The Afrikan Burial Grounds of St. Eustatius

Afrikan burial grounds are part of the St. Eustatius landscape. As there have been over 70 plantations on the island, about a similar number of burial grounds could be expected. The Afrikan burial grounds were, however, not well documented and marked. So of many, the location is unknown.

 

Six burial grounds are known, of which the Congo burial ground is the only one well-marked and, until recently, in use. Four burial grounds have been (partly) excavated: Golden Rock Plantation, Godet Plantation, Witten Hoek, and Lazaretto. A fifth one is expected at Cul-de-Sac but has not been fully researched.

 

Golden Rock Plantation

In relation to soil extraction for a road, the government asked SECAR to perform preliminary research near the airport. In 2020 they dug trial trenches, which led to the excavation of one adult and the partial investigation of a child burial that was covered for later study.

 

Furthermore, the outline of fifteen possible graves indicated the presence of probably a total of 60 to 70 graves. This may be one of the Caribbean’s largest Afrikan burial grounds, but the Afrikan descendant community was not informed, as they expected the project to cause issues with locals not wanting their ancestors excavated.

 

A large international team excavated 69 burials during the next season. This time the local community in various capacities protested, and although the work for the season was finished, the project came under scrutiny, and a commission was installed to investigate the process and make recommendations for future dealings with archaeological sites.

 

The report harshly criticized the excavation of the human remains without consulting the Afrikan descendant community. It was clearly stated that the main investigator deliberately withheld information from the public for personal gain, as he was afraid the excavation would otherwise be stopped. The report recommended that in the future the local community would be involved in matters concerning their archaeological heritage.

 

The government seems to give more attention to the ancestral remains and the burial site. However, this is done in a haphazard way where community engagement is low. At the moment the Ancestral remains are kept at the Heritage House.

 

Godet Plantation

The Afrikan burial ground at Godet Plantation has come to light through coastal erosion. In 2012, the St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research (SECAR) excavated several burials, as bones were sticking out of the cliff.

After hurricanes Irma and Maria, the site was further damaged, and the Texas State University, in collaboration with SECAR, excavated more burials in 2018. Around twenty individuals were excavated, but an exact number is not given by Bowden (Bowden, Taylor R. (Dec. 2019): “Exploring Enslaved African Lifeways: An Isotopic Study of an 18th Century Cemetery (SE600) on St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands” Thesis Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas)  The individuals are of Afrikan descent, and some were born in Afrika. The burial ground may, therefore, consist of people who worked on the plantation, but those born in Afrika could also have died in the depot for enslaved Afrikans at Fort Amsterdam nearby.

 

Again, the local Afrikan descendant community was not involved. Furthermore, it is not clear where the Ancestral bones are at the moment. In a council meeting in 2021, the reburial of the remains was discussed, but also with little exact information and the impression that only one civil servant was dealing with the issue.

 

Until 2022 the site looked in disarray with tarps and rocks filling the former graves. In May/June 2022, the site was reinforced with boulders on the seaside using an excavator machine. This was done by the Statia Roads and Construction B.V. to protect the site from erosion. It is unclear whether they took any measures to protect the archaeological site from the boulders, such as protective layering in between the burial site and the boulders. Again, this was done without consulting the Afrikan descendant community.

 

Although it is clear that protecting the island from erosion is a valid objective, the impact on the cultural heritage seems not to have been thought through.

 

Witten Hoek (White Hook) 

In 2005 the graves of three individuals were excavated at Witten Hoek by SECAR. They were buried on a plantation at the slope of the Quill in the direction of St. Kitts.

What is especially remarkable are the artifacts associated with the burial of an adult that consisted of “several dog teeth, an iron nail, a magpie shell (Cittarium pica, a type of edible whelk), potsherds, a sherd of glass, and a flat circular iron object.” These types of objects are often found in an Afrikan American and Afrikan Caribbean context and are associated with the performance of rituals by healers/diviners.

Another older male may have worked on ships, as he showed signs of probable scurvy and had a bosun’s whistle in his grave. No mention is made of what happened to the ancestral bones after the research.

 

Lazaretto

Lazaretto is the old leprosy hospital established in 1866, three years after the ending of slavery on St. Eustatius. The patients were most likely formerly enslaved people of Afrikan descent or their children.

In 2004, five adults and a child were excavated. On three individuals, deformations related to leprosy were determined. Three of the individuals have been reburied, but three individuals remain in storage as they are seen as such good examples of bones deformed by leprosy.

The Afrikan descendant community is not consulted in this matter, which goes against the practice advocated in the field of archaeology on the issue of the remains of people of Afrikan or indigenous descent. People of Afrikan descent have been used for medical experiments in the Americas without their consent throughout history; therefore, the keeping of their bones due to their deformities seems poignant.

 

Reference

kok, marjolijn, 2024. Undocumented in the past, robbed of a present: the case of the Afrikan Burial Grounds on St. Eustatius (Dutch Caribbean). BAT-report 4, Rotterdam.