On 27 June 2025, I had a honour and pleasure to speak at Stroom Den Haag, the public art center in the Hague, within the framework of the on-going exhibition “Water Imaginaries“. In fact, Leana Boven, the curator of the exhibition and the event consulted with me extensively in designing this event, which was co-hosted by International Institute of Social Studies (ISS is part of Erasmus University Rotterdam). Conveniently, Stroom Den Haag is across the canal from ISS!
For my presentation at Water Imaginaries, I chose to examine Battle Against the Water, a comic book created by Jan Kragt and Marc Verhaegen in 2011. At first glance, it appeared to be a straightforward educational resource—brightly illustrated and aimed at Dutch schoolchildren aged 10 to 14. But as I spent time with it, I realised it offered much more: a dense and fascinating example of verbo-visual storytelling that communicates national values, identity, and even soft power of the Dutch hidden in their excellence in water management.
I approached the comic using Shenhav’s (2014) “narrative triad” framework— story, text, and narration—as a way of unpacking how meaning operates through language. I began by talking about the story: the comic follows a young Dutch protagonist who embarks on a journey to help communities around the world fight flooding. It’s a heroic tale of water battles and problem-solving, but also a symbolic narrative of Dutch pride with regard to its history post-1953, and more specifically, the Delta Works. The central character of the comic, Peter, stands in for national expertise, bravery, and moral clarity — one may even say superiority. That’s as much fascinating as problematic. Next, I examined the text—the comic strip format, where image and language work together in a tight choreography. The visual drama of floods, dams, and rescue missions is paired with dialogue and narration that foreground Dutch ingenuity. These elements reinforce one another to tell a story not just about climate response, but about who holds knowledge and leadership in this field. Finally, I turned to the narration, by which I meant the comic’s function in the real world. It’s not just a story—it’s been widely distributed in schools — a special educational package was developed to support this comic’s use in education, and it’s on display at Het Keringhuis, a symbol of Dutch hydraulic innovations. In that context, Battle Against the Water becomes part of the broader narrative the Netherlands tells about itself: a country that’s not only surviving water threats, but leading the global charge in managing them. And hence the motto of the Dutch Water Sector to conquer new water markets makes total sense — “Water you thinkings? Bring in the Dutch”!
In that context, Battle Against the Water becomes part of the broader narrative the Netherlands tells about itself: a country that’s not only surviving water threats, but leading the global charge in managing them.
Drawing on Ricœur’s contrast theory, I looked at how Dutch identity is constructed in opposition to ‘others’ in the comic. The Czech and British characters, for example, are friendly and willing to cooperate—but ultimately, they need the Dutch protagonist to guide them. While Peter, the Dutch protagonist, evolves as a character, these other characters remain static — a mere background against which Peter acts, suffers, prevails and is. That contrast implies a subtle hierarchy: the Dutch as capable and benevolent leaders, others as grateful recipients, or at best, partners/associates. This pattern, I argue, reveals soft colonial overtones. The comic promotes resilience and collaboration, yes—but within a framework that still centers Dutch superiority and leadership. It’s a well-meaning story, but not a neutral one. It contains assumptions about who gets to lead, who follows, and how national myth-making plays out through educational and cultural materials. I did find inspiration in the work of Edward Said and Gloria Wekker in understanding how this is part of the Dutch cultural archive, and how it’s very important to understand these everyday mandate semiotics of self-image-construction so that we can shift the Netherlands foreign water policy towards more flexible and equitable. That’s the purpose of this exercise, not a mere analysis or critique. One step at a time…
The presentation and discussion at Stroom Den Haag stimulated me to put work into this analysis and get some feedback. Now one hopes to get to it after a few weeks of vacation to make it a publishable text, either as a paper or as a chapter in a book.
