The Truth Commission Netherlands

Is it a performance, a theatrical production or a real truth commission? The terms don't matter. Come and see for yourself.

With the first ever Truth Commission in the Netherlands, the Flemish theater company Action Zoo Humain calls attention to the underexposed, colonial legacy of the human zoo. Until deep into the 20th century, the Netherlands too exhibited thousands of men, women and children as "exotic," "wild" and "primitive" in so-called 'human zoos'. Think, for example, of the Surinamese and Indonesians exhibited at the World Exhibition in Amsterdam (1883), the Indian Exhibition in Arnhem (1928) and the Senegalese village at the Nenijto in Rotterdam (1928).

Does the human zoo still influence social thinking today? Aren't the ethnic profiling by the police, the benefits scandal at the IRS, as well as the "innocent" sharing of footage on social media of that "exotic" travel, examples of this?

Come and see for yourself during this unique and one-of-a-kind site-specific performance. Prime Minister Mark Rutte and King Willem-Alexander recently apologized for the Netherlands' slavery past. The Truth Commission picks up on that and gets to work on what might follow after the famous comma. Put yourself in the problematic curiosity of the visitors, the experiences of the peoples on display and the colonial propaganda machine of the organizers.

Based on South Africa's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" witnesses speak out in word, visuals and movement. Former politician Kathleen Ferrier and Mpho Tutu van Furth, daughter of the late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, lead the hearing as chairpersons.