Updated Jan. 23, 2024 at 7:50 p.m.
Since the Black Lives Matter movement spread in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, countries and localities have started removing monuments and renaming streets and schools linked to figures from the past involved in slavery and colonial exploitation, and other acts of downright racism or sexism.
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In the United Kingdom, “Black Boy Street” was renamed to “La Rose Lane,” removing the history of the transatlantic slave trade and honoring a former Black local who was involved in the Black Education Movement in the 1960s. In the United States, a spate of schools and streets commemorating Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were changed, and statues were taken down, as local officials vowed to eradicate symbols of racism.
But now, Amsterdam is taking things in a different direction: the Dutch city has announced it would be changing the name of its planned Nootmuskaatstraat, “Nutmeg Street” because of the spice’s close ties to the country's colonial past. It may be the first instance of a campaign targeting a specific product — and not an individual — tied to colonial history.
Dutch East India Company stains
The street, which is to be located in a new residential area, will instead be renamed Mierikswortelstraat, or “Horseradish Street”, in keeping with the herbs and spices theme, after the municipality of Amsterdam said that nutmeg played too a prominent role in the history of the Dutch East India Company.
Even Amsterdam progressives think this is “too woke.”
Daan Wijinats, president of the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, reacted by declaring that “Horseradish Street” is worse: According to the conservative official, the renaming of the Coen tunnel is understandable, as it was named after a prominent figure in the exploitative Dutch East India Company, Jan Pieterszoon Coen. But in banning "Nutmeg Street," he wondered: “Aren’t we going a little too far?”
Nothing wrong with nutmeg?
The name change has been criticized by Several Dutch political leaders, most notably the group leader of the Christian Democratic Party (CDA) Rogier Havelaar quipping “Our history has ugly pages, but nutmeg is not responsible for the fact that it was on (Dutch East India) ships.”
According to Dutch daily De Telegraaf, even Amsterdam progressives think this is “too woke.”
The gripe with the spice traces back to the Netherlands in 1621, when the Dutch East India Company decided to obtain a monopoly on nutmeg on the Banda Islands, a group of islands in Indonesia. “The entire population of the Banda Islands was exterminated for this. Or they were enslaved,” said Ad Geerdink, director of the Westfries Museum.
The violent history associated with nutmeg is why local officials may want to move away from naming a new neighborhood. “There is nothing wrong with nutmeg," said the Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema. "I use it myself and don’t plan to stop.”