Lecture Prof. Marjoleine Kars: ‘Multiple Crossings: Black Biographies in the Dutch Atlantic’

On 28 February Marjoleine Kars, emerita Professor at MIT, will hold a lecture at the IISH. Professor Kars is composing a biography of two African men, Accara and Gousarie, who were caught up in Dutch slavery and colonialism during the Age of Revolution. Leaders in the 1763 Berbice slave rebellion, they next served as slave hunters, army drummers in the Dutch Republic, and Maroon fighters in Suriname. Defying easy characterization, the pair were victims, perpetrators, resisters, and collaborators – sequentially and, at times, simultaneously. This talk will detail Professor Kars’ research findings to date and raise questions about how to write the biographies of people forced to shape-shift across boundaries and allegiances and whose presence in the archives is equally slippery. Participation is free of charge and open to all interested, prior registration via e-mail however is required.