King Willem-Alexander apologizes and asks for forgiveness during the National Commemoration of Slavery in the Oosterpark. Image ANP
“There are also residents of the Netherlands who find apologizing so long after the abolition of slavery exaggerated.” It was not these words from the mouth of King Willem-Alexander that received the most attention.
But they say a lot. Because indeed: there are also Dutch people who are not at all interested in a discussion about the slavery past. Those were the people who were not in the Oosterpark, but wondered on social media ‘what else are we going to apologize for’. Or they said: ‘I don’t want to hear anything more about it now’.
No escape
Yet there is no escape from the latter. Because with the king’s apologies it only starts. “Now the broader, social conversation about what recovery actually is is starting. That is a shared process and is also about what kind of society we want to be,” says Professor Nicole Immler (Utrecht University of Humanistics). That will revolve around racism and the economic imbalance. In the Netherlands, but also on the islands that were Dutch colonies.
In the end it will also be about money. But the chance that, thanks to the king’s apology, reparations can be enforced through the Dutch courts is minimal, says legal philosopher Wouter Veraart, professor at VU University. “While Rutte had not yet condemned previous governments, the king stated that people then had a moral obligation to undo the colonial legal system that maintained slavery. It is quite something, when a head of state says that”.
But our private law is not built to enforce reparations on that basis, Veraart continues. “You also have to deal with statutes of limitations. The chance of winning a lawsuit is minimal.” At the same time, according to Veraart, it is obvious that after such apologies, repairs will also take place with money.
Black Pete
How that happens should be part of the conversation in the near future. “Of course, care must be taken that two bubbles do not arise, whereby one group has nothing to do with it while the other wants to start the conversation. That could actually increase the presence of racism. But it is good that we have already had the Zwarte Piet discussion. It ensures that these apologies can now be made and that we can look further at what needs to be done now.”
Veraart does not expect that tensions in the Netherlands will rise again as much as around Zwarte Piet. “The history of slavery is a complex story, which you have to delve into to find something about it.” This is different from the discussion about whether or not to remove statues, as in Hoorn by Jan Pieterszoon Coen, one of the founders of the Dutch colonial empire. “Then there is immediately room for polarization. But if you look not at the statue, but at the history behind it, it is much more difficult to divide into two camps and fight each other. It is a complex history in which we are all intertwined and there is no one who can be in favor of slavery.”
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Those interested during the National Commemoration of Slavery in the Oosterpark. Image ANP
But there are many people who still know little about it, says Immler. “The conversation about this is still young. We are dealing with a lack of knowledge, because there was no attention for the slavery past for a long time.” Veraart is optimistic: many Dutch people love history.
And Immler emphasizes: “It’s also about the legacy of this history in the now; something structural is going on.” The islands from which the Netherlands earned money are still lagging behind. In something like the benefits affair, it is mainly people with a non-Western background who were put into trouble with the help of algorithms. “In this affair, the colonial past continues to work.”
What now? The king probably gave the best advice to all of us when he addressed those present during his speech in the Oosterpark. “Open your heart. (…) Respect that there are differences in experience, background and imagination.”
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2023-07-02 15:36:54
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