The Dutch Prime Minister offers official apologies on his countries past in slavery
The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte in a speech in The Hague on Monday, made official apologies on behalf of the government for the role of the Dutch state in slavery, considering it a crime against humanity.
“Today, I offer apologies on behalf of the Dutch government for what the Dutch state has done in the past,” Rutte said in an upcoming speech on slavery.
Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag said during an official visit to Suriname last week that a process was about to begin and that another very important moment would come on July 1.
The descendants of Dutch slavery on that date mark the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery with an annual ceremony known as “Kitty Koti” (breaking the chains) in Suriname.
Slavery helped finance the Dutch “Golden Age”, a period of prosperity through sea trade in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The country trafficked about 600,000 Africans, especially towards South America and the Caribbean.
At the height of its colonial empire, the United Provinces now known as the Netherlands had colonies such as Suriname, the Caribbean island of Curacao, South Africa, and Indonesia, where the Dutch East India Company was based in the 17th century.
In recent years, the Netherlands has begun to consider the legacy of its role in slavery and its colonial history, without which Dutch cities and famous museums would not be what they are today.
