Slavery Memorial Year: a structure for increasing focus and recognition of our shared past
News item | 14-10-2022 | 00:00
Historic involvement in slavery is a very painful, significant, and - until recently - underexposed part of our shared history. As of next year, extra attention will be paid to this history throughout the Kingdom: the Slavery Memorial Year will run from the 1st of July 2023 until the 1st of July 2024.
For over 300 years, slave traders (including many Dutch slave traders) captured adults and children from parts of Africa and transported them across the Atlantic Ocean in degrading conditions to the Netherlands’ various former colonies: Suriname and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten. Even the original inhabitants of the various Dutch colonies were not spared. In Asia, enslaved people were transported to regions controlled by the United East India Company (VOC). People were born into slavery for many generations. They spent their entire lives performing forced labour for Dutch plantation owners.
On the 1st of July 1863, slavery was abolished by law in Suriname and the Caribbean islands, which were colonies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. And yet a sizeable proportion of those who had been enslaved had to continue working on the plantations under state supervision for another decade in order to mitigate the ‘harmful effects of this measure’ on plantation holders. Hence for many people in the kingdom back then the de facto abolition of slavery did not come until 1873. That will be 150 years ago on the 1st of July 2023.
From 1858 until long after 1873, contract labour also subjected people from Asia to hard labour in Suriname under Dutch colonial rule.
During the Memorial Year, the Kingdom of the Netherlands will be reflecting on this embarrassing history as well as on how this history still adversely impacts on the lives of people today. The Government is supporting initiatives set up by or in partnership with the various groups and communities affected by our historical role in the slave trade. The Slave Trade Remembrance Year will thus be a year for the people and by the people.
The grant schemes
June and July 2023 will mark the grand opening of the Slavery Memorial Year across the Kingdom, and July 2024 will mark its close. Through this memorial year, the Government of the Netherlands hopes to contribute to permanently increasing knowledge and interconnectivity within society.
In addition, the Cabinet will make two million euros available for the organisation of activities during Slavery Memorial Year by, for example, community organisations and cultural institutions. This will enable larger institutions and small local initiatives or individuals alike to apply for funding to organise social and/or cultural activities. This will be conducted through two cultural funds: The Mondrian Fund and the Cultural Participation Fund.
Initiators such as museums, theatres and archives, as well as private initiators such as artists, creatives or organisers, can apply for funding to organise an activity during the Slavery Memorial Year. The Mondriaan Fund and the Cultural Participation Fund will assess the applications independently, through a representative assessment committee with knowledge of historic slavery and the communities involved. Anyone in the Kingdom wishing to organise an activity as part of the Slavery Memorial Year can apply. Information can be found on the websites of the Mondriaan Fund and the Cultural Participation Fund
The Memorial Year will see the entire Kingdom reflect on its historical role in the slave trade. It is being held 150 years after the de facto abolition of slavery in what were Dutch colonies in 1873. That was when the 10-year period of state supervision, which was introduced after the formal abolition of slavery in 1863, expired. Furthermore, from 1858 until well after 1873 people from Asia were contracted to carry out hard labour in Suriname under Dutch colonial rule, in which slave drivers were often still involved.
Our historical role in the slave trade is an extremely embarrassing, yet major and until recently oft-neglected aspect of our history as a kingdom. It is a past that shaped our present society, making it a history shared by us all. And it is a past that still reverberates and affects the present, with people today still experiencing such things as discrimination and racism in their day-to-day lives. Which is why we need to acknowledge this past. The Government is hoping that this Remembrance Year will go some way towards raising lasting awareness and uniting society.
The Memorial Year is aimed at the whole of society throughout the Kingdom.
From the 1st of July 2023 until the 1st of July 2024, we will spend a year reflecting on 150 years since the abolition of slavery in the Kingdom. The Government will be facilitating the opening of the year by devoting attention to the remembrance and content for the programme as well as by organising an event to mark the end of the Memorial Year. In addition, the Government is earmarking 2 million euros through two state cultural funds to facilitate cultural, social and educational activities organised by citizens. A spotlight will be shone on the perspectives of all the different groups and communities that form part of this until recently oft-neglected past who are keen to remember slavery in the Kingdom of the Netherlands of the time and the period of contract labour thereafter.
Although the Government understands that many people in our society will regard the Remembrance Year as part of a wider call for recognition, the organisation of the Remembrance Year is separate from any consideration of whether or not to make the 1st of July a national public holiday. The Cabinet will include this matter in its response to the report from the stakeholder dialogue group. Generally speaking, it is not down to the Cabinet to decide whether or not citizens should have the day off on public holidays, as this is enshrined in collective labour agreements and/or employment contracts.
The 1st of July 2023 is an extremely important, symbolic and well-known date when it comes to our historical role in the slave trade. Slavery was formally abolished in the former colonies on 1 July 1863. This is also the date on which the National Slavery Memorial takes place.
Basically, the Memorial Year will focus on the transatlantic slave trade involving Suriname and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten.
These were not the only places in the Kingdom of the Netherlands where slavery occurred. During the Memorial Year, we will also be giving ample scope to oft-neglected perspectives with some link to the Netherlands’ historical role in the slave trade.
These perspectives include (but are certainly not limited to) those of the original inhabitants of Suriname who were enslaved, those of the people enslaved in the East (or the Dutch East Indies) and those of the contract labourers in Suriname, particularly Chinese, Javanese and Hindustani, though also Moluccan, Ghanaian and South African communities, for example.
Our historical role in the slave trade is an extremely embarrassing, major aspect of our history. When it comes to our historical role in the slave trade, the perspectives of the communities involved and their descendants are often neglected. The term ‘shared’ is being used to stress that these oft-neglected perspectives need to form part of our collective past. The Government’s aim in that regard is to contribute to generating structural attention to, lasting awareness and acknowledgement of our shared past and its effects on the present.
For the purposes of the Memorial Year, the Mondriaan Fund and the Cultural Participation Fund will each be setting up a subsidy scheme for applicants from anywhere in the Kingdom, including the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten. These two schemes will enable a wide array of (cultural) organisations, communities, archives and individuals to develop activities to help remember the slave trade and share and increase knowledge of our historical role therein.
The difference in the funds’ way of working will make the schemes accessible. Different types of application from both larger institutions and small, local initiatives and from communities, individuals and cultural organisations can be facilitated through these two schemes.
The Cabinet will be responding to the Dialogue Group’s advisory report this autumn. Due diligence is key in that regard. Which is why the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Trade and the Minister and State Secretary for Interior relations recently visited Suriname and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. The Cabinet’s response will also look at the Dialogue Group’s recommendation to apologise and take measures to make amends.
