On the 1st of July, Curaçao marks the abolition of slavery—a day of deep remembrance and reflection on the immense suffering endured by our ancestors. Yet while we gather to honor their resilience, the painful truth remains: the Netherlands continues to evade meaningful reparations for the crimes that built its wealth and left our people in chains.
Just this week, de Volkskrant published a letter that hit directly at this point: the abolition of slavery is incomplete as long as victims of modern colonialism are still shackled. It is not only about history. The same systems of power that once traded human lives for profit now keep our nations economically dependent through debt, unfair trade agreements, and international policies dictated in European halls—without ever truly accounting for the deep wounds they helped inflict.
Apologies without reparations
Dutch leaders express “recognition” and “deep regret,” but when asked to fund real reparations—compensation remotely proportional to the billions extracted from enslaved labor that built Amsterdam’s canals, Dutch infrastructure, and old family fortunes—the answer is silence. Why? Because true reparations would open the door for all former colonies to demand justice. That is the nightmare that keeps The Hague awake at night.
Meanwhile, on our island, young people grow up facing fragile social systems, poverty traps, and a staggering inequality that is a direct legacy of slavery and colonial rule.
The new chains
That letter in Volkskrant was right: “The abolition of slavery is only complete when victims of modern colonialism are also freed from their chains.” Here in Curaçao, we feel those chains daily—through our dependence on a tourism industry controlled by foreign interests, through IMF-style loans that come with strings that limit our self-determination, and through the loss of our brightest minds who migrate for opportunities never built here.
More than words on July 1st
So this 1st of July, as we stand together to honor the memory of our ancestors, we must say again: enough with words alone. The Netherlands must take real responsibility—through binding financial reparation programs and long-term investments that center the dignity and future of the people of Curaçao. Because apologies without resources are just empty shells.
