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47 Neth. J. Legal. Phil. 3 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/njlp47 and id is 1 raw text is: OPINION Dealing with Ambiguity: Johan Maurits, Black Pete and the the Crisis of Dutch Identity* Lukas van den Berge 1. Introduction A dominant way in which the Dutch think of themselves entails the image of an enlightened nation, too small to be really significant in world politics but never- theless important as an ethical guiding light for other nations. In recent years, that self-congratulatory image has been severely challenged - not only by the rise of right-wing populist parties and the assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, but also by a growing awareness of the troublesome nature of Dutch colonial history and of patterns of exclusion and oppression in Dutch culture as they have now come to the surface in a globalizing world.' Public debate is domi- nated by the opposing sides of those who one-sidedly debunk Dutch culture and politics as oppressive and violent and others who persist in the myth of innocent bystandership and enlightened progressivism. Worried about the fierceness of that debate, many scholars and publicists have called for a more nuanced discus- sion, typically emphasizing the 'grey middle ground' in between black and white opposites.2 By way of illustration of the identity crisis that Dutch society is cur- rently dealing with, this short discussion paper starts out by providing the exam- ples of the remembrance of Johan Maurits's governorship of Dutch Brazil (1637-1644) and the stereotyped persona of Black Pete (one of the central figures in an annual children's festival) as two recent objects of heated debate. Subse- quently, it explores an alternative way out of the crisis, calling in the help of what may come as a surprising source: ancient Greek tragedy. 2. Johan Maurits Founded in 1621 to disturb the Iberian supremacy in the Americas, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) gained a significant foothold in north-eastern Brazil in 1630, conquering the region of Pernambuco as one of the richest sugar produc- ing areas in the world. Confronted with a lack of settlers from the Low Countries, * Thanks go out to Mirthe Jiwa, Wouter Veraart and Tamar de Waal for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this discussion paper. 1 See, e.g., Gloria Wekker, White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race (Durham: Duke Uni- versity Press, 2016). 2 See, e.g., www.dtbg.nl for the 'Grey Manifesto' published by the academic platform that calls itself 'Dare to be Grey.' Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy 2018 (47) 1 3 doi: 10.5553/NJLP/.000069

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