AMSTERDAM, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday formally apologized on behalf of the Netherlands for his country’s slavery past.
However, he said apologizing to the descendants of enslaved people in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles was only “a comma, not a full stop” in acknowledging the horrendous suffering inflicted on generations of enslaved people.
During his speech at the National Archives in The Hague, Rutte also paid tribute to several freedom fighters in the former colonies.
“Today, I respect the names of Tula in Curaçao, Jolicoeur, Boni, Baron in Suriname, One-Tété-Lohkay in Sint Maarten, and we remember all those unnamed women and men who heroically sought freedom over the centuries and were often punished most horrifically,” he said.
“For centuries, the Dutch state and its representatives have enabled, encouraged, maintained, and benefited from slavery. For centuries, people have been made commodities, exploited, and abused in the name of the Dutch state. Under Dutch state authority, human dignity has been trampled most horribly for centuries. And too few successive Dutch governments after 1863 have seen and recognized that the slavery past had and still has a negative impact. For this, I apologize on behalf of the Dutch government. Today, I apologize. Awe mi ta pidi diskulpa. Tide mi wani taki, excuse me.
“Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the actions of the Dutch state in the past — posthumously to all enslaved people worldwide who have suffered from that action to their daughters and sons, and all their descendants to the present day. We’re not doing this to clean up. Not to close the past and leave it behind. We are doing this, and we are doing this now, standing on the threshold of an important year of commemoration, to find the way forward together. We share not only the past but also the future,” the prime minister continued.
Rutte said the healing process must now start.
He announced that King Willem-Alexander would be present at the ceremonies in Amsterdam on July 1, 2023, to commemorate the abolition of slavery in the former Dutch colonies.
He said the conversation about the slavery past must be conducted as widely as possible, not only in the Netherlands but also in the places where it happened, with everyone who is involved or feels involved.
Rutte told the gathering that the Dutch government wants to work more intensively on more knowledge about the slave past in consultation with all groups and people from all countries with which this past is shared.
“The book of our shared history has many pages that fill us with bewilderment, horror, and deep shame in the 21st century,” he said as he said there was a need for a process of awareness, recognition, and understanding.
He said that process would take time and work would have to be done on the way to next July’s historical commemoration.
The most important thing now, the prime minister said, is that all the steps that will be taken will be together, “in consultation, listening and with the sole intention: doing justice to the past, healing in the present.”
Rutte characterized slavery as “a criminal system that has brought untold amounts of suffering and great suffering to thousands of people worldwide, and that continues to affect the lives of people here and now.”
“And we in the Netherlands must face our share in that past,” he added.
“Until 1814, more than 600,000 enslaved African women, men, and children were shipped to the American continent under appalling conditions by Dutch slave traders—most to Suriname, but also to Curaçao, Sint Eustatius and other places. They were taken from their families, dehumanized, transported, and treated like cattle.”
The prime minister also discussed the effect of slavery on current generations. He said the impact is reflected in racist stereotypes, discriminatory patterns of exclusion, and social inequality.
To break through that, the past must be faced openly and honestly, he argued.
Rutte pointed out that while no one alive today is personally to blame for slavery, “it is also true that the Netherlands bears responsibility for the great suffering inflicted on enslaved people and their descendants in all its historical manifestations. And so we cannot ignore the impact of the past in our time”.
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