On October 21, Administrators Joris Boddaert and Victor Cramer participated an evening of dialogue on Zeeland’s slavery past at the former MCC Pakhuis on the Balans in Middelburg. The evening was co-sponsored by a contribution from the Family Fund. The evening began with a tour of the nearby Zeeuws Archief.
The Zeeuws Archief has an impressive exhibition on Zeeland’s slavery past. Among other things, the Zeeuws Archief manages the archive of the Middelburgse Commercie Compagnie (MCC). The MCC is a lot less renowned than the VOC and the WIC, but from 1740 onwards it specialised mainly in the transatlantic triangular trade. In the archives of the MCC, we find letters, journals, reports, procedural documents and notarial deeds in which, in addition to all the facts, eyewitnesses report how things were during a voyage. The exhibition is well worth seeing and can be visited in Middelburg and online.
The evening continued with a dialogue led by Peggy Bouva and Maartje Duin on the theme of Zeeland’s slavery past. Maartje met Peggy during the recording of the very listen-worthy VPRO podcast: “The Plantation of our Ancestors”. Maartje and Peggy spoke with their guests Jochem Sprenger (no descendent) and Naeem Juliana about the economic and ecological consequences of slavery.
In a lively discussion, the speakers made connections between past and present and managed to draw a sharp contrast between Jochem’s history as a descendant of a plantation owner and Naeem’s as a descendant of an enslaved person. At the same time, the family histories were at times connected and intertwined, for example when it became apparent that the parents of both had studied together. Discussion in small groups then explored various questions and created a conversation between participants that sometimes chafed and sometimes connected about how we relate to the slavery past in this day and age.