Mayor of The Hague apologizes for city’s past history with slavery

The municipality of The Hague apologized on Sunday for its role in the Dutch history of colonialism and slavery. Mayor Jan van Zanen offered the apology for "the way our predecessors have supported and benefited from the system of colonialism and slavery," when he presented an investigation into the city’s actions during that time period.

The Hague commissioned the study last year from the Royal Institute for Language, Land and Ethnology (KITLV) in Leiden, similar to what was already completed in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht. Those municipalities also apologized upon completion of the report, just like The Hague did on Sunday.

Van Zanen said that apologies "cannot undo the untold suffering inflicted on your ancestors and the ancestors of so many other residents of The Hague.” At the same time, the mayor emphasized "that none of the current inhabitants of The Hague is to blame for the actions of Hague residents and administrators at the time.”

Unlike Amsterdam and Rotterdam, The Hague was not directly part of the VOC and the WIC, the trading organizations with which the Netherlands ruled the colonies and traded in enslaved people. At the same time, The Hague was the city of the States General parliamentary bodies, the starthouders who ruled over different areas, and the kings and queens. That meant that decisions about colonies and slavery were made in The Hague. The city council of The Hague supported colonialism "where necessary" and city councilors "were financially involved in slavery," the researchers said.

The KITLV further concluded that there were in fact residents of The Hague who played an important role in slavery. "The Hague benefited from overseas trade because many Hague nobles and regents had shares in the companies, held directorships within the VOC and WIC, worked as company servants in the colonies or owned plantations with slaves."

The Hague is now also working on commemorating the past relationship with slavery in other ways. For example, a monument to slavery is expected to be unveiled in the city next year. Five locations are under consideration, including the former Ministry of the Colonies, the Mauritshuis, a garden at Noordeinde Palace and two locations on the Lange Voorhout. Commemorations are to be held at the monument.

Next year it will have been 160 years since the Netherlands abolished slavery. In the words of Van Zanen, the commemoration must give "the memory of the suffering that colonialism and slavery have caused" a permanent place in the collective memory of The Hague.