In 1646, João Mina, an enslaved laborer on a West African sugar cane plantation in what was then Portuguese Brazil, fled to Dutch Brazil, where the Dutch West India Company interrogated him. in an attempt to obtain intelligence that would give them leverage over Portugal. João was just one of many people enslaved during this time of global conflict between these world powers.
It also happens that he shares my last name – not by choice but by force, and we never learn his birth name. João Mina is a cousin not by blood or marriage but by colonization. And although I am unaware of slavery in my specific Filipino ancestry, the Spaniards practiced it throughout the archipelago. I am aware of how people from many different cultures in what we now call the Global South were drawn into various forms of slavery, forced labor, segregation and coercion so that the powers that be could obtain their favors.
João Mina is one of the 10 portrait subjects in Slavery: ten true stories of Dutch colonial slavery, an exhibition at the United Nations curated and organized by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It was organized in partnership with the United Nations Awareness Program on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery and opened in respect of the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. An adapted version of a 2021 exhibition presented at the Amsterdam Museumit has particular resonance in this context, especially since the outreach program, intended to educate the public about the transatlantic slave trade and its enduring legacy, was only established in 2007.
The centerpiece is a trunco, the Portuguese word for “tree trunk”, which was discovered in the 1960s in Zeeland, the Netherlands. Resembling a larger version of those kitchen utensils for measuring spaghetti, it was intended to hold slaves’ legs in place to prevent them from escaping. We see an illustration of the device in action in the section of the exhibition dedicated to João.
The other nine stories present a cross-section of society at the time. Some, like Oopjen, a wealthy woman from Amsterdam, profited greatly from the slave trade. Others, like Surapati in Java, Indonesia, and Tula in Curacao, rebelled against it. The exhibition includes illustrations, artifacts and paintings that can help us understand the lives of the people presented. They are displayed on mirrored walls, as if trying to remind us that we are all, in some way, part of this chapter of human history, the legacy of which continues today.
Which brings me to what I found missing from the exhibit: the ongoing legacy of slavery. I wandered into a UN exhibit next to the Rijksmuseum exhibit, dedicated to data and stories about Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Many of these countries were directly affected by the slave trade, and perhaps there was an opportunity to highlight this relationship more openly given that they occupied the same space in the UN lobby.
That said, the United Nations Outreach Program on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery does just that. Like their 2023 Remembrance Program Notes: “The racist legacy of the transatlantic slave trade reverberates today in harmful prejudices and beliefs that still live on and continue to affect people of African descent around the world.” I would have liked to see this made more explicit in the Rijksmuseum exhibition, given the symbolic importance of the exhibition site.
A person in the exhibition who could have had the power to place João Mina’s legs in a trunk is Dirk van Hogendorp, a slaver. Influenced by the ideals of the French Revolution, he advocated for the end of slavery as a playwright. His cash books tell us another story: while employing free laborers, he still ended up buying slaves, pointing out that the free laborers were not loyal enough to his business operations at his coffee and oil plantation. orange trees.
Her story reminded me of the lyrics of a Curaçao song featured on the show. The music sounds goodand in translation his words are considerably more honest than Mr. van Hogendorp’s sentiments:
Slaves are chickens, mama Slaves are chickens The landlord sells us, mama Slaves are chickens.
Slavery: ten true stories of Dutch colonial slavery continues at the United Nations Headquarters in New York (405 E 42nd St, Turtle Bay, Manhattan) until March 30. The exhibition was organized by the Rijksmuseum. He will travel to different United Nations headquarters internationally until 2024.
