I - Colonial and Postcolonial Rotterdam

Summary

With around 600,000 inhabitants, Rotterdam is the Netherlands’ second-largest city. It has a reputation for being a city of hard workers who believe in letting their actions do the talking. This is the city whose port has propelled the Dutch economy forward, the city that labours away relentlessly. ‘Rotterdam Dares’, as its city-branding slogan said in 2004. That is certainly the case for its buildings: Rotterdam is famous for its impressive skyline and modern architecture. And ‘010’, as Rotterdam is affectionately known after its phone area code, has now become a cool destination for travellers seeking to escape the tourist crowds in Amsterdam. Like the capital, Rotterdam too is a dynamic, multicultural city with a wealth of culture, bars and restaurants and a lively night life.

But there is another, less positive side to this success story: great disparities in wealth and privilege, serious inner-city problems and sharp divisions along political — and sometimes ethnic — fault lines. The waves of migration after the Second World War have played a key role here. As in other Dutch cities, large numbers of migrants from the former colonies and other parts of the world settled in Rotterdam. White Dutch people now make up about half the city's population, and migrants and their children from all over the world the other half. Over 12 per cent of Rotterdam's inhabitants have roots in the former Dutch colonies of Indonesia, Suriname (in South America) and the Antilles. This has led to a debate in Rotterdam (as in other places) about the nature of the city and its inhabitants, about belonging and about rights and obligations, both old and new. This is a complex debate that is unlikely to die down any time soon. But for this debate to be constructive, sound knowledge and serious reflection is required concerning Rotterdam's colonial past and connections with slavery.

This reappraisal by society at large of the crucial role played by colonialism in Dutch history forms the context for the motion tabled by Peggy Wijntuin and passed by Rotterdam Municipal Council on 14 November 2017. In that motion, Peggy Wijntuin — a councillor of Afro-Surinamese heritage representing the Labour Party (PvdA) — called for an investigation into Rotterdam's colonial past and links with slavery.