Sunday, 8 December 2024

Hi Reader,

If you’re a long-time subscriber to this newsletter, you know that I’m a big fan of Amitav Ghosh’s work because the decolonial theory seeps through it. If you’re a new subscriber (hi and welcome!), you might want to read two newsletters I wrote about his work before:

• ​Why you need to read “The Nutmeg’s Curse” by Amitav Ghosh
• ​Amitav Ghosh’s vitalism

In May, it was announced that Ghosh had won the Erasmus Prize for "imagining the unthinkable" in his work. I emailed the prize organization to ask if I could attend the ceremony, and they sent me an invite in October. I couldn’t be happier! It took a nerve-wracking flight delay in Bangkok and some tough negotiations to arrive in time at the airport in Amsterdam, three hours before the start.

Did you read any of Amitav Ghosh's books? I'd love to hear your thoughts about his work.

Share your 2024 reflections!

And we're going towards the end of the year. I like to collect your reflections on 2024 and share them in the last newsletter of this year. How do you look back on the past year? What did you learn? What was uplifting and / or disappointing? Did your view on the world change? You can either fill out the form with three questions or hit reply to this email.

For me, 2024 was about reckoning with being vulnerable. Losing my friend Pytrik who died from cancer was impactful. I was also saddened by the ongoing genocide in Gaza and more so, the non-response from Western countries. It sometimes paralyzed my writing.
At the same time, the two Writing for Transformation courses brought a beautiful global community together, people who I will meet again in our quarterly alumni calls. And, the next course is coming in 2025. The guest speakers will be announced soon.
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There is more to share but I like to hear your 2024 reflections.

Sanne

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

10 insights from Amitav Ghosh

The director of the Erasmus Prize makes documentaries about each of the winners, and you might want to watch the 15-minute video she made about Ghosh. It shows his office in Brooklyn, New York, and how he still makes many notes with pen and paper. The film portrays Ghosh as someone who puts a lot of work into research which is noticeable in his books.

The highlight of the afternoon was Ghosh’s Acceptance Speech. In front of the Dutch King and Queen, the writer pointed out:

1. The turbulent times we live in, marked by climate disasters and geopolitical tensions, reflecting the fragility of our assumptions about stability.
2. The Banda Islands Genocide, the massacre by the Dutch East India Company in 1621, emphasizing its role in establishing Dutch prosperity during the Golden Age.
3. The importance of historical records: Ghosh credits Dutch archivist J.A. van der Chijs for documenting the Banda genocide, enabling its inclusion in works like The Nutmeg’s Curse and preserving historical accountability.
4. The Critics of Empire: He places van der Chijs in the tradition of Dutch critics of colonialism, such as Multatuli, and acknowledges this lineage as a testament to ongoing critical engagement with history.
   ​(I spoke to Dutch Professor of Dutch Cultural and Literary History at Radboud University Lotte Jensen afterward and she told me there were many women opposing colonialism at that time, a topic we should write more about since mostly men are mentioned in this context).
5. The fact that the dominance of Western empires was achieved through systemic violence, often overlooked in Western narratives but remembered by others.
6. The devastating impacts of the post-Cold War Western triumphalism, including regime change wars and the resulting refugee crises that destabilize global politics.
7. The intersecting crises: Ghosh observes that the decline of Western dominance is accompanied by economic, political, and environmental crises, marking a historic transition fraught with uncertainty.
8. The link between climate crises and human-driven historical processes and inequalities, challenging the division between natural and political disasters.
9. Premodern perspectives and he advocates for revisiting philosophies that recognize the sentience and interconnectedness of all beings, critiquing the anthropocentrism of modernity.
10. The urge for humanity to recognize its place within a sentient Earth, a call for awareness and gratitude.

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See you next week!
Sanne