The Netherlands became the first European country on Monday to apologize for its historic role in the slave trade. But the move comes amid heated debate and racial controversies that show the European nation still hasn’t come to terms with its colonial past.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte issued the official apology in a speech at The Hague. “For centuries long the Dutch state and its representatives facilitated, stimulated, preserved and profited from slavery,” he said. “For that I offer the apologies of the Dutch government.”
Rutte said the Netherlands is apologizing now to find a way forward together. “We are doing this not to wipe the slate clean, not to close the book on the past and leave it behind us,” he said.
The government is also planning to set up a 200 million euro ($213 million) fund for projects that raise awareness of the legacy of slavery, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in September. Rutte stressed on Friday that the fund won’t be for reparations.
The decision could set a new precedent in Europe, where former colonial powers have so far avoided pressure to fully reckon with their role in the slave trade. But critics argue it’s too little too late, and it won’t address a recent scandal involving institutional racism or the ongoing debate around Zwarte Piet, the character of Dutch parades in the run up to Christmas who is traditionally portrayed by white people in blackface.
“I am positive about the fact that they are going to apologize, but not about the way in which they are doing this,” Jesse Klaver, the leader of the Green Left Party, said in an interview with Bloomberg. He argues that descendants of slaves should have been involved in the conversation. “An apology is a process you start together, you discuss what is needed,” he said.
The Netherlands played a key role in slavery in Suriname, Brazil and the Caribbean, and in South Africa and Asia, where the Dutch East India Company operated. The mayor of Amsterdam formally apologized for the city’s part in slavery last year and state-run lender ABN Amro Bank NV and the Dutch Central Bank followed suit in 2022.
“For a long time, I thought that the Netherlands’s role in slavery was a thing of the past, something we had put behind us,” Rutte said. “But I was wrong.”
Although countries such as Germany and the UK have made payments for violently putting down rebellions, the Netherlands will be the first on the continent to set aside money as an apology for slavery. The move comes after the government commissioned a report from an advisory committee, which suggested that the Netherlands should also “strengthen knowledge about the meaning of discrimination in everyday life and take legal measures to combat racism and xenophobia.” On Friday, Rutte stressed that it will be an “important moment,” but not the “end point” in discussions about the Netherlands’s colonial past.
The debate over Zwarte Piet remains one of the most sensitive issues for people of color in the country. For decades, the Dutch have celebrated the arrival of St. Nicholas, known as Sinterklaas in Dutch, in the run-up to Christmas with a parade during which he arrives in the company of legions of “Black Petes” — helpers in blackface with red lips and curly wigs, wearing 17th century costumes.
The tradition has fallen out of favor in recent years, with many major retailers dropping the sale of face paint and other merchandise. But many reject claims that the tradition is racist, arguing that Piet’s dark skin comes from soot that has rubbed onto his face when he climbed down the chimney. A survey conducted by Dutch pollster I&O Research shows opinions are changing, with a third of the population currently saying the character should continue to have a black face, down from two thirds in 2016.
“It’s a very sensitive topic for many people in the Netherlands, which prides itself in being open and equal,” said Mitchell Esajas, an activist who’s been protesting Black Pete for the past few years. “But unfortunately there’s a lot of racism.”
Institutional Racism
Rutte’s apology also follows a report earlier this month detailing institutional racism at the Dutch foreign ministry, with a number of employees of color complaining they had been called racist names including “monkey” and “Black Pete.” The ministry issued an apology.
Armand Zunder, head of the National Reparations Commission of Suriname, which gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975, said the apology should be issued by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and in the former colonies, not the Hague. The fund should be in the billions instead of millions, he added.
The apology is dividing society before it has even happened. Some are demanding that the government go further by setting up a reparations fund for descendants of the victims of slavery and canceling the whole tradition of Zwarte Piet. Others, including politicians from Rutte’s center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, have warned against taking things too far. “This was about a stain from the past, don’t make it an ethnic issue in the present,” VVD lawmaker Pim van Strien said on Twitter last week.
Klaver, the leader of the Green Left Party, argues that the push back against demands for the government to go further has a colonial tone to it. It’s as if they’re saying “We are apologizing, now shut up and sit down,” he said.
