Celebrating Curaçao’s African Roots Through Culture And Community

Travelers may come to Curaçao for the beaches, but what often goes unseen is the deep African legacy that shapes nearly every part of the island’s identity. Even though the island is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, its Black cultural leaders are reclaiming and redefining the spaces that tell their story—inviting visitors to experience the island far beyond its postcard views.

One of the most intentional examples is Landish, a one-of-a-kind shop in Willemstad where visitors get a first-hand taste of the island’s traditions. Its founder, Najhilah van Dinter, grounds the space in the meaning of its name.

“Landish means everything that’s from a land or has characteristics of the land,” says van Dinter. “Our main goal is for everybody to get a cultural experience and that you learn something new about our culture and heritage. So when you come, you can dress up in traditional attire and take your picture at our beautiful background.”

Van Dinter opened Landish in January 2024, fulfilling a dream her mother had shared with her years ago.

“I can remember her talking about this since forever,” she recalls. “And I was like, OK, I think I’m going to do this because we need this. Curaçao needs something like this.”

For Van Dinter, the space fills a void in the visitor experience.

“A lot of people come to Curaçao, and they will go to the beaches. They will come to the restaurants. But they never have one place like this where you can go and get information about our culture, our people, our heritage,” she says. “When you go for a vacation, you just don’t go to the beaches or to get to know the superficial things. You need to get to know the people, the culture.”

Beyond cultural presentation, the island’s African influence also shapes spiritual healing. Marèrly Sambo, a community herbalist, grounds her work in ancestral practices passed down through generations.

“I went all the way back to my core to find out what I needed to heal myself,” she says. “I grew up with my grandmother making potions and teas… and that was very inspiring for me when I went back to my core to find out how I can heal myself. And it was going back also to my ancestors.”

Sambo believes healing is collective—something shared throughout the people of Curaçao. It’s one of the reasons she prefers to speak their native language, Papiamentu, during her sessions.

“It means resilience. It was enslaved people coming together, each one of them speaking other languages, and they made this language from scratch. So it’s honoring my ancestors by speaking Papiamentu.”

The island’s tourism ambassadors also highlight this African foundation, tracing their roots back to countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast.

“We’re not in Africa anymore, but Africa lives very much inside of us,” says Damaris Sambo of the Curaçao Tourist Board. She also emphasizes that Papiamentu connects the island to the diaspora.

“And we are super, super proud of it because it’s one of the few languages within the Caribbean that was once the language of those enslaved, but today it’s actually the language of the whole entire population.”

For the leaders shaping Curaçao’s cultural landscape, preserving tradition is a form of empowerment. And for visitors, it means experiencing a culture that isn’t preserved in museums, but celebrated by the people who refuse to let it be forgotten—inviting them to become part of a story still being written.

Celebrating Curaçao’s African Roots Through Culture And Community
was originally published on
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