The awarding of the prize, an initiative of the Special Journalistic Projects Fund and which is linked to a cash prize of 10,000 euros, was announced on Saturday evening in a radio program With an eye to tomorrow.
According to the jury, the book is ‘an important reference work that not only explains what happened, but especially how it all could have happened, at a time when the colonial past of the Netherlands is being questioned again’, said jury chairperson Hasna El Maroudi. ‘The author shows with his book that the violence in the Dutch actions in the Dutch East Indies was systematic and ‘ordinary’. It was the culture. The social significance of this book is therefore great because it offers new insights. The book holds up a mirror to us all.’