Groningen apologizes for it's role in the Dutch history of slavery

The city of Groningen has apologized for the role that their municipal government played in the Dutch connection to the salve trade in the past. The apology was presented at city hall to descendants of enslaved people.

The University of Groningen and the Groninger Museum conducted research into the municipal government's role in slavery. The findings were presented in February of this year.

The researchers concluded that the municipal government and various politicians played a significant role in the Dutch West India Company (WIC). Groningen was a shareholder of the WIC, owning roughly 11 percent of the firm. As such, it was responsible for every ninth ship that was deployed.

"Groningen politicians chose to enrich themselves time and time again at the cost of the freedom, the human dignity, and the lives of the people they enslaved," said Mayor Koen Schuiling in his speech. He added that the politicians not only made slavery possible but maintained it, and these facts are disgraceful.

The Groningen ships forcefully transported 33,000 people from West Africa to South and Middle America. Around 13 percent of the people transported are believed to have died during the trips, according to researchers.

The municipality wrote that the apologies were given on Thursday because it was the International Day of Living Together in Peace. Dances were performed, and a poem was read in addition to the mayor's speech.

The municipality wants to put two more monuments in Groningen, one for the victims of the slave trade between Africa and the Americas and one for the victims of the Asian slave trade in what was then called Dutch East Indies, which includes present-day Indonesia.