New World I
Everything is Permitted, Nothing is True, Brutus, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Curated by Kendell Geers
For over three hundred years, both adults and children were abducted from various parts of Africa by Dutch and other slave traders. They were transported under the most appalling conditions to former Dutch colonies of Suriname and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten. There, they were then forced to work as slaves on plantations producing sugar, coffee and other crops.
Rotterdam’s maritime expansion is deeply tied to Dutch colonialism, which also involved slavery in Asia. People were sold and transported to areas governed by the United Dutch East India Company (VOC). For generations, people were born into slavery and forced to work on Dutch plantations their entire lives. Slavery thus enabled the Netherlands to become an economic world power.
Port city Rotterdam in The Netherlands was a key player in the Dutch slave trade. During the 17th and 18th centuries, ships would set off from this port city to the west coast of Africa, loaded with textiles, spirits, gunpowder and guns. These goods were used to buy enslaved Africans to then transport them to the Caribbean and Suriname. From the colonies, the ships sailed back to Rotterdam with produce grown on the plantations by enslaved people.
I lie on top of a pile of cane sugar bound and immobilized by steel chains.
Produced with the support of A/POLITICAL