British officials and the royal family are assessing how to address their historical role in slavery after King Charles continued to limit his public remarks to profound personal sorrow. The diplomatic move comes five years after the Netherlands began a similar path that culminated in apologies from both former prime minister Mark Rutte and King Willem-Alexander. However, Dutch merchants had trafficked an estimated 600,000 enslaved Africans across the Atlantic alongside up to one million across the Indian Ocean and East Indies, leaving descendants deeply dissatisfied with symbolic gestures. The resulting Dutch political fallout highlights the risk of offering apologies while strictly barrin…
Key points
Andy Burnham has pledged to pursue structured dialogue with former colonies to help shape…: Andy Burnham has pledged to pursue structured dialogue with former colonies to help shape Britain's first formal apology for slavery.
The British government and monarchy continue to stop short of an apology while firmly rul…: The British government and monarchy continue to stop short of an apology while firmly ruling out support for financial reparations.
Dutch state apologies triggered fierce criticism from activists because European official…: Dutch state apologies triggered fierce criticism from activists because European officials unilaterally dictated the timing while refusing direct financial restitution.
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Andy Burnham’s pledge to seek a “structured dialogue” with former colonies to help shape Britain’s first formal state apology for slavery marks the UK’s first tentative step down a path the Netherlands set out on five years ago.
The prime minister’s attempts to initiate a historic shift alongside the royal family – whose customary expressions of “profound personal sorrow”, falling short of an apology, was repeated by King Charles this week – echo a process begun by the Dutch state in 2021.
As London weighs its words, while firmly ruling out any support for reparations, the Dutch experience may provide a preview: in the Netherlands, apologising did not draw a line under the past for everyone, and prompted a political backlash, disillusion among many descendants, and a row over what justice really means.
That is not to say it was not the right thing to do. The apologies were “sensitive, the right words, the right gestures … You could feel the sincerity,” said Linda Nooitmeer, the then chair of the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its…
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