IN A surprising move at the end of last year, the Kingdom of the Netherlands issued an apology for its role in the enslavement and trafficking of Africans to the Americas from the 17th to 19th centuries. 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared that slavery must be recognised as “a crime against humanity” in a speech at the Hague ahead of ministerial visits to the Caribbean and Suriname. 

The decision by the government of the Netherlands to apologise for its role in the slave trade is rare among former colonial powers, many of which have long refused to issue an official apology for fears that it would open the door up for legal claims of accountability in the form of reparations. 

In addition to this the issue of apologising has been seen as a political minefield among many politicians in the west who have long argued that present governments should not be held accountable for the actions of governments in the past. 

For supporters of issuing an official apology, arguments have been made that the effects of slavery and colonialism are ongoing and have set back and continue to restrict growth and development among the countries affected.

For over a century, studies conducted by academics and researchers from former President of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Eric Williams to contemporary academics such as Kehinde Andrews among many others have repeatedly demonstrated the association between slavery, colonialism and unequal economic development. 

Within the context of the Dutch apology there are a number of issues raised, chief among them is now what? Does this really open the door for reparations and does this set a precedent for other former colonial powers in the West? 

According to Pepijn Brandon, professor of Global Economic and Social History at the Free University of Amsterdam: “The Netherlands is one of the European societies with the most direct and extensive links to slavery”. 

Over 600,000 people from Africa and Asia were trafficked by Dutch merchants to places such as Suriname, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba, Aruba and Curacao in the Caribbean between the 17th and 19th centuries. 

The majority of people trafficked came from West and Central Africa. During the 17th century the Netherlands was one of the most prosperous countries in the world with significant wealth being generated through the state mandated slave trade through the Dutch West India Company. 

In the western province of Holland it is estimated that 40% of economic growth between 1738 and 1780 can be linked to slavery and the slave trade according to a Dutch Research Council.

The Dutch Prime Minister’s apology came following a 2021 report entitled “Chains of the Past” from the Advisory Board of the Slavery Past Dialogue which recommended that the Dutch government acknowledge and apologise for its involvement in slavery. 

Despite the apology many critics have contested that there has been a lack of consultation with the relevant communities and groups that would be affected by this move. 

It has been argued that the way in which the Dutch cabinet has pushed the apology through has a “colonial feel” to it. 

Six Surinamese foundations have requested that the apology should be pushed to 1st July 2023 to coincide with the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Act among former Dutch colonies but this has been ignored. 

Across the Caribbean the response to the Dutch apology has been mixed with some arguing that reparations are not what’s needed to solve the development challenges of the Caribbean. 

Others such as an activist in Curacao tweeted that the €200 million being offered by the Dutch government is a “pittance”.  

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice chancellor of The University of the West Indies, (UWI) and chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission offered a cautious but optimistic outlook positing: “The reparatory justice movement has moved in to a new phase” but noting that the Netherlands “continues to be an imperial nation holding Caribbean people impoverished in colonial bondage”. 

In Guyana the Afro-Guyanese International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDAPADA-G) presented an optimistic response stating: “We look forward to subsequent initiatives on your government’s part in response to the just and global call for reparations as the ultimate act of recompense”.

But many others recognised that more needs to be done. Professor Verene Shepherd, Co-chair of the National Council on Reparation and director of the Centre for Reparation research at the UWI commented: “I encourage all former colonial powers, to which the CARICOM Reparations [Commission] sent letters, to issue their own apologies instead of replies setting out their social and philanthropic actions in the Caribbean, remind[ing] us of their activism on modern-day slavery, remind[ing] us of their grants and loans since independence and statements of deep sorrow, regret and remorse that stop short of taking full responsibility for a crime against humanity and acting on the CARICOM 10-point plan for reparatory justice.”

In 2007 former Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a ‘statement of regret’ on the 200th anniversary year of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire after much criticism from UK Black organisations. 

In many ways the British press along with many politicians have used this as a way to close this chapter on Britain’s history and ignore the ongoing effects in the present day in the Caribbean. 

The CARICOM 10-point plan for reparatory justice has largely been ignored. In many ways the apology set by Mark Rutte on behalf of the government of the Netherlands is similarly problematic. 

The fact that there was no consultation with groups that represent the communities descended from slavery suggests that the power of colonial powers to set the terms of engagement with the legacy of slavery will always taint the sincerity of any apology and corrupt any measures to meaningfully address the unequal development that has resulted from it. 

As such does an apology set a precedent for other Western countries? The answer is most likely no, it will always be symbolic, hollow and disingenuous. So where does that leave Caribbean countries? 

Most CARICOM member states can campaign for reparatory justice as they are entitled to. But other paths to both economic and political justice must be explored in order to maximise any gains in the future.