Quaco

Translating Quaco is an umbrella term for our integrated research and teaching activities. Researchers, translators, authors, and students collaborate to open up colonial legacy as a transnational history.

The project

The way we approach colonial history and literature is often nation-centric. Hidden voices and stories remain overlooked, and untranslated.   

Henriette Louwerse, Duco van Oostrum, Filip De Ceuster work with literary translator Jonathan Reeder, guest authors, artists and researchers, and Sheffield students on a range  of projects around colonial legacy and present day multiculturalism. 

We were awarded UK Research and Innovation funding for our Beyond the National Narrative project.

Red letters read Quaco against a background of luscious trees. Subtitle: my life in slavery

We call our activities Translating Quaco, as a tribute to Quaco, the enslaved ‘futiboy’ of Scottish-Dutch officer John Gabriel Stedman.

We offer KS3 workshops based on the graphic novel Quaco to start a conversation about the legacy of slavery.

Centre for Dutch and Flemish Studies

student looking at the camera with papers in her hadn clearly working with young people in a school setting

We understand translation as a broad activity that involves research, contextualisation and activism. We translate, research, and analyse across language, literature, and national histories.

If you are interested in our work, our workshops, or you have ideas for research/translation projects, please get in touch: h.louwerse@sheffield.ac.uk

Guest authors, artists and Events

conference announcement un/known. correcting and (re)collecting texts, stories, languages, Time

Conference: Un/Known

The 15th ALCS Biennial conference will take place in Sheffield 7-9 July 2024. On hidden histories, marginalised voices and the imperative to acknowledge legacies of exclusion.

Beyond the National Narrative

foyer of a building in which you see a poster exhibition and a banner which says slavery ten true stories about Dutch slavery

Exhibition

Exhibition: Ten true stories of Dutch colonial slavery
A special edition of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum exhibition 'Slavery' was on display in the foyer of Jessop West from 9-29 October 2023.

Present history

Surinamese Dutch author Tessa Leuwsha looking straight at the camera with tropical tress in the background

Tessa Leuwsha

We translated an abstract from Leuwsha’s most recent novel 'Plantation Wildlust', a story set in Suriname about 50 years after the abolition of slavery in the former Dutch colony.

Tessa Leuwsha, Plantation Wildlust

Quaco. My Life in Slavery

Red letters read Quaco against a background of luscious trees. Subtitle: my life in slavery
Hidden story translated 
page form graphic novel Quaco
The graphic novel and teaching materials 
18th century leather bound book open on the first page and you see Stedman as soldier
John Gabriel Stedman on Quaco 

Student research projects

Quotation reads: How could we, with our comparatively privileged lives, be suitable translators for this project

Translation and Black Lives Matter

Jordi Britton, one of our student translators reflects on race, whiteness and the role of translation.

The vital role of translation

small collar made of copper with a crest

Podcast

As part of a SURE project, Catherine Newell looked into the representation of the colonial past and slavery in museums in Amsterdam, Brussels and Liverpool

Representing Slavery in Museums in Amsterdam, Liverpool and Brussels

Surinam exhibition SURE Project

British Library project

Megan Strutt took a recent novel of Dutch-Surinamese author Johan Fretz and used it to investigate the collection of the British Library in London.

What does the British Library tell us about Suriname

Our sponsors and partners

For Translating Quaco and our guest authors over the years we receive financial support from the Dutch Language Union, Nederlandse Taalunie.

We collaborate closely with the cultural hub the-low-countries.com who are always willing to discuss how we can share our work.

We collaborate and receive support from: Dutch Centre at Austin Friars, Flanders House in London, UCL (in particular Christine Sas), Dutch Foundation for Literature, Flanders Literature, Black Archives Amsterdam, British Library, UitgeverijL (in particular Rob van Bavel).  

We owe special gratitude to Ineke Mok who took the initiative to create the graphic novel based on her research into the life of Quaco.