I recently read a book, titled The Shadow play/ Het schaduwspel, written by Simone van der Vlugt. It is about the marriage between Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629) and Eva Ment (1606-1652).
Jan Coen was a governor at the Dutch East India Company and he established a monopoly for the nutmeg trade through quite violent means.
I find his story to be a curious one as it elicits polar opposite reactions in different people. According to some, he was the Banda butcher, and for others, a hero of his time.
In 1893, a statue was erected in his honor at the very center of Hoorn.
On both sides of the statue, we see the text below, both in Dutch and in English.
While I was living in Hoorn, I witnessed protests against this statue. Some people want it to be removed from the center, while others think that it needs to stay.
Jan’s existence in the city is actually more than that statue, there is also a restaurant in the center, where you can find Jan’s and Eva’s portraits on the toilet doors.
Excuse my poor photography, I felt incredibly awkward snapping a picture of the toilet doors…
In Hoorn, there are also many visible reminders of the VOC (Dutch East India Company), such as this huge VOC emblem on the street surrounded by symbols representing trade items, such as coffee, pepper, and nutmeg:
Anyhow, having lived in Hoorn, I was very much aware of him, so when I saw that book in the library, I had no choice but to read it.
The language of the book was simple, which was good for me as a foreigner whose first language is not Dutch. It was also a real page-turner. I caught a glimpse of how life was back then, with all the contrasts, both glory and untreatable illnesses at the same time.
In the book, Jan was described as a good husband and a father. The writer also tried to describe Jan’s perspective about the well-known violence in Banda. If I may quote, she wrote (page 346):
‘Wie met zijn perspectief naar de zaak kijkt, ziet een man die zaken wilde doen en zich daarin gedwarsboomd en verraden voelde‘: – which roughly translates to – Anyone who looks at the case from his perspective sees a man who wanted to do business and felt thwarted and betrayed in doing so.
According to the book, islanders engaged in trade with the English, which was against their agreement with Jan. Long story short, this ‘betrayal’ led to the death of thousands and the slavery of the remaining islanders.
I do not know what the writer actually thinks about Jan’s acts in Banda. However, I had the feeling that writing about him is not for the faint of heart. I can imagine that one’s reputation may be ruined in a split second while writing about such figures.
If I made you curious, check out the informative piece in English from the Westfries museum: https://pala.westfriesmuseum.nl/banda-genocide/.
If you also understand Dutch, and want to dig a bit deeper: https://www.ou.nl/-/jan-pieterszoon-coen