The National Emancipation Day Commemoration took place at Oosterpark in Amsterdam on Monday. This year it is 156 years since that the Dutch government abolished slavery in the then-colonies Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean on July 1, 1863. Ministers Plenipotentiary Anthony Begina of Curaçao (front row, second from right), Jorien Wuite of St. Maarten (third from right) and Acting Minister Plenipotentiary of Aruba Eddy Paris (fourth from right) were among the officials who laid a wreath. Photo by Aruba House.
THE HAGUE/AMSTERDAM–The Dutch government considers it of “great importance” to engage in a broad dialogue about the Netherlands’ slavery past, the slave trade the country ran in parts of Africa, South America and the Caribbean, and the effects this past still has on the present society.
“The Dutch government cannot turn back time, but it does greatly deplore the fact that slavery is part of our joint history. Similar to previous governments, this government has ‘deep regret and remorse’ for how the Netherlands treated human dignity at the time of the slavery past,” Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Kajsa Ollongren stated in a letter to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Monday.
Ollongren’s letter, in which she called for a broad dialogue about the slavery past and the effects on the current society, coincided with the July 1 Emancipation Day national commemoration event at Oosterpark in Amsterdam, also known as “Keti Koti” (“Breaking the chains”). On July 1, 1863, the Dutch government abolished slavery in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean, much later than other countries.
Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Wouter Koolmees was among the speakers at this year’s commemoration which was attended by Ministers Plenipotentiary Anthony Begina of Curaçao and Jorien Wuite of St. Maarten, Acting Minister Plenipotentiary of Aruba Eddy Paris, and the ambassadors of Suriname, Ghana and South Africa.
Also in attendance were Chairperson of the Second Chamber Khadija Arib, Acting Chairperson of the First Chamber Joris Backer and Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema.
Koolmees said it was “difficult” to find “words that do justice to the past.” He said the pain was made worse by denial and indifference. “We can only move forward as a society once we share the same feelings and understand each other properly,” he said, referring to Ollongren’s proposal for a dialogue on the Dutch slavery past.
In her letter to Parliament, Ollongren spoke of a dialogue that focuses on “a broad recognition and embedding of this joint past in our society” aimed at connecting through, for example, a platform. “Further historical research or other suggestions for activities could come from this dialogue which can contribute to a solid embedding of the slavery past. In this manner, we can prevent that lessons from the past are forgotten.”
Halsema announced that 27 streets in Amsterdam will be named after anti-slavery campaigners in the former colonies. The streets will be named after historical figures, including Indonesian feminist Maria Ulfah, Surinamese activists Otto and Hermina Huiswoud, and Curaçao writer Frank Martinus Arion.
Halsema made the announcement at Monday’s National Commemoration. “We want Amsterdam to be everyone’s city, a city in which we share, research and deplore history, a city of equal and truly free people.”
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/88779-dutch-government-proposes-broad-dialogue-on-slavery-past
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