Netherlands King Willem-Alexander issued his official apology on Saturday for the country’s involvement in slavery, saying he was “personally extremely” affected.
“Today I stand before you as a king and a member of the government. Today I apologize,” Willem-Alexander said to cheers at the event marking 150 years of postal slaves in the former colonies.
The apologies of the King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander are not a surprise, they were long awaited on the occasion of this speech.
A request for descendants of slaves
The commemorations are the first of their kind since the government issued a formal apology in December for the Netherlands’ slavery past. They meet the demand of descendants of people reduced to slavery.
A priori, thousands of descendants of people enslaved in the former South American colony of Suriname, as well as on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, were expected to attend the annual celebrations in Amsterdam, as part of an annual celebration called “Keti Koti”, “breaking the chains” in sranantongo (one of the languages of Suriname).
“It is important to be able to digest the past of slaves,” Linda Nooitmeer, president of the National Institute for the Past and Legacy of Slavery (NiNsee), said in May in an interview with the Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
The prime minister had already issued an official apology
According to a report commissioned by the Dutch Interior Ministry and published in June, between 1675 and 1770 the colonies contributed the equivalent of 545 million euros to the royal family, at a time when slavery was widespread.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte presented a formal government apology in The Hague in December for the Dutch state’s role in 250 Years of Slavery, calling it a “crime against humanity.”
In his Christmas speech, the king of the Netherlands welcomed the government’s apology for the Dutch state’s role in slavery, saying it was the “beginning of a long journey”.
Source: BFM TV
