Karwan Fatah-Black – författare

Considering the ways in which the ‘global turn’ is changing the theory and practice of historical disciplines, Explorations in History and Globalization engages with the concept and methodology of globalization, challenging traditional divisions of space and time to offer a range of perspectives on how globalization has affected social, economic, political and cultural history. Each chapter covers a specific theme, discussing how globalization has shaped these themes and how they have contributed to globalization throughout history. Including topics such as ecological exchanges, trade, exchanges of knowledge, migration, empire and urbanization, this volume both explains historical trajectories through a global analytical framework and provides tools that students can employ when posing their own research questions about historical globalization. Containing suggestions for further reading and guidance on the ways in which primary source material can be used as a basis for global historical studies, this is the ideal volume for all students interested in the global exchanges between people throughout history.

Institutions across the globe are increasingly questioned on how their foundations are rooted in colonialism and how they aim to ‘decolonize’. The Future of the Dutch Colonial Past provides an overview of critical scholarly reflections on the history of Dutch slavery and colonization, as well as how this translates into critical cultural practices. It also explores possible futures: What can heritage institutions learn from (international) best practices regarding the ‘decolonization’ of museums? And what role can contemporary artistic practices take in these processes? Through a variety of essays, interventions, interviews, and a roundtable conversation, scholars and cultural practitioners address these complex questions.

When the full abolition of slavery appeared on the political agenda in the Atlantic world the institutional arrangements that underpinned the peculiar institution changed dramatically. Although many have studied these transformations, their urban dimension has remained underappreciated. The contributions to this volume offer an in-depth look at cities in the British and French Caribbean, the United States, West-Central Africa, Brazil, and South Africa. Rather than treating urban slavery as a more benign counterpoint to the brutal plantation complex, the articles explore how cities were part and parcel of slave societies and demonstrate how methods of control as well as routes to emancipation changed in the century before emancipation. Urban slavery has greatly impacted urban landscapes and its legacy as well as practices of remembrance and memorialization can be found in many former slave societies.

Considering the ways in which the ‘global turn’ is changing the theory and practice of historical disciplines, Explorations in History and Globalization engages with the concept and methodology of globalization, challenging traditional divisions of space and time to offer a range of perspectives on how globalization has affected social, economic, political and cultural history. Each chapter covers a specific theme, discussing how globalization has shaped these themes and how they have contributed to globalization throughout history. Including topics such as ecological exchanges, trade, exchanges of knowledge, migration, empire and urbanization, this volume both explains historical trajectories through a global analytical framework and provides tools that students can employ when posing their own research questions about historical globalization. Containing suggestions for further reading and guidance on the ways in which primary source material can be used as a basis for global historical studies, this is the ideal volume for all students interested in the global exchanges between people throughout history.

In White Lies and Black Markets, Fatah-Black offers a new account of the colonization of Suriname—one of the major European plantation colonies on the Guiana Coast—in the period between 1650-1800. While commonly portrayed as an isolated tropical outpost, this study places the colony in the context of its connections to the rest of the Atlantic world. These economic and migratory links assured the colony’s survival, but also created many incentives to evade the mercantilistically inclined metropolitan authorities.By combining the available data on Dutch and North American shipping with accounts of major political and economic developments, the author uncovers a hitherto hidden world of illicit dealings, and convincingly argues that these illegal practices were essential to the development and survival of the colony, and woven into the fabric of the colonial project itself.

In this book, a new generation of scholars offers fresh perspectives on the history of the Dutch slave trade. Traditionally, Dutch research has focused on business practices, often overlooking the enslaved and the complexities of illegal trade and violence. By experimenting with innovative methodologies and underutilised primary sources, this volume reveals the potential to uncover perspectives of enslaved people aboard slave ships, to investigate unstudied areas like sexual violence, and to examine the roles of Dutch elite in the trade.

Amsterdam painter Dirk Valkenburg (1675–1721) produced some of the earliest depictions of Indigenous and enslaved people on Surinamese sugar plantations – idealized images that conceal the violence of colonialism. He also painted ornate hunting still lifes and portraits of patrons whose wealth derived from colonial trade and slavery. Through this very variety of genres, Valkenburg’s paintings demonstrate the workings of the ‘white gaze’. Edited by Willem de Rooij and Karwan Fatah-Black, this volume joins the first catalogue raisonné of Valkenburg’s work – developed in collaboration with the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague – and a critical reader of newly commissioned essays by leading international scholars. Uniting voices from art history, anthropology, postcolonial and queer studies across Europe and the Americas, it contextualizes Valkenburg’s oeuvre through interdisciplinary and transcultural dialogue. Conceived as a pendant to De Rooij’s installation Valkenburg at the Centraal Museum Utrecht (2025), the book and exhibition together invite reflection on how eighteenth-century Dutch elites used visual culture to normalize colonial ideology.

"In the nineteenth century, when the principal cultural, political, and financial institutions of the Netherlands were established, slavery was still very much part of the nation’s global imperial structures. Dutch families, institutions, and governments are increasingly interested in the role their predecessors played in this history of colonialism and enslavement. This book is a history of De Nederlandsche Bank in which particular attention is paid to its links with slavery, both as a factor in the economy and as a subject of political debate. Because De Nederlandsche Bank served the Dutch ministery of Colonies and consequently followed Dutch trade interests, the bank's history intersects with the history of slavery. The investigation in this book focuses not only upon DNB’s formal involvement but also on the private involvement of its directors. In addition, it examines whether the bank and its directors played any role in the abolition of slavery."

This book provides an overview of critical scholarly reflections on the history of Dutch slavery and colonization, as well as how this translates into critical cultural practices.

This collection examines cultural representations of slavery and indenture across the neerlandophone space (former Dutch colonies) from early modern times to today.