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Betül Sefika: Crops

By Betül Sefika, translated by Laura Vroomen
28 April 2021 1 min. reading time Young Voices on Slavery

Eighteen young Flemish and Dutch authors bring an artefact to life from the Slavery exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Betül Sefika was inspired for her visual poem by a rice stalk of the Ma Sapi variety, which is directly descended from rice seeds that were smuggled from Africa to Suriname by the enslaved woman Sapali.

Betul SAPALI c Marlies Lageweg 1500px Rice stalk Ma Sape/ Sapali, 21st century. The rice variety is descended from rice seeds that possibly ended up in Suriname via a slave ship from Africa. Sapali braided the stalk of rice into her hair when she escaped from a plantation.
© Tinde van Andel, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, Photo: Marlies Lageweg

Crops

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This text was written during a residency at Flemish-Dutch cultural organisation Huis deBuren in association with the Biermans-Lapôtre Foundation.

Betul Sefika klein

Betül Sefika

Visual artist, graphic designer and writer. In her work she often explores the boundaries of her medium and tries to establish an intimacy with the viewer by working on a small scale and leaving gaps. She has exhibited in OFGallery and Het Bos, took part in De Verwonderkamer (‘The Cabinet of Curiosities’, a collaboration between Flemish and Frisian writers) and her work has appeared in DW B and TIM magazine. As the latter’s in-house astrologist, she writes and illustrates a horoscope.

photo © Marianne Hommersom

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