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December 22, 2022
“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” – (Frederick Douglass, 1857)
Two days ago, when the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was issuing his tepid apology for slavery but without reparations, Mr. Finies was in the streets of Kralendijk, Bonaire’s capital, by parliament with a group of freedom-loving Bonarians. He was not celebrating the PM’s duplicitous speech but demonstrating, as he has done for the last twenty-something years, demanding autonomy and that the Dutch acknowledge and take responsibility for the iniquities of their past deeds. He and the other demonstrators also demanded that the Dutch commit to reparations. To be sure, they are well aware that no payment–no matter how substantial–can wipe away or make amends for the evil that slavery inflicted on people to fuel Dutch economic advancement and prosperity to the detriment of indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans.
In “THE BONAIRIAN PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION,“ Finies apprises about the nature of modern-day neo-colonization practiced by the Dutch and their fellow Europeans in maintaining a stranglehold on people and their lands.
Undoubtedly, 25, even ten years ago, a Dutch PM wouldn’t have conceived of making a speech such as Rutte’s, much less imagine it. But the protracted protests in the streets where patriots like Finies challenged the colonial structure and its noxious aftertaste forced the colonials to change their policy and apologize –belatedly– for slavery. Indeed, our empowered warriors understood Douglas’s words, “power concedes nothing without a struggle.” The constant agitation forced the Dutch PM and other colonial governments to issue tepid apologies. But what’s the value of an apology without accepting responsibility?
So, Mr. Finnes and the enlightened masses worldwide understand that former slaveholders would never agree to and give reparations unless we continue to demand them through words, blows, or both!
Indeed, today’s post answers the call in “BRITAIN ON TRIAL: SYMPOSIUM ON ‘HOW BRITAIN UNDERDEVELOPED THE CARIBBEAN: A REPARATIONS RESPONSE TO EUROPE’S LEGACY OF PLUNDER AND POVERTY'” to put other colonial powers On Trial.
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From BDN Editors