On Monday, December 19, the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made a formal apology in a speech for his country’s historical involvement in slavery and its effects in present day.
“Today on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the past actions of the Dutch state,” Rutte said in a 20-minute speech to an invited audience at the National Archive in The Hague, a city in Netherlands.
Additionally, he stated that slavery must be acknowledged as “a crime against humanity” in “the clearest terms.”
In response to tackling the legacy of slavery in the Netherlands and its former colonies, the Dutch Prime Minister said the government will create a fund to support initiatives.
The Dutch prime minister reversed course after first declining to deliver the apology, claiming that doing so would spark a “polarizing” national debate in Netherlands.
Mark Rutte addressed in The Hague while other Dutch ministers traveled to seven former colonies in South America and the Caribbean for this occasion.
After Rutte’s speech, the ministers traveled to Suriname, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Aruba, Curacao, Saba, and St. Eustatius, according to the government, to “discuss the Cabinet response and its significance on location with those present”.
Mark Rutte’s address comes at a time when many countries’ colonial history are being scrutinized more closely, particularly as a result of the expansion of the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of an African-American man named George Floyd in 2020.
Around 600,000 Africans were transported as slaves by the Dutch empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, primarily to the Caribbean and South America.
At its height of strength, the United Provinces, now known as the Netherlands, possessed colonies in Suriname, the island of Curacao, South Africa, and Indonesia. It ranked third in terms of colonial power.
Despite the fact that slavery was officially outlawed in 1863, the practice didn’t end until 1873, following a 10-year transition period.
Denmark apologized in 2018 for colonizing Ghana from the middle of the 17th until the middle of the 19th century, and King Philippe of Belgium expressed “deepest regrets” for atrocities committed in the Congo in June of this year.
The Netherlands now joins these countries’ ranks.
Author-Roberta Appiah
