Her name was Jacoba van Annaatje van Aurora van Da Costa. That was her full name in the Paramaribo of 1805 at the time of slavery. I ran into her in the 142 linear kilometers of archival material of the National Archives that made me clear my way for historical research on a slave.
Jacoba’s name shows how slavery worked. Without other data I can conclude that Da Costa was a white or Jewish slave trader and that Aurora, Annaatje and Jacoba were all either black or colored. A white was never enslaved in the colony and the ‘of’ indicates ownership.
A slave was not a person, but an ‘estate’, object, means of production. He had no property, no identity, no relatives, according to colonial law. He/she was alone, only condemned to the owner. The enslaved was given a first name invented by the owner, and his surname, with ‘van’ in front of it.
In this case, Da Costa first enslaved Aurora. Aurora paid for her freedom (or Da Costa gave it to her) and then she bought Annaatje herself. Annaatje in turn was released and bought Jacoba. A series of names like a chain of ‘vans’ that does not reflect a blood bond, but a production relationship. A few more generations and people would have had whole pages as names.
ransom family
But these naming schemes tell even more. When a slave was released, one of the first things he or she often did was save for the purchase of relatives. To free them from the clutches of a slave owner. It is quite possible that Annaatje was the daughter of Aurora, or Jacoba of Annaatje.
Above all, let us not think that slavery was a terrible hobby of cruel planters. It was an institutional foundation of the colony, which meant that parents could not care for their children and had to work themselves for years to buy their own flesh and blood. If they were lucky. The money for this benefited the owner and filled the colonial treasury.
ABN Amro has apologized this week for profiting from slavery, after Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. De Nederlandsche Bank acknowledged involvement in February, but did not apologize. The prime minister is also not there yet, although he will not be able to wriggle out of it under pressure from the cities and descendants of enslaved people next year at the official commemoration of 150 years of end slavery.
But no sooner had the mayors uttered the word ‘sorry’ than there was immediately sour after the sweet: don’t think that we are going to make reparations. It’s like inviting someone in and slamming the lid on their fingers when offering a cookie from the tin. We don’t think it’s necessary, so we don’t do it, is the circular argument.
As if the white (local) rulers still think they can dictate the rules of the relationship between black and white. Hey, it shouldn’t cost too much money. This attitude is the copy of the delay in the abolition of slavery, not until 1863, 30 years after England.
Call UN
The irony is that the Netherlands was then forced to act by neighboring countries and organisations. And that is exactly what will now happen again. The UN has called on former colonial powers to grant compensation in 2021. The Global Repairs Movement is gaining momentum. Germany has pledged €1 billion in reparations to the Herero in Namibia by 2021. Jamaica demanded 7 billion in reparations from England. Too long ago? Not when you consider that until 2015 England paid off a loan of 20 billion pounds intended as compensation to slave owners for abolishing slavery. Money was available for that.
And the proposals are workable. An appeal by Caribbean countries to pay reparations from the former colonial rulers to their governments received little attention in the Netherlands, but was in any case reasonable. Money for literacy programs, for improving mental and physical health, restitution of looted art, debt forgiveness, slavery and ancestry awareness programs for ignorant whites, a fund for support and development of indigenous people.
Several companies have already taken their responsibility. British insurance company Lloyds and Green King (pubs) are going to make reparations. ABN Amro wants to take further steps in dialogue with the black community, but does not mention any compensation.
proliferate
To dismiss requests for reparations as anachronistic was easy for the rulers of the big cities. Organizations hesitate. But those who sincerely apologize also let it be known that the mistakes made will not be repeated in the future and offer guarantees to that effect. The ideas of slavery, white supremacy and baseless bias, proliferate in contemporary and institutional racism.
First slavery and then racism with segregation and violence against people of color have deprived them of the opportunity to progress as nations and as individuals. You only have to look at the allowance affair if you know that the slavery history is current and needs to be compensated. That it goes so slowly proves the right of the victims.
The Netherlands in the third millennium can jump over its shadow. And thereby still offer a tangible helping hand to victims of slavery and their descendants. Also think of Jacoba van Annaatje from Aurora from Da Costa.
Tineke Bennema is a historian and guest columnist on volkskrant.nl in April.