The Dutchman was painted after Okediji had spent time in the United States, where he gained greater insight into the daily reality of African Americans. It was inspired, in part, by Robert Hayden’s poem Middle Passage about the Atlantic slave trade:

Jesús, Estrella, Esperanza, Mercy:

Sails flashing to the wind like weapons,

sharks following the moans the fever and the dying;

horror the corposant and compass rose.

Middle Passage:

voyage thorough death

to life on these shores.