Colonialism and Slavery: An Alternative History of the Port City of Rotterdam

249 Pages·2021·5.381 MB·English

by  Gert Oostindie (editor)

I;EIDEN
UNIYEKSITY HBSS

This book is based on three books in Dutch that were published in 2020 as the result of an assign-
ment given by Rotterdam Municipality to the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and
Caribbean Studies (kitlv-knaw) to investigate the city’s colonial past and links with slavery.
The three books were published together by Boom Uitgevers Amsterdam:
Gert Oostindie (ed.), Het koloniale verleden van Rotterdam
Alex van Stipriaan, Rotterdam in slavernij
Francio Guadeloupe, Liane van der Linden & Paul van de Laar (eds),
Rotterdam, een postkoloniale stad in beweging
Translation: Clare Wilkinson, Tessera Translations, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Design: Bart van den Tooren
Cover illustration: Painting by Charley Toorop, 1926, originally given the title
Negroes, Rotterdam (the curaçao museum). There is no further information
available about the black men portrayed in the picture.
Print: Wilco, The Netherlands
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted texts and
illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights
to this material is advised to contact the publisher.
isbn 978 90 8728 370 4
e-isbn 978 94 0060 422 3
nur 680
© GERT OOSTINDIE / LEIDEN UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2021
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book
may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written
permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
This book is distributed in North America by the University of Chicago Press
(www.press.uchicago.edu).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL ROTTERDAM
gert oostindie 9
II ROTTERDAM S COLONIAL CONNECTIONS
’
SHIPPING AND TRADE, INDUSTRY AND FINANCE
gerhard de kok 35
III ROTTERDAM AND TRANSATLANTIC SLAVERY
alex van stipriaan 68
IV CIVIC GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESSMEN IN ROTTERDAM
COLONIAL CROSS-FERTILIZATION
henk den heijer 111
V MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
TRACES OF A COLONIAL PAST IN THE CITY OF ROTTERDAM
pauline k.m. van roosmalen 131
VI COLONIAL ROTTERDAM
A HOTBED FOR DUTCH MISSIONARY WORK, 1797-1977
tom van den berge 153
VII A NEVER-ENDING STORY
COLONIAL COLLECTIONS IN ROTTERDAM
alexandra van dongen

& liane van der linden 171
VIII MAKING A HOME IN ROTTERDAM
COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL MIGRANTS TO AND FROM THE CITY
esther captain 202
IX THE ROAD IS MINE
THE SUMMER CARNIVAL AS A CASE STUDY FOR POSTCOLONIAL ROTTERDAM
francio guadeloupe,
paul van de laar
& liane van der linden 222
About the Authors 240
Index 243
1.1 The Rotterdam slavery monument on Lloydkade, designed by Alex da Silva
and unveiled in 2013 (Photo: Engelien de Ruijter).
I
gert oostindie
COLONIAL AND
POSTCOLONIAL
ROTTERDAM
9
With around 600,000 inhabitants, Rotterdam is the Netherlands’ second-
largest city. It has a reputation for being a city of hard workers who believe
i

in letting their actions do the talking. This is the city whose port has co
l
propelled the Dutch economy forward, the city that labours away relent- o
n
i
lessly. ‘Rotterdam Dares’, as its city-branding slogan said in 2004. That is a
l

certainly the case for its buildings: Rotterdam is famous for its impressive a
n
skyline and modern architecture. And ‘010’, as Rotterdam is affectionately d

p
known after its phone area code, has now become a cool destination for o
s
t
travellers seeking to escape the tourist crowds in Amsterdam. Like the c
o
capital, Rotterdam too is a dynamic, multicultural city with a wealth of lo
n
culture, bars and restaurants and a lively night life. ia
l
But there is another, less positive side to this success story: great dis-
r
o
parities in wealth and privilege, serious inner-city problems and sharp di- t
t
e
visions along political — and sometimes ethnic — fault lines. The waves r
d
of migration after the Second World War have played a key role here. As a
m
in other Dutch cities, large numbers of migrants from the former colonies
and other parts of the world settled in Rotterdam. White Dutch people
now make up about half the city’s population, and migrants and their chil-
dren from all over the world the other half. Over 12 per cent of Rotterdam’s