Nijmegen played a crucial role in maintaining slavery: study

Nijmegen’s city administrators were partly responsible for making slavery possible, maintaining it, and profiting from it during the colonial times. This was the conclusion of researchers at Radboud University in Nijmegen, who were assigned by the municipality in autumn 2024 to look into the city’s past of slavery.

The influence of Nijmegen’s administrators was more significant than other comparable Dutch cities. This came partly due to the role that the city played in what was then the Republic in 1795.

Administrators were also economically involved with slavery, as investors, for example, or participants in colonial trade.

Nijmegen was, being a large city on the Waal river, an important regional city of trade. According to the researchers, the city received slave goods and delivered these to the slave owners. The city also delivered products that were necessary for the Dutch colonial empire, like wood and oxen. With this, Nijmegen and the city’s residents profited financially from colonialism and slavery.

As it was considered the most important city in the region at the time, Nijmegen had a lot of influence and power, researchers wrote. City administrators came to hold key positions and thus had a lot of influence in committees such as West Indian Affairs, Maritime Affairs, and East Indian Affairs.

The current Mayor of Nijmegen, Hubert Bruls, was impacted by the results of the research. “It chills your heart when you hear what people have done to each other, including from our city,” he said.

“Nijmegen's administrators had a special administrative position of power as the most important city in an influential province, and due to its position by the Waal. Even though this took place in the spirit of the times, what we know does not make it any less sad, painful, and horrible." The municipality will further study the research and talk to residents in the near future.

This comes two years after a workgroup called on the municipality to recognize and acknowledge its role in slavery. At the time, there was no clear view of how significant the city administration was involved in colonialist slavery.

Recent research now proves that slavery was “directly and indirectly intertwined with the administration and the economy” of the city.

Other cities have also conducted research into their role in slavery in recent years. Several municipalities issued apologies for their role in slavery as a result of the research.