Now on view at the Zeeland Museum is the exhibition Afterlivesof slavery. It has been more than 160 years since slavery was abolished but the unequal racial relations built up over hundreds of years have not disappeared on their own. While the relationship between the slavery past and the present is not clear to many white Dutch people, for most black Dutch people the link to inequality, racism and discrimination is painfully obvious. In this exhibition, we ask the questions: What is our shared slavery past? How do we deal with it today? And how can we make a common future? We do this through historical objects, works of art and interviews with scholars and other experts.
The Zeeuws Museum is taking over Afterlivesof slavery from the World Museum. It is using the presentation to explore with experts and the public how stories about the Zeeland role in slavery and colonial history can be added to the This is Zeeland exhibition in the future. The World Museum's version has been expanded to include several Zeeland pieces such as Zeus Hoenderop's documentary Kom (2023). This film shows the process surrounding the placement of the slavery monument in Vlissingen. Also, the original protest signs from the Black Lives Matter demonstration in 2020 in Middelburg return to the Abdijplein. It is on loan from the Rijksmuseum, which has included the entire series in its collection. Remy Jungerman's installation White Hand (2008) is from its own collection. The work was acquired by the Zeeuws Museum on the occasion of his exhibition Heimwee in 2008.
In Afterlivesof slavery there is also spoken word by Onias Landveld and Dorothy Blokland; there are interviews with Karwan Fatah-Black, Marian Markelo, Amade M'charek and Gloria Wekker and films by Elizeth Labega, Jean Hellweg and Wijnand Stomp.
CARGO, HUMAN CARGO AND RETURN
THREADS OF THE NETHERLANDS' HISTORY OF SLAVERY
At the same time, the Zeeland edition of the handicraft project Threads of the Netherlands’ History of Slavery will start. Workshops throughout Zeeland will collaborate on a three-part tapestry. Everyone is welcome to participate. The workshop at the Zeeuws Museum is part of Afterlivesof slavery . The creation of the tapestry can be followed at the Maritime muZEEum in Vlissingen. When the tapestry is finished, it will tour the province.
Artist Liesbeth Labeur is creating the design. In terms of content, she drew on the triangular trade of which a unique trade archive is preserved in the Archives of Zeeland. To incorporate other perspectives and stories in addition to this economic perspective, the artist involved descendants of enslaved people in the design process. The three sections of the tapestry focus on three journeys: those with Cargo; Human Cargo and Return. Cargo is the cargo of merchandise on the ship from Middelburg or Vlissingen to Africa that was exchanged for enslaved people. As Human Cargo they were taken to the Caribbean, where they were forced to work without pay on various plantations. The cargo Return consisted of the cultivated products shipped back to Zeeland.
Threads of the Netherlands’ History of Slavery is a nationwide initiative of the Villa Maecenatis Foundation. In 2022, a tapestry was made in Groningen by as many as 400 Groningers.
