Kartini Room or Busstop? What will be the new name for the VOC Room?
The VOC Room in the Bushuis needs a new name. A meeting this week brainstormed what name would be appropriate. The UvA community will soon be able to vote on five of the considered options.
Since the “VOC-Zaal”(Dutch East Indies Room) was closed by the UvA as a meeting room in 2022, the space is in need of a new name and function. The by the university appointed project Decolonial Dialogues@Humanities, which is working on the new design, together with Humanities Dean Marieke de Goede organised a brainstorm session on Thursday afternoon. UvA students who had registered could suggest new names for the space. Five options came out of that.
The most popular proposal for a new name turned out to be “Kartini Room” after Javanese Adjeng Kartini (1879-1904), a feminist writer from the nineteenth-century Dutch East Indies. She was named Indonesia”s national hero in 1964.
Another personal name also proved favourite: “Van Gujarati Room”. That name is found only in a marriage certificate from 1652. That source talks about Susanna van Gujarati, brought from Asia, who married enslaved Jacob van Bangalen in Sloterdijk church. The choice of names for both women would emphasise the property’s complicated colonial past.
Since the Diversity Commission led by Gloria Wekker reported in 2016 that the portrayal of colonial history was out of date, there has been discussion about the VOC Room. The meeting room was built in 1990 and is a reconstruction of the 16th-century VOC’s Directors Room. At the suggestion of Professor of Colonial History Remco Raben, the VOC Room was already given context bidding signs. However, some students felt that the space should be completely stripped of the reconstruction. After sustained criticism, the UvA closed the meeting room in 2022. A year later, the space reopened as a venue for, among other things, panel discussions and exhibitions on the colonial past.
The Room of Present Pasts
The name “Bus Stop”, with an allusion to the Bushuis, was well liked too. That name, with the emphasis on “stop”, would encourage visitors to stop and reflect on the consequences of the colonial past. In that vein, the idea “The Room of Present Pasts” was also favoured. After all, according to co-organiser faculty diversity officer of Humanities Kristine Johanson, one should also reflect on how the colonial past affects people in the present.
As a space for a shared conversation about the colonial past, “The Global Village Square” found the most followers as the fifth name. From the above five names - possibly with additions - students and staff can eventually vote in a poll organised by Decolonial Dialogues@Humanities.
The name finally chosen is part of the recommendations that Decolonial Dialogues@Humanities offered to the university in 2023. The UvA board has since been considering the report. Its main recommendation states that the space should be opened up as a place to teach and learn about the colonial past, both through exhibitions and lectures, for example. “For those who were and are touched by the colonial past,” faculty diversity officer Johanson argues. And that should also be reflected in the name.
