{"id":119169,"date":"2020-10-31T18:14:01","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T17:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=119169"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:12","slug":"mayor-aboutaleb-should-apologise-to-rotterdammers-of-african-ancestry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/10\/31\/mayor-aboutaleb-should-apologise-to-rotterdammers-of-african-ancestry\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mayor Aboutaleb should apologise to Rotterdammers of African ancestry\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

One in eight citizens of Rotterdam is a direct descendant of an enslaved African. And Rotterdam was a lot more closely involved in slavery \u2013 be it through its entrepreneurs, patricians or ordinary citizens \u2013 than most people realise. What should the city do with this knowledge? Alex van Stipriaan: \u201cYou can no longer say: we didn\u2019t know this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alex van Stipriaan is Professor of Caribbean History at Erasmus University Rotterdam. On 31 October, Van Stipriaan\u2019s book Rotterdam in Slavernij <\/em>(\u2018Rotterdam in Slavery\u2019) was presented to Mayor Aboutaleb, together with two other books. These publications came out of a large-scale study into Rotterdam\u2019s involvement in slavery and the city\u2019s colonial history and identity. This research was commissioned by Rotterdam\u2019s municipal council in response to a motion<\/a> submitted by Peggy Wijntuin, who at the time represented PvdA in the council.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Why did you feel there needed to be a book about Rotterdam\u2019s involvement in slavery?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cToo often, the history of slavery is still seen as a Surinamese, Antillean or African affair. And when people do talk about a Dutch connection, the focus tends to be on Amsterdam or Middelburg. But if there\u2019s one thing this book shows it\u2019s that Rotterdam was involved in slavery in all sorts of ways, be it through its governors, patricians or ordinary people. An interesting result of this local approach is that it allowed me to show just how widespread this involvement actually was.\u201d<\/p>\n

In your book, you focus among other things on a number of prominent businesses and families. Could you name an example?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of them is the De Mey family. Rotterdammers through and through. Although originally, of course, they came from elsewhere \u2013 like every family in Rotterdam. In this case Flanders. But they prospered in Rotterdam. The De Meys had a number of sugar refineries, for which they needed raw materials. These were imported from Brazil, which at the time was still a Dutch colony. Later on, the De Meys shifted their attention to Curacao and Suriname, where they took over a large sugar plantation. They remained the owners of this plantation until the abolition of slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re talking about a plantation where slaves \u2013 or rather, \u2018enslaved people\u2019, as you refer to them \u2013 did the heavy work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. And at the end of the slavery period, the family<\/em> actually received a reimbursement for the loss of their \u2018property\u2019: the enslaved people. This was not unusual at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rotterdam\u2019s ties with slavery extend far beyond an isolated plantation owner. Everything and everyone was connected in some way or other, you write in your book. Could you explain?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes the De Meys an atypical example is that they didn\u2019t mortgage their operation to a Rotterdam banking firm. Many other plantation owners had done this. Businesses like Coopstad & Rochussen or the firm Hudig organised ship voyages and issued mortgages that had slavery-based plantations in the Caribbean as surety. The capital for these arrangements was often collected via negotiation. This meant a lot of people in Rotterdam had a direct stake in slavery \u2013 not just wealthy entrepreneurs, but also ordinary citizens who had invested their savings. What\u2019s more: these trading houses earned a commission on sales, and the provisions for these plantations were all sourced from Rotterdam. Everything \u2013 from burlap bags to writing materials \u2013 was made, purchased or shipped in Rotterdam. And the same applies to luxury goods \u2013 fabrics, weapons, gunpowder, alcohol, all sorts of items \u2013 that were used to buy people along the African coast: from today\u2019s Sierra Leone all the way to Angola. Rotterdam served as a hub that linked all sorts of manufacturers \u2013 in Borculo, Groningen, Maastricht, all the way to Germany \u2013 with Africa and the Caribbean.\u201d<\/p>\n

To which extent was Rotterdam directly involved in large-scale trafficking?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRotterdam bears responsibility for around 12 percent of all enslaved people transported under a Dutch flag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018You don\u2019t bear guilt for the conduct of your ancestors. The only thing you could say is: I have a responsibility to learn about this history, share it and give thought to its repercussions\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

These remain heinous crimes, with huge repercussions. To what degree could you call this book an inquest into the guilty parties?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t find any mention of \u2018guilt\u2019 or \u2018guilty\u2019 in my book. This is also something I find problematic in the current debate. You don\u2019t bear guilt<\/em> for the conduct of your ancestors. The only thing you could say is: I have a responsibility to learn about this history, share it and give thought to its repercussions. And if you indulge in racist behaviour in the wake of this history, you should feel guilty about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were different times, is what people often say when slavery is brought up. Do they have a point?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say: that\u2019s how things were back then, people didn\u2019t know any better. Which is complete nonsense, for more than one reason. In my research, I show that people have always protested against the practice of slavery \u2013 including in Rotterdam. Ministers, thinkers, politicians, writers, playwrights, you name it. They believed that slavery runs counter to what\u2019s said in the Bible, to Enlightenment ideas or nascent democratic ideals. There was no case of \u2018I wasn\u2019t aware of it\u2019 back then. I found lottery tickets showing a white man whipping a black man, with the caption \u2018slavery\u2019. People subsequently used these tickets as playing cards, in the tavern or at home. So people literally came across images of slavery in their everyday surroundings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe selective rejection of slavery is also effectively illustrated by the debate surrounding white slavery, to which I\u2019ve devoted a section of my book. This concerned Rotterdam citizens who had been captured by the Barbary pirates, as they were called at the time. They were North Africans and Ottomans who seized merchant vessels in order to sell the cargo and crewmembers to the sultan and the galley captains. This form of slavery was considered absolutely unacceptable and inspired many collection drives in the city\u2019s streets and churches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018People say: that\u2019s how things were back then, people didn\u2019t know any better. Which is complete nonsense, for more than one reason\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the consequences of the slavery history of the Netherlands. In your book, you quote a Surinamese bank director who describes the present political and economic situation in Suriname as a direct outcome of this past. Do you agree with him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s referring to what you could call Suriname\u2019s neo-colonial cultural identity. The idea that people are less likely to take the initiative because they never learnt to do so. That they don\u2019t take action, because this was penalised for centuries. The interesting thing about the slavery period is that it is a history of conflict. This book once again shows how much resistance there has always been. In the period that followed \u2013 the colonial phase \u2013 those in power tried to quell this resistance, with great success. The people in Suriname, for example, were no longer oppressed physically, but mentally. And this process was bolstered by all these so-called civilisation initiatives \u2013 Christianisation, education. And this has had long-lasting effects. A very poignant example is the hierarchy based on skin colour, either conscious or unconscious, that has survived to this day. Including in Suriname and Curacao. The lighter your skin tone, the more beautiful you are considered \u2013 and the better your prospects in society. This can be very far-reaching. Sometimes, you can even see people being distinguished on the basis of skin tone within individual families. I know people who want nothing more to do with their families due to this kind of discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the debate surrounding slavery, there is a strong interest in the profits and losses associated with slavery \u2013 also with an eye on possible reparation payments. You have meticulously inventoried the financial details of a number of Rotterdam stakeholders. Nevertheless, you refuse to draw a conclusion from this overview. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s impossible. How could you ever arrive at a definite profit-and-loss account for the practice of slavery? Which aspects should you include? Just the income of the De Mey family? Or also of the Dutch grocers who sold sugar? And the people who cleaned their shops? And imagine you totted up some figure \u2013 what then? There\u2019s a professor here in the Netherlands who has calculated a specific total and concluded that it wasn\u2019t as bad as it seems. I think this a very futile pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also becomes clear from your book that Rotterdam\u2019s city government was involved in all sorts of ways. The Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, is currently considering an official apology in response to a similar study. Should Ahmed Aboutaleb follow suit?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am very happy with the book published about Amsterdam\u2019s past, and the debate that it has given rise to. But to be honest, I think our Mayor Aboutaleb is doing a better job. For quite a few years already, he has been calling on our national government to issue a formal apology. I think that makes more sense than all these separate statements: first Amsterdam, the Rotterdam and then in ten years\u2019 time\u2026 I don\u2019t know\u2026 Zutphen, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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