Guyana not included in Netherland’s apology over slavery 

Dec 22, 2022 News

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– CARICOM says apology imperialistic without involvement of victims

Kaieteur News – Chairman of Guyana Reparations Commission, Eric Phillips has expressed dismay that Guyana was not included in an apology recently issued by the Kingdom of the Netherlands despite almost 200 years of African enslavement in the country. 

Phillips expressed the concerns during a virtual press conference hosted by the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) Reparations Commission Wednesday. The press conference was chaired by CARICOM Programme Manager and Reparations Commission secretary Hilary Brown, while the panel included Phillips, CARICOM Reparations Chairman and UWI Vice Chancellor Dr. Hilary Beckles, Suriname Reparations Chair Armand Zunder and Professor Verene Shepherd, Director for Reparations Research at UWI, who all provided reactions to Netherland’s apology.

On Monday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte gave a 20-minute-long speech apologising for his country’s role in the slave trade. It is understood that members of the PM’s cabinet will also be giving speeches in seven former Dutch Caribbean colonies they plan to visit.

Guyana will not be among those countries, Phillips said as the country was not even mentioned to have suffered at the hands of Dutch enslavers. “Guyana was a Dutch colony from 1616 to 1812, a period of 196 years” Phillips told the press conference. He explained that in 1621 the Netherlands gave the Dutch West Indian Company full control over a large Essequibo trading port as it owned for some 170 years cotton, tobacco and sugar plantations. An indelible Dutch legacy lives through names within the country such as Sparendaam, Vergenoegen, New Amsterdam, Holland and Uitvlugt among others, yet no one from the Netherlands will be coming here, Phillips reiterated.

Phillips said that the Dutch apology is welcomed nonetheless as it should be seen as a portal for constructive dialogue. He said that the apology must be followed by positive actions, “…based on the principle that harms must be readdressed…”

Dr. Beckles highlighted that the formal apology and acknowledgement of the transatlantic slave trade represent the acknowledgment of a crime against humanity and such a crime must be repaired with specific remedies. He said the Dutch apology is understood to be based on internal discussions as the country did not involve survivors of these historic crimes nor the victim communities in the Caribbean and beyond. Dr. Beckles opined that multilateralism, and the full inclusion of stakeholders is the necessary impetus to move the reparation issue forward in a dignified way, and until that is done, the apology remains challengeable. 

Dr. Beckles noted however that the apology adds to the Netherlands being the best European state poised to bring global leadership to the longstanding issue of reparatory justice. Historically, the Dutch has been a driving force in the African enslavement business having assisted other European states to get in on the free labour. Dr. Beckles explained that the Dutch was Europe’s pioneer state in the global slavery enterprise. For most of the 17 century, he said, the Dutch monopolized the transatlantic slave trade and provided finance and technology that enabled it to establish its empire based on chattel slavery and provided the resources that enabled the French, Portuguese, Spanish and others to follow. As a result of this pioneering role Amsterdam became the financial centre of Europe and became the leading supplier of capital that financed new world colonization. The national enrichment from African enslavement was unprecedented as the Dutch became one of Europe’s most developed industrial states which continues to be their position to date, “as an imperial nation holding a significant part of the Caribbean community in a state of colonial bondage.”

Dr. Beckles said after the apology the next step must be dialogue with nations and communities that continue to suffer and expects to be treated with the dignity of participating in dialogue with the Dutch state. Conversations should involve executives and other state representatives, but ultimately commercial banks, insurance companies and even families who benefitted from the crime will have to be engaged.

Suriname’s Reparations Chairperson said that the government of the former Dutch colony is yet to react to the Monday’s apology, but emotions are high among particularly elder citizens. He said a process of discourse had commenced last year when in Durban, the Netherlands apologized for racism. That same year Dutch cities decorated their locations with messages of apology. Monday’s statement came unexpectedly, nonetheless, “because it wasn’t the result of the process of dialogue but the result of a one -way street approach,” Zunder said. He noted that at least seven cities including Amsterdam are registered to have profited from African slavery. 

Professor Shepherd called the Dutch apology a step in right direction as she recalled the efforts put into reparations activism since 2013. She said that the Caribbean has been calling on all European powers through letters and other means to own up to the past and commit to a process of repair, but most European governments have not apologized and have not agreed that transatlantic trafficking of enslave African and chattel enslavement was a crime against humanity. She said that she learned that the Dutch apology came from a report last year by a government advisory board set up in the wake globalization of the Black Lives Matter campaign. She felt however that the apology should have come after earnest discussions with stakeholders. The Netherland has highlighted already that it does not intend to pay money to its colonies but will provide a EURO 200 million-dollar funds to help colonies affected by their historic crimes.

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