Tree of Forgetfulness

The trans-Atlantic trade in slaves lasted for three centuries. Millions of Africans were forced to leave their places of birth and march to the coast to await their deportation to the European plantations on the other side of the Atlantic. The histories of West Africa and Suriname are thus inextricably entwined with the Dutch colonial past.

Laura Samsom Rous and Hans Samsom photographed the final section of the slave route in Africa lasting hundreds of kilometres that ended at the port of Ouidah in Benin on the Slave Coast of West Africa. They also took photographs of the king of Benin, whose forefathers had cooperated with the European slave traders.
They followed the trail to Suriname, photographing the inland, the village Tutubuka, and the Maroons, the direct descendants of the slaves that managed to escape the plantations and fight for their freedom.
Laura Samsom Rous took the portrait photographs, and Hans Samsom used a panoramic camera with a rotating lens to photograph the landscape. Text in English, Dutch, French and Sranan.

Laura Samsom Rous studied anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and was a lecturer at the Academy of Art in Utrecht and The Hague. Her photographs are in international collections. Together with Hans Samsom, she worked for the United Nations, the Anti Apartheid Movement and the Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands. They work and live in Amsterdam.

Hans Samsom studied at the Academy for Photography in The Hague and worked as a commercial photographer at the Groebli studios in Zürich. Together with Laura Samsom Rous he worked for the United Nations, the Anti Apartheid Movement and the Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands. They work and live in Amsterdam.