The mayor of Amsterdam within the Netherlands has formally apologized for the city’s role in slavery because the country reckons with its colonial past. Femke Halsema said it had been “time to engrave the nice injustice of colonial slavery into our city’s identity”. The apology came during an annual holiday that marks the tip of slavery in Dutch colonies within the 1800s. Last year town council voted for an apology and an advisory panel has told the national government to imitate. “I apologize for the active involvement of the Amsterdam council within the commercial system of colonial slavery and also the worldwide interchange of enslaved people,” Ms. Halsema said in a very speech on Thursday. The mayor said while it had been right to acknowledge the legacy of slavery, “not one Amsterdammer alive today is accountable for the past”. The apology puts the left-wing mayor at odds with center-right Dutch caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte, who is currently in talks to create a brand new government. Mr. Rutte rejected necessitate a proper state apology last year as protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in police custody swept the world. In a parliamentary debate on racism, Mr. Rutte said such an apology could polarise society and convey back painful memories for a few. However, his government did commission an independent advisory panel to create non-binding recommendations on problems with race and discrimination. The panel released its report on Thursday. The report said the country’s awareness of its colonial past was poor and recommended it’s taught in schools. The panel advised the govt to apologize for Dutch involvement within the global slave traffic, which it said was answerable for crimes against humanity. Apologies for slavery are issued by other countries, including the united kingdom, the US and France. What was the Dutch role within the slave trade? Transatlantic traffic involved the forced movement of individuals from the African continent to earth between the 16th and 19th centuries. During this era, Holland had extensive colonies within the regions now called Indonesia, African nation, Curaçao, island – and beyond. Colonising these regions helped Netherlands become a world economic power. Its wealth grew over 200 years through the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), which played a number one role within the traffic. The company operated a series of trading outposts in geographical region, from which slaves were shipped across the Atlantic. Amsterdam’s council says a number of its most senior officials were deeply involved within the traffic. Ms Halsema said research showed that “from the tip of the 16th Century until well into the 19th Century, Amsterdam’s involvement was direct, worldwide, large-scale, multifaceted and protracted”. The Dutch national museum, the Rijksmuseum, says Netherlands was one in all the last countries to abolish slavery. It did so in 1863, when slavery was officially abolished within the main Dutch colony of Surinam in South America. The anniversary of that moment is well known every 1 July and is thought as Keti Koti, which suggests Chains Broken. What reaction has there been to the mayor’s apology? Dutch TV presenter Charisa Chotoe tweeted that she was deeply touched by the apology. Speaking to Dutch broadcaster NOS, researcher Pepijn Brandon said the apology was a step towards addressing racial injustices still felt today. “Of course it wasn’t the case that when slavery was abolished that inequality suddenly vanished,” said Mr Brandon, a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. “Colonialism carried on and therefore the hierarchy that existed at the time between white and black people continued at important moments.” But others questioned the importance and also the legitimacy of the apology. “How can an apology be the idea for a just future – where this inhabitants don’t have anything to try to to with it – nor suffer under it?,” historian and political commentator Wierd Duk tweeted.
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