https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4473-9494
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ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the controversies surrounding a statue in the Dutch city of Tilburg: the public representation of a nineteenth-century missionary and a kneeling African Surinamese person with leprosy. To understand the current tensions over the statue, the concept of historical consciousness as part of the Dutch changing historical culture is historicised. It is shown that the statue combines interpretative frameworks from different times, evoking opposing emotions: aversion to the old disdain for Catholics in the predominantly Protestant Netherlands; admiration for Catholic missionary work in the colonies; fierce criticism fuelled by the Black Lives Matter movement. Colonialism and missionary work had strengthened the civilising mission in the colonies, which was grounded on a western conception of progress and white superiority. From a postcolonial perspective, the statue is a narrative of submission and racism, the material presence of an older mnemonic infrastructure. However, the statue also represents the triumphant progress of Catholic emancipation in the Netherlands.
Acknowledgments
I thank Ernest van den Hemel, Joost Op ‘t Hoog and Siep Stuurman for their valuable comments on an earlier version of the text.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Maria Grever, ‘Historici en het oog van de beeldenstorm’, Historici.nl, September 17, 2020, www.historici.nl/historici-en-het-oog-van-de-beeldenstorm/?type=bijdrage (accessed November 6, 2022). See, for discussions in other countries, e.g. Paul Hardin Kapp, ‘Conservation, Tradition and Popular Iconoclasm in North America’, The Historic Environment: Policy and Practice 11 (2021): 97–115; and Ann Rigney, ‘Toxic Monuments and Mnemonic Regime Change’, Studies on National Movements 9 (2022): 7–40.
2 Cynthia C. Prescott and Janne Lahti, ‘Looking Globally at Monuments, Violence and Colonial Legacies’, Journal of Genocide Research 24 (2022): 463–70.
3 Already long ago, several Dutch historians criticised Coen’s violent actions and the erection of a statue, e.g. J. A. van der Chijs, De vestiging van het Nederlandsch gezag over de Banda Eilanden (1599–1621) (Batavia: Albrecht & Co., 1886); and Jan and Annie Romein, eds., ‘Jan Pieterszoon Coen. Couste que couste’, in Erflaters van onze beschaving, vol. 2 (Amsterdam: Querido, 1938), 70–107.
4 In 1617, J. P. Coen was appointed governor-general of the VOC. See Amitav Ghosh, The Nutmeg’s Curse. Parables for a Planet in Crisis (London: John Murray, 2021), 11–14.
5 Peerke Donders later became a professed member of the Redemptorist Congregation. See J. F. L. Dankelman, Peerke Donders. Schering en inslag van zijn leven (Hilversum: Gooi en Sticht, 1982).
6 The reason was the outcome of an investigation into the miraculous recovery of a toddler in 1929. The little boy, Louis Westland, was cured of bone marrow inflammation after his parents had worshipped Peerke Donders for the healing of their child at the birthplace of the missionary. See Karin Bijker and Peter Jan Margry, ‘Tilburg, Z. Petrus (“Peerke”) Donders’, website Bedevaart en Bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland, KNAW Meertens Instituut (updated in 2020), https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/bedevaart/bol/plaats/761 (accessed November 6, 2022).
7 Petra Robben, ‘Katholiek of koloniaal? De veranderende waardering van het standbeeld van Peerke Donders’, Tilburg. Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, monumenten en cultuur 38, no. 1 (2020): 3–12. The canonisation implies at least two proven miracles. The second miracle was the fact that despite working with leprosy patients for 27 years, Donders was not contaminated. In 1887, he died at the age of 77 from the effects of a kidney infection.
8 Herman Fitters, ‘Donder op! Standbeeld van Peerke Donders kan niet meer’, Brabants Dagblad, January 9, 2018. The author used a pun. The family name Donders also refers to the Dutch verb ‘opdonderen’ (piss off).
9 Romée Mulder, Symbool van naastenliefde of koloniale onderdrukking? Verslaglegging over de online bijeenkomsten meerstemmigheid rondom standbeeld Peerke Donders (1809–1887) (Tilburg: Bibliotheek LocHal en Stadsmuseum Tilburg, 2021).
10 Anna Clark and Maria Grever, ‘Historical Consciousness: Conceptualizations and Educational Applications’, in International Handbook of History Teaching and Learning, ed. S. A. Metzger and L. McArthur Harris (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018), 177–201.
11 See for a rather pessimistic approach, David Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). For a more optimistic view, see Jerome de Groot, Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture (London/New York: Routledge, 2009); Maria Grever and Karel van Nieuwenhuyse, ‘Popular Uses of Violent Pasts and Enhancing Historical Thinking’, Journal for the Study of Education and Development / Infancia & Aprendizaje 43, no. 3 (2020): 483–502.
12 H.-G. Gadamer, Truth and Method (London/New York: Continuum Impacts, 2006), 299–306.
13 Ibid., 336.
14 Maria Grever and Robbert-Jan Adriaansen, ‘Historical Culture: A Concept Revisited’, in Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education, ed. Mario Carretero, Stefan Berger and Maria Grever (Basingstoke: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2017), 73–89. For German research see, e.g., Marko Demantowsky, ‘Geschichtskultur und Erinnerungskultur. Zwei Konzeptionen des einen Gegenstandes’, Geschichte, Politik und ihre Didaktik 33, no. 1 (2005): 11–22; and Jörn Rüsen, ‘Tradition: A Principle of Historical Sense-Generation and its Logic and Effect in Historical Culture’, History and Theory, 51 no. 4 (2012): 45–59.
15 Grever and Adriaansen, ‘Historical Culture’, 78–83; Maria Grever, Onontkoombaar verleden. Reflecties op een veranderende historische cultuur (Hilversum: Verloren, 2020).
16 For an extensive bibliography on historical consciousness, see Clark and Grever, ‘Historical Consciousness’.
17 For example, Jörn Rüsen, ed., Western Historical Thinking: An Intercultural Debate (New York: Berghahn Books, 2002); Andreas Körber and Johannes Meyer-Hamme, ‘Historical Thinking, Competencies, and their Measurement’, in New Directions in Assessing Historical Thinking, ed. Kadriye Ercikan and Peter Seixas (New York: Routledge, 2015), 89–101.
18 Jörn Rüsen, ‘Was is Geschichtskultur? Überlegungen zu einer neuen Art, über Geschichte nachzudenken’, in Historische Orientierung: Über die Arbeit des Geschichtsbewußtseins, Sich in der Zeit zurechtzufinden, ed. Jörn Rüsen (Köln: Böhlau, 1994), 211–34; Bernd Schönemann, ‘Geschichtsdidaktik, Geschichtskultur, Geschichtswissenschaft’, in Geschichts-Didaktik. Praxishandbuch für die Sekundarstufe I–II, ed. H. Günther-Armndt (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2003), 11–22. For a critical review of the concept, see Holger Thünemann, ‘Geschichtskultur Revisited: Versuch einer Bilanz nach drei Jahrzhenten’, in Historisierung der Historik. Jörn Rüsen zum 80. Geburtstag, ed. Thomas Sandkühler and Horst Walter Blanke (Cologne: Böhlau, 2018), 127–49.
19 Maria Grever and Robbert-Jan Adriaansen, ‘Historical Consciousness: The Enigma of Paradigms’, Journal of Curriculum Studies 51, no. 6 (2019): 814–30.
20 Christopher Clark, Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019), 1–2.
21 Ibid., 155, 118–21.
22 Ibid., 204–5. On eschatology see Robbert-Jan Adriaansen, The Rhythm of Eternity: The German Youth Movement and the Experience of the Past, 1900–1933 (New York: Berghahn Books, 2015).
23 Clark, Time and Power, 210.
24 François Hartog, Regimes of Historicity: Presentism and Experiences of Time (New York: Columbia Press, 2015).
25 Willem van Schendel and Henk Schulte Nordholt, eds., ‘Time Matters: An Introduction’, in Time Matters: Global and Local Time in Asian Societies (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 2001), 7–18.
26 Antoinette Burton, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865–1915 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 104; Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (New York: Routledge, 1995); Kodjo Afagla, ‘Shattering the Civilizing Claims of Colonialism: George Lammings’ Natives of my Person’, Revue du Cames. Littérature, Langues et Linguistique no. 3, 1st semester (2015): 69–95.
27 Maurice Swirc, De Indische doofpot. Waarom Nederlandse oorlogsmisdaden in Indonesië nooit zijn vervolgd (Amsterdam: De Arbeiderspers, 2022), 62–3. He refers to a transcript of the president’s press interview in Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, vol. 25, 57–73, no. 992, American National Archives. Swirc’s translations of the statements into Dutch are reproduced here in English by me.
28 Swirc, De Indische doofpot, 63, 535–36.
29 Burton, Burdens of History, 2.
30 Ann Laura Stoler, Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 149–51.
31 Maria Grever and Berteke Waaldijk, Transforming the Public Sphere: The Dutch National Exhibition of Woman’s Labour in 1898 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004).
32 Leo Lucassen, The Rise of the European Migration Regime and Its Paradoxes (1945–2020) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
33 Scherto Gill, ‘“Holding Oneself Open in a Conversation”: Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics and the Ethics of Dialogue’, Journal of Dialogue Studies 3, no. 1 (2015): 9–28.
34 Herman Paul, ed., ‘The Art of Historical Conversation’, in Key Issues in Historical Theory (New York/London: Routledge, 2014), 129–33; Grever, Onontkoombaar verleden, 160–72.
35 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 83.
36 Ibid., 291–99; Jean Grondin, ‘Gadamer’s Basic Understanding of Understanding’, in The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer, ed. Robert J. Dostal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 36–51.
37 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 308.
38 Justyna Olko, ‘Body Language in the Preconquest and Colonial Nahua World’, Ethnohistory 61 (2014): 149–79, 162.
39 Concerning the meaning of kneeling in Catholic and Protestant contexts, see Christelijke Encyclopedie, https://www.ensie.nl/christelijke-encyclopedie/knie-knielen (accessed November 6, 2022).
40 World Council of Churches, ‘Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes’, September 6, 2012. https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/together-towards-life-mission-and-evangelism-in-changing-landscapes (accessed November 6, 2022).
41 Philippa Levine, ‘States of Undress: Nakedness and the Colonial Imagination’, Victoria Studies 50, no. 2 (2008): 189–90.
42 Ibid., 191.
43 Markus Balkenhol, Tracing Slavery: An Ethnography of Diaspora, Affect, and Cultural Heritage in Amsterdam (Amsterdam: VU Press, 2014), 12–13.
44 Majorca Daily Bulletin, June 26, 2020, www.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/local/2020/06/24/68861/anger-over-junipero-serra-statue-petra.html (accessed November 6, 2022).
45 Robin Young, ‘Boston Artist Doesn’t See Freedom in Lincoln Statue Featuring Enslaved Man, Calls for Removal’, WBUR Here & Now, June 29, 2020.
46 Marie Fazio, ‘Boston Removes Statue of Formerly Enslaved Man Kneeling Before Lincoln’, New York Times, December 29, 2020.
47 Mulder, Symbool van naastenliefde, 4.
48 Jasmijn Rana, Marlous Willemsen and Hester Dibbits, ‘Moved by the Tears of Others: Emotion Networking in the Heritage Sphere’, International Journal of Heritage Studies 23 (2017): 977–88.
49 Mulder, Symbool van naastenliefde, 7.
50 Ibid., 13.
51 Marit Monteiro, ‘Colonial Complicities: Catholic Missionaries, Chinese Elite and Non-Kin Support for Chinese Children in Semarang during the 1930s’, BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review 135, no. 4 (2020): 158–83; Idesbald Goddeeris, Missionarissen. Geschiedenis, herinnering, dekolonisering (Leuven: LannooCampus, 2021), 10–12.
52 Geertje Mak, Marit Monteiro and Elisabeth Wesseling, ‘Child Separation: (Post)Colonial Policies and Practices in the Netherlands and Belgium’, BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review 135, no. 4 (2020): 4–28.
53 Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Wit over zwart. Beelden van Afrika en zwarten in de westerse populaire cultuur (Amsterdam: NOVIB, 1990), 52–62.
54 Mak, Monteiro and Wesseling, ‘Child Separation’, 17.
55 Gloria Wekker, ‘Witte onschuld in koloniaal Nederland’, Tilburg, 6th Peerke Donders lecture, November 6, 2016, https://www.wereldpodium.nu/programmas-en-activiteiten/peerke-donderslezing/peerke-donderslezing-2016-door-gloria-wekker/peerke-donderslezing-2016-lezing/ (accessed November 6, 2022).
56 Dankelman, Peerke Donders, 164–5.
57 Mulder, Symbool van naastenliefde, 4, 7.
58 Herman Fitters, ‘Peerke en het verdeelde verleden. Helend verwerken: Mission Impossible of Heilige opgave?’, Working Group Caribbean Literature, June 6, 2020. https://werkgroepcaraibischeletteren.nl/peerke-en-het-verdeelde-verleden/ (accessed November 6, 2022); Robben, ‘Katholiek of koloniaal’, 10.
59 Fitters, ‘Peerke en het verdeelde verleden’.
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Maria Grever
Maria Grever is emeritus professor in Theory of History and founding director of the Center for Historical Culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since 2020, she has also been a research fellow at the NL-Lab Humanities Cluster in Amsterdam. She has published widely on historical culture, historical consciousness, heritage, canonisation processes and national identity. Her most recent book is Inescapable Past: Reflections on a Changing Historical Culture (2020). She published as co-editor with Mario Carretero and Stefan Berger the Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education (2017). Grever was research leader of various research projects, such as Paradoxes of De-Canonization (2004–2006); Heritage Education, Plurality of Narratives and Shared Historical Knowledge (2009–2014); National Narratives in Dutch and English History Textbooks (2011–2016); and War! Popular Culture and European Heritage of Major Armed Conflicts (2015–2021). Her work has received several awards, including an elective membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). She is currently leading a KNAW committee that will formulate advice on how to deal with debates relating to Dutch controversial monuments in the public sphere.