In July this year the Dutch King apologised for the country’s historical role in slavery. Large numbers of young people were present to hear King Willem Alexander apologise for the crimes of his family and kingdom. Yet, there are many questions that remain unanswered in ongoing public debates. For ROAPE, Sayra van den Berg, Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong and David Mwambari argue that the past of slavery and (neo-)colonialism is not over.
By Sayra van den Berg, Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong and David Mwambari
On 1 July 2023, the Dutch King apologised for the Netherlands’ historical role in slavery. On location at the Slavery Monument in Oosterpark in the east of Amsterdam scores of diverse young people were present to hear King Willem Alexander apologise for the crimes of his family and kingdom. Yet, there are many questions that remain unanswered in ongoing public debate. This apology was praised by some as historic and an act of courage, some consider it unnecessary, while others consider it too little too late. In his speech, the Dutch King reflects on the polarity of public opinion surrounding the need for his apology, recognising that for some apologies are a necessary acknowledgement of historical harm and humiliation that has for too long been silenced, while others consider apologies to be excessive (‘overdreven’) as they are far removed in time from their original crimes. The divided nature of public opinion on apologies reinforces exactly why we need them in contemporary society.
In this blogpost we argue that this apology is an important challenge to other monarchies, European political and business elites whose families have benefited from the business of slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism for centuries. Importantly, Europe’s diversified young minds are asking questions that demand the breaking of the active silencing of the past and its continued impact on the present.
The slavery and colonial past of European societies have for a long time been made absent through obfuscation. This active silencing of the past breeds the continued colonial mindset of European political elites as evidenced in their speeches, behaviors and policies. Such colonial mindsets filter down through society inflecting everyday social relations while breeding racism and discrimination at all levels. Crimes committed by western European elites remain the most well-known yet unpunished and disregarded crimes in humanity’s history. The Holocaust and resulting trial is held as a standard of European righting wrong. This is a false understanding underlined by a narrative that Europeans are enlightened and human rights champions that self-regulate when it comes to crimes. Nonetheless we are yet to have institutions such as the Nuremberg trials or International Criminal Court dedicated to investigating and addressing crimes committed under slavery and colonialism. Crimes that UNESCO has in many instances declared as crimes against humanity. Instead we have blood-drenched diplomacy and amnesia propagated by European and American intellectuals, political and business elites that have created an official narrative that insists on white innocence, sealing evidence or diplomacy with the representatives of formerly colonial countries political elites.
The European blindspot regarding its own colonial crimes thus endures – a de facto amnesty that obscures the crimes of colonisation and allows their contemporary legacies to continue. Such amnesia and silencing in diplomacy does not give credibility to European politicians when demanding other countries end wars or invasion. Instead it provides an official model of how to silence criminal pasts of countries and allow human rights crimes to thrive in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy which goes against the very principals European societies prides themselves to protect.
The past of slavery and (neo)colonialism is not over. It still persists and structures the present and the future of everyday social relations in European societies. This much has been shown in studies of cases like the Holocaust, World War I and World War II or crimes in other genocides around the world. The loud silence of the European Union over these slavery and colonial era crimes and lack of apologies cannot be tolerated anymore.
As we recently witnessed the French riots unfold due to police brutality against minorities, we need to remember the continued looting of African resources through shady business deals, inequitable financial arrangements that stem from (neo)colonial rule and the financing of violence in the name of border controls amongst many other racist and discriminatory policies faced by people of African descent on the continent and in the diaspora.
The COVID-19 global health crisis made even more evident ongoing racist attitudes of European countries in their relation with non-European countries. For instance In 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Suriname – a former colony in the Kingdom of the Netherlands – sought assistance from the Netherlands in the form of vaccine distribution. While the Netherlands did – after some weeks – respond and send thousands of COVID-19 vaccines, they opted to send primarily Astrazeneca vaccines, despite having made the decision in the Netherlands to halt administering these vaccines to people under the age of 60 within the Netherlands (due to reports of a small risk factor in younger people). So while the Netherlands came to the ‘aid’ of its former colony in this way, it only saw fit to provide them with an option that was considered ‘below standard’ in the Netherlands itself.
Today, in much of European society, there is what can be called the embodied absence of the past. In a study recently published in the Annals of Tourism Research, this embodied absence of the past is considered as:
the awareness of the physical presence yet narrative absence of the shared history, heritage and role of African-descent people in European societies. This collective amnesia…is challenged and activated through tourism encounters of slavery and colonial traces which trigger an evocation and reconstruction of personal and collective memories.
It is out of such encounters that the stories of slavery, colonialism and the long-standing presence of Africans on European soil are starting to crack through the surface of the public consciousness, thanks in part to the energy of young people.
Many young people in Europe are beginning to realise that part of their countries’ contemporary wealth flows directly from slavery and colonial pillage. The ease of travel they enjoy means they’re coming face to face with the underdevelopment in many countries that has been intentionally generated by European powers. They have encountered an informed, innovative and ambitious youth from the Global South that want to speak against oppression in their own countries and colonial structures that maintain corrupt dealings that are ailing their societies. A youth that can no longer be silenced, distanced or intimidated to continue the political and epistemic decolonialisation project that their ancestors fought and died for. These Global South youth are part of the Diaspora in Europe leading the demands for positive change and fighting racism in all forms.
It is time to break the silence, unseal the archives and demand investigations. There is a need to fully understand how European countries and their political elites have continued to benefit from slavery and (neo)colonial oppression in addition to ongoing blood wars around the world. The young people of Europe in their great diversity are calling for better historical information that reflect the stories of their parents and the generations that came before them. Apologies need to go hand-in-hand with knowledge and historical awareness. This must precede any attempts at repair and reparations.
It is in this context that the public apology and the initiatives to return stolen artifacts by the Dutch King and heritage institutions holds significance. This is an important first step and one that all European powers including Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Spain and others should follow. A formal apology is a necessary stage in the path toward decolonising the infrastructures of power and inequalities that continue to disadvantage and discriminate along racial fault lines throughout Europe and the colonial Global North.
The power of apologies lies in the act of acknowledgement that they embody – as a public act of recognition that the reality of colonialism was criminal in nature and that its impacts endure. This creates the necessary conditions for responsibility that paves the way for further institutional measures of repair, redress and reconciliation. Without this process such acknowledgement becomes a hollow act. In addition to the apology, the Dutch King has already commissioned a 3-year investigation into the details of his family’s involvement in and profit from slavery.
European people deserve a chance to read historical books that accurately represent varied perspectives on the crimes their monarchs committed around the world, the pain inflicted on those who survived and the looting that followed. It is time that Europeans learn about these historical crimes through formal channels in the classroom. To break the silence on slavery and the colonial past in Europe and decolonise the minds of the old and the young, we need to consider three main things:
First, decolonise knowledge sources within educational systems. There are many examples and research that has pointed to how we can embark on the de-centering of the European version of the history of slavery and colonialism. Such research should be made visible and placed at the centre of the curriculum. European teachers and classrooms should be decolonised and changes should not be simply window-dressing if the human rights of the former colonised are to be respected and apologies meaningful. Teachers must be retrained en-mass in a decolonial curriculum that is both past, present and forward looking.
Second, expand and support educational access for minority groups facing chronic structural barriers. There is a need for increased funding to allow continued promotion and creating spaces that allow minority groups with diverse perspectives and ideas to be involved in spaces of power. Some European societies have already implemented some of these programs to allow access to women and sexual minorities. Expanding such programs to cover Afro-descent groups in particular can inspire those that promote ethnic minorities to be visible and be heard.
Finally, the media should be leading the charge to allow public opinion and debate on how the colonial past of European countries structure today’s conversations and debates. We need more programs that are led by both whites and non-whites on the crimes committed in the name of Europeans and continued debates on how to change these narratives and construct a better future.
Public apologies are an important step forward, but they remain just that – one step in what must be a larger commitment to tangibly dismantling the colonial structures and legacies that continue to dictate opportunities and challenges at all levels of life and society. This recent Dutch apology breaks new ground, which, if met with further institutional action could mark a crucial step forward in decolonising mind and space. While King Willem Alexander calls upon us to ‘open our hearts’ to those who would dismiss the need for apologies and respect differences in opinions, we argue that each position evidences precisely why public apologies from European elites are important and necessary.
Those in support of the apology overwhelmingly accept that the mission of acknowledgement, accountability and decolonisation is a collective endeavor, and one which requires breaking the silence of colonial crimes to achieve. Those who refute its relevance highlight the infuriating impact of generations of active silencing: a palpable sense of obliviousness to the lasting impacts in contemporary society. The continuation of the persistent structures of inequalities remain perhaps the most formidable obstacle we must contend with to effectively dismantle (neo)colonialism. Therefore, in the absence of action, this apology risks a decisive step backwards as the face of (neo)coloniality dons a mask of empty words.
Sayra van den Berg is a Dutch-Surinamese national and a research associate at the University of York working on decolonial spaces of transitional justice in contemporary civil wars across sub-Saharan Africa.
Emmanuel Akwasi Adu-Ampong is a Ghanaian-Dutch national and assistant professor in Cultural Geography at Wageningen University & Research. He currently works on the Dutch National Research Council funded Veni project on ‘slavery, heritage and tourism in Ghana-Suriname-Netherlands triangle’.
David Mwambari is an associate professor at KU Leuven University, Afro-diaspora Belgian and leads the European Research Council funded on Traveling Memories, Silences and Secrets of Migrants.
Featured Photograph: 50th Anniversary Parade with Luc Winants, King Willem-Alexander and Salvatore Farina (31 May 2017).
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