Locus (Nov 2022)
Zuid-Afrika na de apartheid en de ongemakkelijke waarheid voor Nederland
Abstract
In all former colonial powers, there is a growing awareness that the colonial past was especially violent and criminal, including in the Netherlands. When the Dutch media talk about the colonial past, it mostly concerns Indonesia and Suriname. Thereby, the role of the Netherlands in South Africa is forgotten, while the VOC colonised and governed a not insignificant part of the country for over a century and a half from the landing of Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. After England took over the Dutch colony in South Africa (1806), Dutch interest in South Africa faded, only to revive during the Boer War (1899-1902), when the Dutch population rose en masse to support 'our kinsmen' in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State in their struggle against the British Empire. This 'positive' sentiment would turn significantly when, from the 1970s onwards, protests against apartheid and the oppression of the non-white population were also organised in the Netherlands. After the abolition of apartheid, South Africa was discovered as a tourist attraction and many a Dutchman's interest seemed to be limited to safari holidays, Cape beaches and wine. A township tour and a visit to Mandela's cell on Robben Island were then sometimes included in the itinerary, but in the post-apartheid euphoria, there seemed to be very little focus in the Netherlands on the country's major social problems. With the protests against apartheid, it seemed as if the Netherlands, as a former coloniser, had paid a historical debt and therefore no longer needed to care about South Africa. In this article, I argue that even after the abolition of apartheid, the Netherlands as a former coloniser has a special responsibility for current social inequality and poverty in South Africa, and outline how this can be fulfilled.
