OA

‘Wat achter hun stilzwijgen verborgen lag’

‘What lay concealed behind their silence.’ The exhibition of Angolans in the Netherlands by L.J. Goddefroy (1888-1889)

This article examines the 1889 exhibition of eighteen enslaved Angolans in the Netherlands by the Dutch merchant L.J. Goddefroy. First, it traces Goddefroy’s acquisition of ethnographic objects and Angolans, demonstrating his direct involvement in the contexts of the Congo Free State’s colonial war and Angola’s plantation slavery. Second, it analyses the exhibition in the Netherlands through the concepts of animalization and rehumanization. While contemporary press coverage animalized the Angolans, the article searches for traces of their resistance and solidarity. Ultimately, this article contends that Goddefroy’s exhibition was a product of colonial violence, as well as a site for its continuation.