The Dapperstraat, the Linnaeusstraat and the Vrolikstraat. All well-known streets in Amsterdam-East, named after scientists from the Golden Age. In addition to their work in biology, geography, and history, the scientists also wrote about black people. With the exhibition ‘Eastcast’, which people can listen to during a walking route, The Black Archives Informing people.
With a walking route of three kilometers you will be led through East along seven signs. These signs contain information about the colonial past that hides behind those places and a QR code to listen to a podcast. In this way scientists are discussed, who have once been given a street name. But not only street names are discussed. The Tropenmuseum, Oosterpark and The Black Archives also have a place in the exhibition.
‘Monstrous Traits’
Alexine Gabriela, researcher at Black Archives, spent eight months in the archive to learn more about the Enlightenment thinkers. “For me as a black person that was really intense, you really feel it coming in. But that was even more motivation for me to bring this to the rest of Amsterdam,” she says. For example, what they found out is that biologist Carl Linnaeus wrote that black people don’t… Gay Sapiens goods. “According to him, they were gay monstrosusmeaning they were humans with monstrous qualities.”
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Another example is geologist Olfert Dapper. He contributed to the stereotyping of black people and wrote, without ever having been to Africa, that Africans would have a ‘natural propensity’ to serve. Gabriela: “They needed a reason to enslave African people and see that as okay.” “That scares me,” says someone at the Dappermarkt. Still, a street name change is not an option for many. “Past is past, you can’t change that anymore,” says another.
According to Gabriela, the aim is in any case to make people aware and not so much to change the street names. “This way at least a conversation will happen,” she says. However, changing the names could possibly be an option later: “The question is: do we want to honor these people in East?”
westcast
Westcast was also set up in January this year, the same concept, but in Amsterdam-West. Oostcast can be seen in Oost until mid-January. Whether the concept will also go to other city districts remains to be seen, according to The Black Archives: “There are still many hidden stories to be told behind street names in Amsterdam. We do not exclude the possibility that we will also make walking routes and podcasts about other neighborhoods in the future. .”