Mark Rutte has apologized for the Dutch state’s role in slavery, which he described as a crime against humanity.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte presented the Dutch government’s official apology for the Dutch state’s role in slavery, which he described as a crime against humanity, during a speech in The Hague this Monday, December 19, during a speech in The Hague.
“Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the past actions of the Dutch state: posthumously to all slaves around the world who suffered as a result of this act. To their daughters and sons and to all their descendants,” said Mark Rutte.
A long-awaited speech
This speech about the participation of the Netherlands in the 250 years of human trafficking in the former colonies was eagerly awaited. At the same time, several of his ministers were present in seven former colonies to “discuss” the matter with the residents. The government’s apology on Monday, leaked to the Dutch press in November, had sparked heated controversy in the Netherlands and abroad for several weeks.
Slavery commemoration organizations wanted the apology to be made on July 1, the date of the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery, at an annual celebration called “Keti Koti” (Breaking the Chains) in Suriname. Sint Maarten Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs told Dutch media on Saturday that the island would not accept a Dutch apology if presented on Monday.
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Slavery helped fund the Dutch “Golden Age”, a period of prosperity through maritime trade in the 16th and 17th centuries. The country abducted around 600,000 Africans, mainly to South America and the Caribbean. At the height of their colonial empire, the United Provinces, now known as the Netherlands, had colonies such as Suriname, the Caribbean island of Curaçao, South Africa and Indonesia, where the Dutch East India Company was based in the 17th century.
In recent years, the Netherlands has begun to grapple with its role in the slave trade and its colonial history, without which Dutch cities and their famous museums, filled with artworks by Rembrandt or Vermeer, would not be the same. With the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, the debate has flared up again in the Netherlands, where racism remains an affliction for members of the former colonies.
The Prime Minister had long expressed reservations
The cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague have already officially apologized for their role in the slave trade. Dutch ministers were on Monday in the Caribbean islands: Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Aruba, Curaçao, Saba and Saint-Eustache, as well as in Suriname.
Mark Rutte has long had reservations about a formal apology, saying in the past that the slavery era was too old and that an apology would stoke tensions in a country where the far right remains strong, before finally setting course changes. A recent poll found that only 38% of the adult population supports a formal apology.
Slavery was officially abolished in Suriname and other Dutch-held areas on July 1, 1863, but did not end until 1873 after a 10-year “transition period”.
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