Good Hope? South Africa-The Netherlands
by Roni Mikel Arieli -- On the morning of April 9, 2017, I landed in a sunny Amsterdam. After a quick stop at the hotel to drop off my luggage, I set out for the Museumplein where three notable museums are located- the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Stedelijk Museum. Last February, a new exhibition examining the Netherlands' relationship with South Africa over the past 400 years opened at the Rijksmuseum. One of the main goals of my trip to Amsterdam was to visit this exhibit and interview one of its curators. Though my interview was only scheduled for the next morning, I was eager to see the show on my own for the first time. The exhibition was produced under the direction of Martine Gosselink, Head Department of History at the Rijksmuseum. It was arranged chronologically and so I soon found myself traveling between 1652 and the present in some ten rooms displaying an array of portraits, paintings, video clips, photographs and artifacts. I was especially drawn to the...