Address Apologizing
for the Role of the Netherlands in the History of Slavery
delivered 19
December 2022, National Archives, the Hague, Netherlands
[OFFICIAL TRANSLATION FROM DUTCH TO ENGLISH BY
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE NETHERLANDS]
Good
afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
And for anyone listening or watching in a different time zone: Bun morgu,2 Bon dia,3
Good morning,
Here in the
National Archives, history speaks to us through millions of
documents.
And though we can’t hear the unwritten voices from the past, the story that
emerges from all those documents is not always pretty. Often it is ugly,
painful, and even downright shameful. That is certainly the case with the role
of the Netherlands in the history of slavery.
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.
It’s therefore good that we are gathered here today at the National Archives.
This is the home of our national memory; so this is the place to examine our
national conscience. Here, you can’t get around the historical facts. 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. Most
were taken to Suriname, but others were sent to Curaçao, St Eustatius, and other
locations. They were wrenched from their families and stripped of their
humanity. They were transported -- and treated -- like cattle, often under the
governmental authority of the Dutch West India Company. 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.
The numbers are unimaginable, the human suffering behind them, even more
unimaginable. Countless stories have been passed down, and witness testimonies
given, proving that there was no limit to the arbitrary cruelty of the slave
system; and thus, no limit to the injustice and the sheer terror. We need only
open Anton de Kom’s book, We Slaves of Suriname, to read about the most horrific
treatment and punishment. We read of people being flogged and tortured to death,
of people whose limbs were hacked off or whose faces were branded with hot
irons; each person’s fate more gruesome than the last, injustice upon injustice
with every turn of the page.
And just as Anton de Kom described the horrors of Suriname, other horrors
unfolded elsewhere, under the same Dutch governmental authority. We can read
about it. We can know about it. And still the awful fate of the people who were
enslaved is barely conceivable.
So let us consider the hard facts contained in the archives. Take, for example,
the enormous administrative system set up around the time that slavery was
abolished in 1863. We can still study those records here today. Page after page
lists the names -- and a few other personal details -- of enslaved people,
registered by plantation and owner. The records are dry and concise,
businesslike and systematic, which makes them all the more shocking because they
underline the absurdity of a system in which one human being makes a being
commodity of another; a system so inhuman and unjust, that in 1863 it was not
the enslaved people who received financial compensation from the State, but the
slave owners.
And yet it could be even more cruel, even more unfair, because everyone who
nominally gained their freedom in Suriname in 1863 was forced to keep working
under the supervision of the State for another 10 years. For many this meant
another 10 years of living an unfree life, a life of subjugation. Until 1873.
Which is 150 years ago next year. That history concerns us all, a complex
history, in which different years and different events carry significance in
different places.
Not just 1863 and 1873.
But 1860 too, for instance, the year in which slavery in the Dutch East Indies
was formally abolished.
1814, when the Netherlands abolished its transatlantic slave trade.
1848, the de facto end of slavery on St Maarten.
Or 1795, when Tula led a revolt on Curaçao that is still commemorated every
year.
So many moments, so many stories, so much history. In recent years, that history
has gained more attention -- in exhibitions, in publications and in the public
debate. Social awareness is growing. And that is leading to a change in the way
we think. This is good and appropriate and necessary, for the silence has gone
on too long.
I have experienced that change in thinking personally -- I want to be open about
that.
For a long time, I thought that we could not easily take meaningful
responsibility for something that happened so long ago, something that none of
us experienced first-hand.
For a long time I thought that the Netherlands’ role in slavery was a thing of
the past, something we had put behind us.
But I was wrong.
Centuries of oppression and exploitation still have an effect to this very day:
in racist stereotypes, in discriminatory patterns of exclusion, in social
inequality. And to break those patterns, we also have to face up to the past,
openly and honestly, a past that we share with other countries and that has
forged a special connection between our societies for all time. It is true that
no one alive now is personally to blame for slavery. But 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.
So, we cannot ignore the effects of the past on the present.
The report entitled Chains of the Past by the Slavery History Dialogue Group is
playing an important role in the process of growing awareness that many of us
are experiencing. The report was published on 1 July 2021 and it contains a
number of hard-hitting conclusions and clear recommendations.
The three key words are: acknowledgement, apology, recovery.
Today we are sending the official government response to this report to the
Dutch House of Representatives. In that response, we embrace the analysis and
conclusions of the Dialogue Group. In the intervening year and a half, the
government has spoken about the history of slavery, in various ways, in various
places, and with various people and groups. I myself was in Suriname last
September, where I learned how deeply history still affects people’s daily
lives, including in a spiritual sense. I also learned how experiences, memories
and feelings can be different for each group and each individual.
It makes a difference whether your forebears were stolen from Africa or were
members of the indigenous population.
It makes a difference in which country or region they lived their lives.
And it also makes a difference in which period they lived.
Those historical, geographical, and cultural differences between population
groups and individuals matter to this very day.
And this means that making general statements about the history of slavery is a
very delicate matter. How do you do justice to all those differences? What is
the best moment? How do you do justice to all the spiritual symbols and rituals
that are so very important to certain cultures? And how can you encapsulate so
much injustice, so much pain, so many atrocities, in mere words?
Any attempt to do so will always fall short, and will give rise to new questions
and discussions -- with all the emotions that entails, with all the tensions it
creates. We know there isn’t one right moment for everyone; there are no right
words for everyone, nor one right place for everyone. And I acknowledge that the
build-up to this day could have been better. But we mustn’t let that be a reason
to simply do nothing. We must take steps forward together. We must progress
together. So please, let’s have that conversation about the Netherlands’ role in
the history of slavery, even if it is difficult.
That conversation begins with acknowledgement: acknowledgement of the terrible
suffering inflicted on generations of enslaved people; acknowledgement and
rehabilitation of all those who put up resistance, like the courageous Maroons
of Suriname. Today, I respectfully speak the names of Tula on Curaçao, Jolicoeur,
Boni and Baron in Suriname, and One-Tété Lohkay on St Maarten. And we remember
all the nameless women and men who courageously strived for freedom throughout
the centuries, and often suffered the most horrific punishments. And, of course,
acknowledgement of historical responsibility, together with the appropriate
words.
These
words:
- For centuries, the Dutch State and its representatives facilitated,
stimulated, preserved and profited from slavery.
- For centuries, in the name of the Dutch State, human beings were made into
commodities, exploited and abused.
- For centuries, under Dutch state authority, human dignity was violated in the
most horrific way possible.
- And successive Dutch governments after 1863 failed to adequately see and
acknowledge that our slavery past continued to have negative effects and still
does.
For that I offer the apologies of the Dutch government.
Today, I apologize: Awe mi ta pidi diskulpa. Tide mi wani taki pardon.4
Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the past actions of
the Dutch State: to enslaved people in the past, everywhere in the world, who
suffered as a consequence of those actions, as well as to their daughters and
sons, and to all their descendants, up to the present day.
We are doing this, not to wipe the slate clean, not to close the book on the
past and leave it behind us. We are doing this -- and doing it now -- so that,
standing on the cusp of an important commemorative year, we can find a way
forward together. We not only share a past; we share a future too. So, with this
apology we are writing not a full stop, but a comma. The dialogue on the history
of slavery should be held as broadly as possible, not only in the Netherlands,
but also, and especially, in the places where it happened, with everyone who is
involved or feels involved.
That’s why the apology I just offered will be echoed today in seven other places
in the world, places where the pain and consequences of slavery are felt the
most and are the most visible, to this very day. It will be echoed in the words
spoken by seven representatives of the Dutch government:
In Suriname.
On Curaçao.
On St Maarten.
On Aruba.
On Bonaire.
On Saba.
And on St Eustatius.
We are doing this -- and doing it now -- so that, standing on the cusp of an
important commemorative year, we can find a way forward together. We not
only share a past; we share a future too. So with this apology we are
writing not a full stop, but a comma.
In consultation with all the groups and individuals from all the countries with
which we share this history, the government wants to work more intensively to
enhance knowledge of the history of slavery, thus ensuring more awareness,
acknowledgement and understanding. This process will take time, and we can only
do this work together on the road to that important, symbolic date of 1 July
2023. And then throughout the year of commemoration, and in the years that
follow.
The government response to the report by the Slavery History Dialogue Group
discusses this extensively. It is vital that the steps we take now are truly
taken together. By talking and listening to each other, and doing so with just
one purpose: doing justice to the past and healing in the present; a comma, not a full stop.
Together with Suriname, the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom and all the
descendants in the Netherlands, we are working to make cultural heritage more
visible, to foster awareness through education, and to encourage academic
historic research. During the year of commemoration, all facets of the history
of slavery and its effects up to the present day will be brought to light. The
King personally feels very engaged with this subject and will be present at the
commemoration and celebration in Amsterdam on 1 July.
And we are looking ahead, beyond 2023. An independent and broadly composed
commemoration committee will consider the best way to respectfully commemorate
the past as collectively as possible in the future.
We will also set up a fund for social initiatives throughout the Kingdom and in
Suriname, so that the impact of the history of slavery is given the visibility,
attention and action that is needed. The healing process must start now, and we
will write the program for that process together.
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
The book of our shared history has many pages that fill us -- as people of the
21st century -- with dismay and horror. And with deep shame. Those pages cannot
be erased with an apology, nor should they be. We cannot change the past, but we
can face up to it. What the government fervently hopes, and what I personally
fervently hope, is that this moment, this day, will help us -- throughout the
Kingdom and together with Suriname and other countries -- to fill the empty
pages that lie ahead with dialogue, acknowledgement and healing.
Thank you.
1
Text Note: Minor spelling and punctuation corrections to reflect
standard American English
2
"Good morning" (Sranan Tongo)
3 "Good morning"
4
Dutch original, translated to English via
Google Translate: "Oh, I want to ask for forgiveness. Today I want to
say sorry."
Original Text Source: government.nl
Page Created: 10/4/23
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