A brief history of the occupation of the Caribbean Islands
the Netherlands Antilles.
In 1499 Alonzo de Ojeda, a Spanish navigator, landed on Curaçao, and in 1527 the Spanish took possession of that island as well as Bonaire and Aruba. Peaceful Arawak Indians inhabited the islands at the time of the Europeans' arrival. The Dutch Windward Islands to the north were occupied by warlike Carib Indians when the islands were sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1493. The Dutch came to Curaçao in 1643, wishing to establish an entrepôt for the flourishing trade of the region. Bonaire and Aruba were occupied about the same time, and the Dutch remained in control of the three islands thereafter, except for brief periods of British rule during the Napoleonic Wars. The Dutch Windward Islands changed hands numerous times but remained in Dutch hands from the beginning of the19th century. In 1845 the six islands (then including Aruba) were officially formed into the Netherlands Antilles. The emancipation of slaves in 1863 was a blow to the economy of Curaçao, which was the Caribbean centre of the slave trade. The territory did not fully recover until the early 1900s, with the discovery of the Venezuelan oil fields and the subsequent development of oil refineries in the southern islands. In 1954 the islands became an integral part of the Netherlands, with full autonomy in domestic affairs. A movement toward full independence made progress during the 1970s and early '80s.. Source: Enc Brit. CD99.
From 2000 till 2004 the population of the Islands (Aruba (1986), Curaçao and Sint Maarten voted for independence with the Status Aparte.The Islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius.voted for the status Special Municipalities of the Netherlands. All shall be realized on 15 December 2008.
Following items:
The Islands Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Saint Eustatius and Sint Maarten.
Dominicans and the Bible-translation in Papiamento
The traditional theory is that Papiamento developed in the Caribbean, from a Portuguese-African pidgin used for communication between the African slaves and the Portuguese-speaKing slave traders. For religious and political reasons, the traders were mostly Jews of Portuguese origin. The Judaeo-Portuguese population of the islands increased substantially after 1654, when the Portuguese recovered the Dutch-held territories in Northeast Brazil — causing most of the Portuguese-speaKing Jews in those lands to flee, for fear of being punished as Dutch collaborators. Papiamento is linguistically similar to Ladino, the language of early Portuguese/Spanish Sephardic communities. Since many early residents of Curaçao were Sephardic Jews either from Portugal, Spain, or Portugese Brazil, it is logical that they brought their language with them and continued to speak it among themselves and in communicating with their servants and employees. These servants and employees would have used the language with their own modifications and taught it to their families since jobs existed for those who spoke it. As the Jewish community became the prime merchants and traders in the area, business and everyday trading was conducted in Papiamento/Ladino. As various nations owned the island and official languages changed with ownership, Papiamento/Ladino became the constant language of the residents.
Source: Wikipedia
The Franciscans preached in Papiamento in 1776. The catechism of Mgr Niewind of 1825 is the oldest known text. In 1882 there was a Bible Lectionary for Sun - and Feast Days. The United Protestant Communities on Aruba (VPG) published in 1919 a translation of the New Testament in Papiam,ento; in 1946 the Old Testament.
A complete new translation was realized by an interdenominational team with among others the Dominicans Bernardinus van Baars (02.091926-18.10.1995), Thomas Willers
(20.06.1921-02.05.2000), Antoon Stikvoort (08.07.1934), and Antoon Boks (13.08.1940).
This Bible was presented on 12.03.1997.
Translation of the Bible in Papiamento.
Netherlands Antilles 1996, Mi 865, Sc 765.
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