King of the Netherlands apologizes for country's role in slavery

 
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands apologized Saturday for his country's role in slavery and asked for forgiveness during a historic speech greeted by cheers and whoops at an event to commemorate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Dutch colonies.

The king's speech followed Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's apology late last year for the country's role in the slave trade and slavery. The public expressions of remorse are part of a wider reckoning with colonial histories in the West that the Black Lives Matter movement spurred in recent years, AP reports.

In his emotional address, Willem-Alexander referred back to the prime minister's apology as he told a crowd of invited guests and onlookers: "Today, I stand before you. Today, as your king and as a member of the government, I make this apology myself. And I feel the weight of the words in my heart and my soul."

The king said he has commissioned a study into the exact role of the royal House of Orange-Nassau in slavery in the Netherlands.
"But today, on this day of remembrance, I ask forgiveness for the clear failure to act in the face of this crime against humanity," he added.
Willem-Alexander's voice appeared to break with emotion as he completed his speech before laying a wreath at the country's national slavery monument in an Amsterdam park.

Some people want action to back up the words.

"Honestly, I feel good, but I am still looking forward to something more than just apologies. Reparations, for example," Doelja Refos, 28, said.
"I don't feel like we're done. We're definitely not there yet," Refos added.

Former lawmaker John Leerdam told Dutch broadcaster NOS that he felt tears running down his cheeks as the king apologized. "It's a historic moment and we have to realize that," he said. Slavery was abolished in Suriname and the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean on July 1, 1863, but most of the enslaved laborers were forced to continue working on plantations for another decade. Saturday's commemoration and speech started a year of events to mark the 150th anniversary. Research published last month showed that the king's ancestors earned the modern-day equivalent of 545 million euros ($595 million) from slavery, including profits from shares that were effectively given to them as gifts. When Rutte apologized in December, he stopped short of offering compensation to descendants of enslaved people. Instead, the government is establishing a 200 million-euro ($217 million) fund for initiatives that tackle the legacy of slavery in the Netherlands and its former colonies and to improve education about the topic.

That isn't enough for some in the Netherlands. Two groups, Black Manifesto and The Black Archives, organized a protest march before the king's speech Saturday under the banner "No healing without reparations."