The King Of Netherlands Willem-Alexander made a rare royal apology for the country’s involvement in slavery, saying he was “personally and intensely” impacted on Saturday, July 1.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte officially apologized on behalf of the government in December 2022.
Since the Black Lives Matter movement took over political conversations in 2020, the Netherlands has opened up about its colonial and slave trading past, which helped it become one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
According to a Dutch study published in June, the royal family made 545 million euros ($595 million) in today’s dollars from the colonies, where slavery was common, between 1675 and 1770.
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Approximately 600,000 Africans were transported as slaves throughout the 16th and 17th centuries by the Dutch, principally to South America and the Caribbean, to finance their “Golden Age” of empire and culture.
The ceremonies for “Keti Koti” (Surinamese for “breaking the chains”), which mark 150 years since the practice was outlawed, took place in Amsterdam on Saturday and were attended by hundreds of descendants of slaves from Suriname in South America and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.
“Today I’m standing here in front of you as your king and as part of the government. Today I am apologising personally,” Willem-Alexander said to loud cheers from the crowd.
“I am intensely experiencing this with my heart and soul,” the monarch told those attending the event.
“Slave trading and slavery are recognised as a crime against humanity,” the king said.
“The monarchs and rulers of the House of Orange took no steps against it.
“Today, I am asking for forgiveness for the crystal-clear lack of action, on this day when we are commemorating slavery in the Netherlands,” Willem-Alexander said in his speech, broadcast live on television.
The present king’s distant relatives, Willem III, Willem IV, and Willem V, were among the highest earners from the Dutch state’s “deliberate, structural, and long-term involvement” in slavery, according to the report.
