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• "We hadden nooit ook maar kunnen hopen dat een blanke voor ons zou knielen en om
vergeving vragen". • "Bent u echt, op eigen kosten, naar ons land gekomen om schuld te
belijden? Dan is er hoop voor ons land". • "De schuldige partij wil het zo snel mogelijk
vergeten, maar de slachtoffers zitten met de pijn en de vernedering, en geven die door
aan de volgende generatie". • "Door onze uitbuiting, en uw verontwaardiging, zijn we
verbonden geraakt; zullen we nu verbonden blijven in wederzijdse erkenning en hulp".
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DUTCH STATEMENT OF CONFESSION.
at the occasion of the Europe-Africa Reconciliation Conference, Berlin,
18-19 November 2005.
-- We, Christian representatives of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,
acknowledge and confess, supported by the Dutch prayer movement and
the Dutch Evangelical Alliance,
-- That we, from the mid 17th century, introduced in South Africa SLAVE
TRADE as well as SLAVERY.
-- That we modeled APARTHEID. By this we created the lie that white people
are superior to others. This resulted in a lack of respect for African
people, for their intelligence and their culture, thus robbing them from
their dignity.
-- That Dutch merchants were at the time of the Berlin Conference, with
almost 50 trading stations, the most powerful commercial presence around
the mouth of the Congo-river. For their trading purposes they demanded such
goods from the Africans that the local agriculture and trading infrastructures
were crushed, causing immense suffering. -- That we, at the Berlin conference,
did not support an English proposal to discuss the humanitarian aspects of
the European presence in Africa, out of the attitude of contempt for the
Africans, and to safeguard our commercial interests.
-- That in certain areas of Dutch, European and international diplomacy still
the attitude of imperialism pervades.
Lastly, it is terrible that only now, more than a century after colonization
and more than half a century after your independance we at last come to the
acknowledgement of the wickedness of our ways. And even now there is only a
limited national support.
We confess these sins to God, and to you, representatives from Africa, and
we ask for your forgiveness.
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