AFP, published on Saturday 01 July 2023 at 06:32
Eagerly awaited is the apology by Dutch King Willem-Alexander in his speech on Saturday at celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the former Dutch colonies.
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 are expected to attend the annual celebrations in Amsterdam, which are part of an annual celebration called “Keti Koti Chains” in Sranantongo ( one of the Suriname languages).
The commemorations are the first of their kind since the government officially apologized for the Netherlands’ slavery past in December.
However, the king refused to confirm that he would apologize for the country’s slavery past, which one report said greatly enriched the House of Orange-Nassau from which he hails.
“I think we have to wait until July 1st,” he said when asked by the press during a recent state visit to Belgium.
“I understand very well people’s desire for me to do it, but I ask you to wait until then.”
However, the Dutch media claim to be relying on sources familiar with the matter but predict an apology.
The King’s speech from Amsterdam’s Oosterpark will be broadcast live on national television.
Descendants of enslaved people have asked the king for a formal apology.
“It’s important for coming to terms with the slave past,” Linda Nooitmeer, president of the National Institute for the History and Legacy of Slavery (NiNsee), said in an interview with public broadcaster in May. Dutch NOS.
– An Enriched Royal Family –
Since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, the Netherlands has held an often difficult debate about the colonial and slave trade past that has made it one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
According to a report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and published in June, the colonies brought in the equivalent of 545 million euros for the royal family between 1675 and 1770, at a time when slavery was widespread.
The distant ancestors of the current King of the Netherlands, William III. of Orange-Nassau, William IV of Orange-Nassau, and William V of Orange-Nassau, were among the major beneficiaries of what the report describes as “deliberate, structural, and…” “long-term involvement” in slavery.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte presented an official government apology for the Dutch state’s role in 250 years of slavery in The Hague in December, which he described as a “crime against humanity”.
In his Christmas speech, the King of the Netherlands then welcomed the government’s apologies for the Dutch state’s role during 250 years of slavery, saying they were “the beginning of a long road”.
Slavery helped fund the Dutch “Golden Age,” a period of prosperity through maritime trade in the 16th and 17th centuries. The country smuggled about 600,000 Africans, mostly to South America and the Caribbean.
While the official abolition of slavery in the Dutch colonies dates back 160 years, its actual application is only 150 years old.