Listening to Silence: Tactical, Affective, and Therapeutic Silences in Dutch Decolonial Practice

In Dutch society’s discussions about working through the colonial past, voice is often used as a metaphor for empowerment, whereas silence is often used as voice’s negative counterpart, signifying a loss or lack of power. Yet, raising one’s voice from the (diasporic) margins is empowering only if society is ready to listen to it, a readiness not always present in postcolonial societies such as the Netherlands. If such readiness to listen is insufficiently present, deliberate silence can be an alternative articulation strategy, indicating for instance a refusal to expose one’s voice to judgment or appropriation, or to give expression to experiences too complex to grasp in words. As an alternative articulation strategy, silence is polyphonous: it can produce a variety of different meanings and effects. In this article, I explore the empowering potential of such silence in three narrative interviews with decolonial practitioners in the Netherlands. Focusing on three specific forms that silence can take in decolonial practice, I analyze silence as (1) a tactical omission of particular words, opinions, or identifiers; (2) an affective method of communication through visual, musical, and performative arts; and (3) a therapeutic space created and held to enable deep listening and embodied solidarity.