Tronco (or multiple foot stocks used to to constrain enslaved people), which were shown at the 'Slavery' exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2021, will be going on display at the United Nations in New York this month. Photo: AP
A landmark exhibition on slavery in the Dutch colonial era that was first staged at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum is going on display at the United Nations in New York.
The show, titled Slavery. Ten True Stories Of Dutch Colonial Slavery, will open in the the UN headquarters' visitors' lobby from Feb 27 to March 30, as part of a UN outreach program on the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Rijksmuseum announced recently.
"Recognising the continuing impact of slavery on world history is of great importance. We are very grateful to the United Nations for drawing attention to this important subject through the exhibition,” Rijksmuseum General Director Taco Dibbits said in a statement.
The exhibition at the UN is an adapted version of the show titled Slavery that was opened in 2021 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and told the story of slavery by drilling down into the personal stories of 10 people, ranging from enslaved workers to a wealthy Amsterdam woman.
A branding iron with interwoven letters GWC, used to brand the initials of a Dutch trading company into the skin of its enslaved workers, is also part of the upcoming exhibition in New York. Photo: AP
The unflinching exhibition looks at the lives of people who were enslaved, those who profited from the inhumane trade and people who opposed it in the Dutch colonial era, from the 17th to the 19th century - in Brazil, Suriname and the Caribbean, as well as in South Africa, Asia and the Netherlands.
The Rijksmuseum show tapped into a national debate about slavery that gained momentum amid the Black Lives Matter movement that swept the world after the 2020 death of Black man George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. In December, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologised for the Dutch state's role in slavery.
The grim centrepiece of the UN slavery exhibition will be a set of wooden stocks known as a tronco, derived from the Portuguese word for tree trunk, in which several enslaved people could be constrained by clamping their ankles. - AP
