“I think it’s important to point out that racism is not something that always existed,” says the Rijksmuseum’s head of history, Valika Smeulders. “Discrimination is universal, but to legalise it as a system that a certain group of people was meant to serve the other half of the world, that is something that was installed by colonialism, and at the end of colonialism that was reinforced through ‘scientific’ racist ideas. Racism was borne out of colonialism, not the other way round.”
Coming to terms with this history involves facing some uncomfortable truths for a nation that has long seen itself as tolerant, and the Rijksmuseum itself realises that it has been slow in telling these stories. “We thought there were no objects to tell this story and that was a large obstruction to starting with it,” explains Sint Nicolaas.
A personal history
The exhibition was years in the planning and involved hiring new staff members with relevant professional as well as personal backgrounds. This includes Smeulders, who was born in Curaçao, and emigrated from the Netherlands to Suriname in 1976 when it had just gained independence. “My ancestors are European, African and Asian. They were enslavers, enslaved and labour migrants. This intricate colonial history has been embraced in the Caribbean at a faster pace than is happening in Europe, but we are now following suit,” she says.
To do so, the museum decided to focus on the stories of individuals involved in the system – those who benefitted from it, suffered under it and ultimately rebelled against it. Concentrating on the social, rather than economic history of slavery was particularly important when it came to telling the stories of those who had been enslaved, “people with names and stories instead of being anonymous ‘slaves’ you find mentioned as ‘cargo’ in the archives,” says Sint Nicolaas.
Direct testimonies from enslaved people are rare as reading and writing were banned in most colonies, so the team had to critically re-examine objects in their collection, carefully interpret contemporary written sources and use oral history in order to tell their stories. The acquisition of new objects including a “troncos”, a foot restraint used to prevent escape, and a “kappa”, a cast-iron kettle used on sugar plantations, helped make more tangible the experiences of those enslaved.