Annina van Neel

Mar 27, 2024 | theguardian.com | Annina van Neel |Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo |Jo Ellison |Maya Wolfe-Robinson

The remote island of St Helena, a British overseas territory, is best known for Napoleon's tomb – the island's biggest tourist attraction. However, while overseeing the construction of a long-awaited airport on the island, Annina van Neel learns that the remains of thousands of formerly enslaved Africans have been uncovered, unearthing one of the most significant physical remaining traces of the transatlantic slave trade in the world.

Mar 27, 2024 | theguardian.com | Annina van Neel

At the end of January 2012, I arrived on St Helena after a six-day journey by ship from Cape Town. After being surrounded by water for nearly a week, the sight of land on the midnight-blue horizon was overwhelming. It was as though someone had forgotten their piece of land in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. 47 square miles of volcanic rock, 2,810 miles from the coast of Brazil and 1,610 miles from Angola – an oasis in a desert, an enigma.

Jun 20, 2023 | dezwijger.nl | Annina van Neel

When working for the construction of the new airport on Saint Helena, Namibian resident Annina Van Neel hears about the discovery of mass graves of formerly enslaved people on the island. When she starts fighting for an honourable resting place, she has to take on resistance, indifference and the persistent legacy of colonialism. After the screening of the film ‘A Story of Bones’, we have invited several experts on culture, heritage and colonialism.