INVITATION
We warmly invite you to the launch of the Alliance’s first book: “St. Eustatius: Restoring Our Ties – The Voices of Statians Making A Difference”:
📅 Tuesday, June 30, 2026
🕓 7 PM
📍 GJB Public Library, Oranjestad, St. Eustatius
The book gives a voice to the community of St. Eustatius, an island with a rich but painful history of colonialism, slavery, and cultural oppression.
‘Restoring Our Ties’ is a call for recognition, respect, and action—for the 69 excavated Afrikan Ancestors who are still awaiting reburial, for the marginalized Afrikan burial grounds, and for a community reclaiming its own history.
Join us for an interactive evening in the presence of the author of the book, Dr. Artwell Cain, the publisher of the book, Mr. Marvin Hokstam Baapoure, educator, journalist and founder & chief editor of AFRO Magazine and Executive Director of Broos Institute, Europe’s pioneering Afrocentric academic institution, and many of the interviewees.
Hosted by Alliance’s President, Mr. Kenneth Cuvalay, and Alliance member and Anthropologist Mr. Derrick Simmons.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The project “St. Eustatius: Restoring Our Ties” is a continuation of the Alliance’s previous project, “Reclaiming Our Stories: Restoring Our Ties”.
Previous projects of the Alliance concentrated on activities that connected the Statian community to its Afrikan history, whereas this project focuses on the community itself.
The project is small quick-scan research that focuses on capturing the voice of the Afrikan diaspora community on the island. From June 6 to 24, 2025, Dr. Cain was in Statia and conducted twenty interviews and several focus group sessions in different settings and locations. The final focus group meeting in the Gertrude Judson Bicentennial Public Library was on June 19, 2025.
The scope of the interview questions:
- Personal details
- History of Statia
- The presence of Afrikans
- The remains of the deceased Afrikans
- Reburial and building monuments
- The role of memory and heritage
The project was made possible through the DNB Fund – sub-area Caribbean, in partnership with the Cultuurfonds Caribisch Gebied (CCG) and the Slavery History Memorial Committe.
