Pan-Africanism and the Works and Lives of Otto and Hermina Huiswoud

This essay discusses the works and lives of Otto and Hermina Huiswoud in relation to their contributions to Pan-Africanism in particular and how this relates to Black thinkers in the Dutch orbit in general. While there is a lot of knowledge available of a range of European colonial trajectories and their legacies across the Americas and Africa, particularly for the colonies that were in the possession of Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain, there is far less information about the colonies of the smaller nations, such as the Netherlands. Engaging with the smaller territories extends knowledge of colonialism in all its variations and enables scholars to take up a wider range of Black thinkers, and as the author argues, they are all relevant to broadening knowledge with regard to a distinctive Africana intellectual tradition.