Administrators, politicians and activists have responded positively to the king’s speech on Saturday during the national commemoration of the abolition of slavery in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam. Curaçao Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas said the apologies “mark a historic moment and are an acknowledgment of the suffering and suffering in the past.”
Pisas praised the king’s cry for forgiveness. “We appreciate that very much,” said the Curaçao Prime Minister during the commemoration of the abolition of slavery on his island. According to him, the Netherlands has shown “courage and responsibility” by tackling the “painful matters of the past”. According to Pisas, the apologies mark an important change in the relationship between Curaçao and the Netherlands.
Christian Union Member of Parliament Don Ceder – himself a descendant of an enslaved person – also spoke of a historic moment. He saw “many tears” flowing around him when the king apologized, he says to the ANP news agency. According to Ceder, the apologies are healing. “I think it really unleashed something.”
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‘greatness’
BIJ1 leader Sylvana Simons was “impressed from the first sentence” by the king’s speech. The fact that he asked for forgiveness in addition to the apology touched her. “I think it’s greatness if you dare to do that.” At the same time, she calls it “only right that the king takes moral responsibility” by speaking, given the role of the Oranges and the benefit they had from slavery. Recent research calculated that the stadtholders and, from 1813, kings of the Orange family, converted to contemporary amounts, earned more than half a billion euros as a result of slavery.
According to Kick Out Zwarte Piet foreman Jerry Afriyie, Willem-Alexander has “put the dots on the i”. “Now it is up to all of us, but especially the politicians, to press ahead and ensure that it is not just words, but that it is also translated into deeds,” said the anti-racism activist. He still expects “a lot of uncomfortable conversations” and painful processes, “but afterwards we can look each other straight in the eye and say: we are a society that does justice to everyone.”
Anthropologist and activist Mitchell Esajas called the speech “not bad” and “a helping hand”. The foreman of The Black Archives, which collects the history of black Dutch people, finds it positive that the king twice referred to it as “recovery”. Esajas and other activists are betting on reparations to descendants of enslaved people. He doubts whether they will come. “It is up to us as a society, us as a community and politicians to make that happen.”