In his Christmas speech on Sunday, Dutch King Willem-Alexander hailed the apology from the Dutch government for the Netherlands’ role in 250 years of slavery, referring to it as the ‘start of a long road.’
Prime Minister Mark Rutte issued an official apology for the Dutch state’s complicity in the practise of slavery in its former colonies, referring to it as a ‘crime against humanity.’
Willem-Alexander remarked at the Huis ten Bosch palace in The Hague, ‘Nobody today bears responsibility for the horrible deeds that were inflicted on the lives of men, women, and children.’
‘But by honestly facing our shared past and recognising the crime against humanity that is slavery, we lay the ground for a shared future – a future in which we stand against all modern forms of discrimination, exploitation and injustice. The apology offered by the government is the start of a long journey,’ he added.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the ‘Golden Age’ of the Netherlands empire was funded by bringing 600,000 Africans under the slave trade, most of them belonging to South America and the Caribbean.
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