an interview with a Chinese-born man living 20 years on Curaçao, I asked if his locally-born, Papiamentu-speaking son was a ‘Yu di Korsow’. His response was to laugh and say, “You could say that, but if a Yu di Korsow would look at my child’s face he would call him a Chinese, not a Yu di Korsow”. This situation is equally applicable to resident children of the Dutch, Portuguese, Hindu or other non-African ethnic peoples. Yet in contrast, the island-born Yu di Korsow who has their primary cultural development elsewhere, in this case most often the Netherlands, they have greater difficulty fitting into the Curaçao Culture group.

If we are to seek a greater cooperation among the diverse ethnic groups which compose Curaçao Culture, the most efficient approach will be through the education of all segments within the community. There should be initiated required elementary school curriculum focused on education about what is Curaçao Culture. Further, and perhaps more significant, there should be a public and private effort to educate the general population about the unique character of each of the various ethnic groups represented on Curaçao. With a better understanding of the details of each group’s cultural traits, by the others, the rigidity of the ethnic boundaries can be reduced. Thus when the African-descendents are more aware of Chinese lifeways on Curaçao, there is a deeper appreciation for each other and each other’s contributions to Curaçao. When the Chinese knows more about the Portuguese, and the Dutch more about the Hindu, and the Catholics more about the Jews, and so forth, there is not a reduction of integrity for each separate group but rather the strengthening of the cement that binds them, Curaçao Culture.

Paper presented to the 23rd International Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research (SIETAR) Conference, June 5, 1997, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles.