A Dutch Slavery Remembrance Fund

Politicians positive about slavery remembrance fund

General  --  Tuesday, September 9, 2008 A Dutch fund in memory of the history of slavery come. That is historian Johannes Houwink ten Cate, during the first Day of Slavery, on 6 September in Amsterdam, approval received from the MPs Harry van Bommel (SP), Kathleen Ferrier (CDA) and CU (Christian Union).

Johannes Houwink ten Cate, professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam, called the present politicians to generously with reparations to the descendants of African slaves in Suriname and the Antilles. "I think payout to individual victims is virtually impossible, but that precisely because of the long-term effects of slavery a good doped Dutch Foundation for the Remembrance of Slavery must be set."

During the ensuing debate between MPs from SP, CDA and Christian Union appeared to support this. "I'm not going to write a blank check," said Harry van Bommel (SP) "but I think it's an interesting idea." According to Kathleen Ferrier (CDA) would be a possible new fund should be integrated with the existing National Institute of Dutch slavery history and heritage (NiNsee).

Apologies  --  Van Bommel said in May this year, Prime Minister Balkenende on his visit to Suriname to intervene on behalf of the Dutch government officially apologize for the Dutch role in the slave trade. The Prime Minister gave to ignore this, but van Bommel announced 'it is not to leave. " Ferrier, daughter of the first President of Suriname and MP on behalf of the CDA, see nothing in an official apology. "By the former colonies to apologize, we create only a situation of inequality between our countries. We need to correct on the basis of equality with each other more. ' Voordewind find an official apology also counterproductive. However, he, like his fellow politicians, believes that considerable attention to the history of slavery in schools should be spent. For the idea of ​​a special fund he is therefore open.

Abolition  --  The Day of Slavery was organized by NiNsee and Historic Newspaper and had greater knowledge of the past to target. During an interview with Maartje Janse, a researcher at Leiden University and author of the thesis The abolitionists. Public opinion and political organization in the Netherlands, 1840-1880, came the painful question of why the Dutch abolished slavery in 1863 was over after England (1833), France (1848) and even Russia (1861).

According to Janse was the political culture in the Netherlands, which after the revolutionary years, mass movements were no longer part, an important responsibility for the late abolition. The political will was there, but the removal was a "civilized" way to happen. That the Netherlands in imitation of England in 1814 it abolished the slave trade, according to Janse was a prerequisite for the British government to the Netherlands and Belgium as a country to recognize. [SOURCE: by Maarten Muns]

Caption: Music on the Day of Slavery by Verno Romney & The TK Jive (photo Sander Heijne)