Dutch Gold Coast - Legacy

Legacy

After Indonesia gained independence in 1945, most Belanda Hitam migrated to the Netherlands, since they had been soldiers of the Dutch East Indies Army. Other than that, the Dutch colonial history on the Gold Coast was more or less forgotten. This changed slightly after Arthur Japin published the earlier mentioned The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi in 1997. This attention also revealed that the head of Ahanta king Badu Bonsu II, taken to the Netherlands after his execution in 1838, was still in the possession of the Leiden University Medical Center. The head of the king was handed over to the Ghanaian ambassador in a ceremony held on 23 July 2009 in The Hague.

In 2002, the 300 year anniversary of diplomatic ties between Ghana and the Netherlands was celebrated, with Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Máxima visiting Ghana between 14 and 17 April, and with Ashanti king Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II visiting the Netherlands in June. The anniversary referred to is the sending by the Dutch West India Company of David van Neyendael as envoy to the Ashanti Empire in 1701, after the Ashanti had become the dominant power on the Gold Coast by defeating the Denkyira at the Battle of Feyiase.

Remnants of Dutch presence in the Gold Coast, other than the forts along the coastline, are Dutch surnames which were taken on by the descendents of the children the Dutch slave traders had with their black mistresses. Bossman is a common surname in Ghana, and ultimately derives from the Dutch slave trader Willem Bosman. Other Ghanaian surnames derived from Dutch names include Bartels, Van Dyck, and De Veer. In an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, British-Ghanaian actor Hugh Quarshie traced his ancestry to Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling, a Dutch official on the Gold Coast.