As the Netherlands tries to turn its official remorse over its historical role in slavery into action, Atlanta is in a prime position to capitalize on the country’s efforts to help Black-owned firms go global.
When Dutch Ambassador Birgitta Tazelaar visited the African American history museum in Washington upon taking up her posting last year, she was confronted by a display noting that 6 percent of enslaved persons who crossed the Atlantic were transported on Dutch ships.
“It was painful to see,” she said during a Black Business Breakfast organized by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Atlanta.
Of course, the sea-faring, trade-loving nation’s role in the slave trade has long been acknowledged by scholars. What’s changed is that the government and the monarchy have taken responsibility. King Willem-Alexander in early 2023 followed the prime minister in apologizing for slavery and pledging to continually address its legacy. In a speech, the king pointed to the tragic irony that slavery was banned in Amsterdam, but that Dutch ships moved 600,000 people as property, 75,000 of whom are estimated to have died in transit.
“If we want to share a future, we have to share our past, and we have to reckon as the Netherlands what our role was in the past,” Ms. Tazelaar said in a fireside chat at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs. “An apology is one thing, but what’s next? What’s next, as we have mentioned, is sitting here with you and trying to see how we can work together, not only to reckon with the past but also because there is opportunity here. We can together build a better world.”
During the discussion with Atlanta Global Shaper and voting rights advocate Evan Malbrough of Our Turn, the ambassador said the Dutch government took a hard look in the mirror after George Floyd’s murder shook the U.S. in 2020.
The foreign ministry, in particular, commissioned an independent investigation in 2022…
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