Fort St. Sebastiaan in Ghana 1838

Frederik Lambertus Geerling created this pencil drawing of Fort St. Sebastiaan in Ghana sometime in the 19th century. Geerling was an architectural draughtsman in the service of the Dutch government. He also made maps and technical drawings for the Dutch. This image is an artifact of European colonialism. Fort St. Sebastiaan, now known as Fort Shama, was built by the Dutch West India Company in the 17th century. These kinds of forts were built to stake claim to land and resources in Africa. It seems to me that Geerling’s drawing, with its emphasis on architectural detail, served to legitimize the Dutch colonial project. It reminds us that the production of images has always been bound up with power. Consider, if you will, the emotional weight of this drawing viewed from the perspective of those who were colonized.