He stands with his back to the harbor from which the ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sailed to the Indonesian archipelago in the seventeenth century. But if you walk through the historic city center of Hoorn, you cannot ignore the bronze-cast VOC director Jan Pieterszoon Coen. His mantra “does not disperse” adorns a meter high pedestal.
The statue, erected in 1893, has never been free from controversy. Mayor Jan Nieuwenburg van Hoorn describes the debate about Coen “as a history in itself”. For many residents of Hoorn, the national monument belongs to the city, while there are also Horines who take offense at the monument to ‘the butcher of Banda’.
Whether the statue should remain is the question that has occupied the city for years. There must be an answer to that “after the summer”. Then the municipality wants to make a decision about the future of the statue.
In Hoorn, which has more than 70,000 inhabitants, different beliefs about dealing with the colonial past and the identity of the city resonate. There is a group of residents, mainly with a non-Western background, who feel no connection with a place of residence that advertises itself as a ‘city of the Golden Age’. For others, the past actually evokes nostalgic feelings of pride, in an era in which Dutch traditions are already under pressure in their eyes. In the discussion about Jan Pieterszoon Coen, all such conflicting sentiments surface.
For many Horinese Coen is a
Ad Geerdink director Westfries Museum
After a citizens’ initiative calling for the statue’s removal, the municipality placed a sign next to the tribute in 2011, describing him as a “vigorous and visionary administrator”, but also mentioning his misdeeds. Activists were not satisfied with that and have repeatedly daubed the image and held demonstrations. Coen seemed to become the center of a Dutch iconoclasm against historically controversial figures.
Two years ago, FVD leader Thierry Baudet stirred up the debate by laying flowers at the foot of the statue in Hoorn. Anti-Coen demonstrators wanted to voice a dissenting voice there, but the municipality did not allow that and designated a protest area on the outskirts of the city. When a group of rioters nevertheless approached the statue, the riot police had to intervene and the police cleared the square. After that confrontation, local politics could no longer keep aloof.
Mayor Nieuwenburg organized city conversations about inclusiveness, diversity, racism and the worship of heroes. Based on this, the coalition wants to update the inclusiveness policy and make a decision about the future of Coen. In addition, the municipality wants to investigate the role of the city government in the slavery past.
Also read: Iconoclasm against ‘wrong’ historical figures
Shadow sides
Ad Geerdink, director of the Westfries Museum, looks down on the statue from his office every day. “Coen is the subject of an emotionally charged discussion, which could ignite at any moment. For many Horinese Jan Pieterszoon Coen is a love the memoir, an image that belongs to the city. They see him separately from the historical context. Opponents regard Coen as a genocide perpetrator.”
In 2012, more than 3,000 museum visitors expressed their views on the statue in response to an exhibition on the matter; 68 percent thought that Coen should stay.
The museum director notes that thinking about the colonial past has changed among many residents, now that the dark sides have received more attention. “I have the feeling that there is more willingness to adapt now than ten years ago. A possible new place for the statue was out of the question at the time.”
City councilor Menno Jas of De Realistic Party – one seat on the council – is in favor of preserving the tribute on the Roode Steen. He describes the protests as “provocation of a small minority against Dutch culture”. Jas states that the majority of the Horinese want to keep Coen for the city and argues for a referendum on the issue.
Activist Rochelle van Maanen, co-founder of the Decolonization Network of the former Dutch East Indies, has been fighting for the removal of the image from public space for years. At the request of the municipality, she took part in the city talks, which in her view have stimulated the debate. “I notice that ‘the quiet middle’ is more sincerely interested in what we are offended by. I recently spoke to a woman at a protest in Hoorn who said that she had discussed the criticism of the image in her cycling club. Then she was kicked out. There is a lot of fear.”
Also read this opinion piece: J.P. Coen? Finally see the colonial past from the other side
Military power
Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629) traveled through the Indonesian archipelago as governor-general of the VOC. Under his regime, the company grew into a trading company with military prowess. Coen founded Batavia, which, renamed Jakarta, is now the capital of Indonesia. He established and defended a trade monopoly on spices on behalf of the VOC administration. He did that in a very violent way; under his leadership, thousands of inhabitants of the Banda Islands – today’s Moluccas – were massacred and enslaved.
“Coen was given virtually unlimited power within the VOC, which he made very violent use of,” says historian Gert Oostindie. “He was not without a word at the time, but no action was taken.” According to Oostindie, Coen is one of the founders of the Dutch colonial empire in Indonesia. “He was at the basis of the economic success of the VOC.”
Colleague Jur van Goor agrees. “Coen managed to set up an organization, from a financial and logistical point of view. Before his arrival, it was not even clear whether the VOC was making a profit or a loss.”
On the Banda Islands, the VOC competed with England for the trade in spices such as nutmeg and cloves. “Coen thought he had concluded a contract about a monopoly. But the Bandanese denied that the agreements had any value – a cultural difference.” The governor-general ruled with a heavy hand. “He noted everything, including the number of victims of that war: 2,500 graves, 300 drowning people, 900 Bandanese who had to go to Batavia and an unknown number of suicides.”
It is estimated that in 1621 there were about 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants on the islands, of whom probably less than a thousand remained. The rest are said to have been murdered, expelled, died of disease and starvation, drowned, fled or enslaved during the siege. “For the Banda Islands, it has taken on genocidal proportions,” said Oostindie. “He wiped out the islands by massacring or deporting the inhabitants.” Van Goor states that Coen has “ethnically purified” the Banda Islands. “Genocide assumes it was his plan beforehand, but it was never the primary aim to wipe out the population.”
Also read: JP Coen justified the means
Another picture
The historians believe that the statue in Hoorn suited the zeitgeist of the late nineteenth century. “But the historiography and conceptions of the past are changing. Now we would no longer present this image,” says Van Goor. Oostindie: „You no longer place an image for such a person today, but that does not mean that he has to leave. Because then you also brush away the past.” He suggests contrasting another image that recalls the resistance against the colonial regime with Coen. “That keeps the social debate alive.”
Activist Van Maanen believes that this solution “wrongly implies that the balance of power was equal”. “We are not going to put Anne Frank next to Hitler either.” She could live with the fact that the statue is placed in or in front of the Westfries Museum. Director Geerdink is happy to make space in that case. “If the city council decides that, Coen is welcome. The museum will close in January for a large-scale restoration and expansion. Then there will also be a city garden, which would be a very nice place for the statue.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 4, 2022
#statue #Coen #Hoorn #museum