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The king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, has apologised for his country’s role in the slavery of colonised people, beginning in the 16th Century. He was speaking on Saturday (July 1) at a speech marking the 150th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in Suriname (in South America) and in Dutch colonies in the Caribbean in 1873.
“But today, on this day of remembrance, I ask forgiveness for the clear failure to act in the face of this crime against humanity,” he said.
Earlier in December 2022, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had also offered a full apology, coming after the results of a government-commissioned study were made public. It found that between 1945 and 1949, the Dutch used “excessive violence” in Indonesia after World War 2. While the Dutch had established their presence in the 1600s, it was in the 19th and 20th centuries that they began ruling the country. Japan then took control during World War 2, at the end of which the Dutch tried to regain control amid the independence movement taking shape.
What the king and the PM said
In his speech, the king thanked researchers for shedding light on the history of slavery in the country. “We know that more than 600,000 people were transported across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa aboard Dutch ships, to be sold as slaves or put to work on plantations. Around 75,000 did not survive the crossing. We also know about the extensive slave trade to the East, in areas controlled by the Dutch East India Company. And we know about the atrocities committed against the indigenous populations of the colonies,” he said.
PM Rutte echoed this sentiment last year in a speech, when he said, “We who live in today’s world must acknowledge the evils of slavery in the clearest possible terms, and condemn it as a crime against humanity. As a criminal system which caused untold numbers of people untold suffering. Suffering that continues in the lives of people today. And we in the Netherlands must confront our part in that history.”
Saying that the slaves were “wrenched from their families and stripped of their humanity”, and “treated like cattle”, Rutte said while no one alive today was to blame for the past Dutch atrocities, “it is also true that the Dutch State, in all its manifestations through history, bears responsibility for the terrible suffering inflicted on enslaved people and their descendants.”
Another independent study has been commissioned by the King to find out the precise role played by the Dutch Royals, the House of Orange-Nassau, in this history.
According to the United Nations Slavery and Remembrance website, “Like other European maritime nations, the Dutch were quick to involve themselves in the transatlantic slave trade. Between 1596 and 1829, the Dutch transported about half a million Africans across the Atlantic.
Large numbers were taken to the small islands of Curaçao and St. Eustatius, in the Caribbean… The Dutch also shipped about a half million Africans to their settlements in Dutch Guiana, notably Suriname, where they worked primarily on sugar plantations.”
The Dutch put slaves to work in their coffee, sugar and tobacco plantations, apart from household labour in colonies. The centuries of slave trade funded what is known as the Netherlands’ ‘golden age’ – the period roughly between 1585-1670, when trade, arts, sciences and the military flourished in the country.
According to Rutte’s speech, “By 1814, more than 600,000 enslaved African women, men and children had been shipped to the American continent, in deplorable conditions, by Dutch slave traders… In Asia, between 660,000 and over one million people – we don’t even know exactly how many – were traded within the areas under the authority of the Dutch East India Company.”
When slavery was formally abolished in 1863, it was not the slaves who received compensation from the Dutch state, but the slave owners.
What else is the government doing?
According to an official statement last December, “The government will make €200 million available in a fund for measures aimed at raising awareness, fostering engagement and addressing the present-day effects of slavery.”
July 2023 is being marked as the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, as, while it was formally abolished in 1863, another 10 years were required to put it into practice.
A criticism frequently levelled at The Netherlands is that its school education system does not adequately engage with its colonial and slave trading past. The government in its recent statement said it will “give the Netherlands’ role in the history of slavery a substantial place in education, as this is where young people come into contact with history.”
Apart from this, the country is also looking at returning artworks looted during the colonial period.
Why are some unhappy with the apology?
Some activist groups had asked for monetary reparations to have been made and for the process of recognising the history to have been more consultative with modern-day descendants of those impacted by slavery.
There is also the issue of present-day issues of racism. In 2020, the then UN rapporteur on racism, Tendayi Achiume, had said that a self-image of “tolerance” was blocking the tackling of discrimination in The Netherlands.
The country has seen allegations of systematic racism in its police force and other government services, dual nationals have been unfairly accused of childcare benefits fraud, and migrants have in general been found to have lower levels of educational and professional success than White Dutch people.
As Rutte said in his speech, “Centuries of oppression and exploitation still have an effect to this very day. In racist stereotypes. In discriminatory patterns of exclusion. In social inequality.”
The apology itself has been a long time coming. Sections of the Dutch population feel the nation today has nothing to apologise for in crimes committed centuries ago, while some fear that an apology can open the floodgates to demands for reparations.
