The Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, vowed on Monday that the subject of slavery will not be off limits as he visits former colony Suriname, where the practice ended 150 years ago.
The king arrived in the capital Paramaribo with Queen Maxima on Sunday, a week after the small South American country celebrated 50 years of independence from the Netherlands.
“During our three-day visit, we will not shy away from history, nor from its painful elements such as slavery,” Willem-Alexander said on Monday.
The visit by the king and queen is the first by members of the Dutch royal family in nearly five decades.
Slavery was formally abolished in Suriname and other Dutch-held lands on July 1, 1863, but ended only in 1873 after a 10-year “transition” period.
The Dutch financed the “Golden Age” of their empire and culture in the 16th and 17th centuries by sending approximately 600,000 Africans, mostly to South America and the Caribbean, as part of the slave trade.
In a meeting with Suriname President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons on Monday, the king said he was “aware of how deeply this is connected with the descendants of enslaved people and indigenous communities. We look forward to engaging in dialogue with them.”
Suriname, located on the northern coast of the South American continent, has been plagued by rebellions and coups since independence in 1975.
But the recent discovery of vast offshore oil reserves promises to change the country’s fortunes.
Willem-Alexander said the Netherlands was keen to deepen relations with its former colony “on the basis of equality and mutual respect”.
And, he said, building a shared future “is only meaningful if we take into account the foundation on which we stand. That foundation is our shared past”.
The Netherlands issued an official apology for slavery through then-Prime Minister Mark Rutte in December 2022, followed by a royal pardon the following year.
Willem-Alexander and Argentinian-born Maxima are to meet behind closed doors with descendants of slaves, traditional people and representatives of indigenous groups.
A group of Afro-Surinamese people has criticized the royal event for not including a wreath at the Paramaribo monument celebrating the abolition of slavery.
Diplomatic relations between the countries were severely strained under the military rule of former dictator Desi Bouterse from 1982 until he returned to power as elected president from 2010 to 2020.
Bouterse’s National Democratic Party (NDP) is now led by Geerlings-Simons.
A 2023 study found that the Dutch royal family earned €545m ($632m) between 1675 and 1770 from colonies where slavery was widespread.
The king’s ancestors, Willem III, Willem IV and Willem V, were among the biggest gainers from what the Dutch report called the state’s “deliberate, structural and long-term involvement” in slavery.
In 2022, Willem-Alexander announced that he was abandoning the royal gold coach that traditionally carried him to state occasions because it had images of slavery on its sides.
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