(Hoogeveen, 1939) wrote his PhD thesis in 1984 on the discussion on the slave trade and slavery held in several literary and other texts (ca. 1625-1825). Since 1962 Paasman has been teaching Dutch historical and modern literature at the University of Amsterdam, specialised in the Enlightenment, colonial, post-colonial and migrant literature. He has edited series and magazines in the field of the Enlightenment and East and West Indian literature, particularly Dutch East Indian literature. He was a visiting lecturer at academies and universities in Indonesia, South Africa and Surinam. He is professor emeritus of Colonial and Post Colonial Cultural and Literary History at the University of Amsterdam.

(1955) studied landscape architecture at Wangeningen University. Some time after her graduation she decided to choose journalism as a profession. She started her own office for journalistic productions and photography in 1985. In addition to assignments in the agricultural sphere she has written on a wide range of subjects, notably nature, the environment and health care, but also on social and cultural affairs. In 2000 her book Mexicaanse sneeuw (Mexican Snow) was published, a visual travelogue on the time she spent with the Tarahumara, a primitive indian tribe in the inaccessible Mexican highlands. De weg naar Villarbon (The Road to Villarbon) is the story about a deserted village in Spain, about the ideals of an enthusiastic mayor that clash with new initiatives. This colourful novel appeared in 2004. In 2006 the novel De groeten aan de koningin (Greetings to the Queen) was published, the report of her adventurous journey to the interior of Surinam.

(Netherlands, 1958) has produced and presented the VPRO radio programme OVT since 2002, a two-hour show about the historical roots of current events as well as newly released historical books, films, commemorations, and anything else related to history. The show features live interviews, reportage, columns and a weekly documentary during the last half hour. He was already linked to OVT since 1992 as a programmer and previously freelanced for other national Dutch broadcasters such as VARA and IKON.

(1955) studied Dutch in Groningen. She taught at a secondary school for two years. She has been working fulltime as a journalist since 1981, first with Winschoter Courant, then with IPS, a third world oriented press agency. She has travelled widely, especially in Africa. By the end of 1989 she travelled to Brazil where she became a correspondent voor de Volkskrant in 1992. She also works for Elsevier, Dutch television news and the news broadcast for young people. She has a column in Vice Versa, the magazine for the Foundation of Dutch volunteers overseas. In 1995 she published Engelen van het asfalt (Alsphalt Angels), a book on the street children in Brazil, awarded a Glazen Globe (Glass Globe). For this book she lived with street kids for four months. Kannibalen in Rio (Cannibals in Rio) is a novel for grownups, also published in 1995. In 2006 Rooksignalen (Smoke Signals) appeared, a book on semi-nomadic indians discovered ten years ago in a very small wood in Brazil where they survived as shipwrecked people.