2023-07-02 06:16:00
“Today I stand before you as king and member of government. Today I personally apologize to you,” Willem-Alexander said to cheers at an event marking 150 years of the emancipation of slaves in the former Dutch colonies, at the Oosterpark in Amsterdam.
Thousands of descendants of people enslaved in the former South American colony of Suriname as well as the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao attended these celebrations.
“I feel this deep in my heart and in my soul,” the king said, before adding, “The slave trade and slavery are recognized as crimes once morest humanity.”
“The kings of the House of Orange (from which the current monarch descends, editor’s note) did nothing to prevent it. Today, I ask forgiveness for this inaction”, added Willem-Alexander.
Commemorations marking the real end of slavery in the colonies take place every year in Amsterdam, a celebration called “Keti Koti”, or “breaking the chains” in Sranantongo (one of the languages of Suriname).
They take on particular significance this year following the government presented an official apology in December for the Netherlands’ slavery past.
“Repairs”
“It’s a start,” said Lulu Helder, a teacher and descendant of slaves, who watched the king’s speech a few kilometers away, broadcast live on national television. “We need reparations,” she said.
“He took responsibility, so I forgive him,” said Arnolda Vaal, 50, dressed in traditional slave garb.
Descendants of enslaved people had asked the king to issue an official apology.
At the same time, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra was in Suriname for the commemorations in the former colony. He gathered in front of the Kwakoe monument – a statue of a slave breaking his chains – in the capital Paramaribo and attended a mass in a church built in 1778, where the abolition would have been officially announced 160 years ago.
“I apologize on behalf of the Dutch government (…) Slavery is a crime once morest humanity in which the Netherlands played an important role. In many places around the world, the traces of this painful past are still visible,” he said, repeatedly evoking the king’s apologies.
“It is a sign of goodwill to recognize the extent of the suffering… Our response to the apology must have as great historical value as the Dutch apology. We have no choice, because the wounds of 300 years of slavery cannot be easily healed,” said Suriname President Chan Santokhi.
“Crime once morest humanity”
Since the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, the Netherlands has engaged in an often difficult debate over its colonial past that made it one of the richest countries in the world.
Slavery helped fund the Dutch “Golden Age”, a period of prosperity through maritime trade in the 16th and 17th centuries. The country trafficked regarding 600,000 Africans, mostly to South America and the Caribbean.
According to a report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior, between 1675 and 1770 the colonies brought in the royal family the equivalent of 545 million euros, at a time when slavery was widespread.
The current king’s distant ancestors, William III, William IV and William V of Orange-Nassau were among the greatest beneficiaries of what is described in the report as a “deliberate, structural and long-lasting involvement” in slavery.
Prime Minister Rutte presented the government’s official apology in December for the role of the Dutch state in 250 years of slavery, which he described as a “crime once morest humanity”.
While the official abolition of slavery in the Dutch colonies dates back 160 years, its actual application is only 150 years old.
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