The Dutch gave their slave ancestors disgraceful names
Dutch people of African descent struggle to change their family names, but at a high cost
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, center, participates in the national celebration of the past of slavery at Osterpark, Amsterdam.
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The Slavery Museum in Rijksmuseum bears witness to the Netherlands' enslaved past.
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Chains used by slaves to restrain the movement of slaves.
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Dutch descendants of slaves enslaved by the Dutch in the past sought to change the names of their ancestors, fathers, and families given to them by their masters, as slave owners associated the names of their slaves with their names, the names of their farms, or any other derogatory name they liked.
Currently, people in the Netherlands who want to change their second name usually have to pay €835 and take a psychological test to prove they are bothered by this "insulting" title.
Utrecht, the country's fourth-largest city, is considering whether it can pay the fees and ease bureaucratic procedures, after councilors voted to make it easier for descendants of slaves to change names that remind them of their past.
The council members' decision, which was supported by most parties in the city council, including the centre-right Christian Union, Labor and the Greens, urged council members to "study" paying this cost so that these citizens could change their names.
"It is inhumane for the people of Suriname and the citizens of the Netherlands, who are descendants of enslaved citizens, to suffer from the names of their families," the resolution says.
Like other European countries, including the United Kingdom and Belgium, the Netherlands is still seeking to come to terms with its colonial past, an issue that the Black Lives Matter movement has brought to global attention.
Since 1612, the Dutch have run 10 fortresses along the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where they have brutalized the population, before sending them across the Atlantic to America and Holland. It is estimated that from the 16th to the 19th centuries Dutch merchants sent up to 600,000 Africans to the Americas, about 6% of all slaves sent across this ocean. Slavery was not abolished in the Dutch Empire until 1863, after Britain and France.
Historians say very few Dutch people know that slavery was the source of immense wealth during the Dutch Golden Age, and a wider audience of Dutch people discovered this brutal, bloody history during a massive exhibition at the Rijksmuseum that opened this year.
Earlier this year, an independent commission urged the government of the Netherlands to make a formal apology for the crimes against humanity committed during the slave trade.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte, however, refused to apologise, justifying this by claiming that he was in no position to pass judgment on Dutch history.
Council members of Rutte's liberal VVD party voted against the Utrecht decision.
Utrecht officials confirmed that plans to pay the name change fee had not yet been completed.
A city council spokesman said: "We are currently exploring options and implications for this issue, but there is no plan yet."
Similar discussions are taking place in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.
Utrecht is expected to reveal more about its intentions in December, when it has an idea of how many people would like to change their names.
Experts believe the cartoons prevent many people from changing their derogatory colonial name.
Activists believe that most Dutch people are unaware of the origins of some of the slave names.
Xavier Donker, a member of the Stitching Okan organization that campaigns for the rights of the Dutch Caribbean people, considers Utrecht's decision a "very good and positive development", but he also believes it could provoke a backlash.
He says: "In this country, the government understands very well what it means to bear the cost of changing names, and we expect the citizens to provoke a discussion about this cost."
He expected the proposal to be related to the controversial issue of reparations for slavery.
"It is directly related to compensation for the general population, and the Dutch fear that, and we also see that the government itself fears the financial consequences of that."
He said the decision was "certainly a step forward towards recognition of the colonial legacy of this country, as well as other European countries that are largely plagued by the denial of their shameful past."
Like other European countries, including the United Kingdom and Belgium, the Netherlands is still seeking to come to terms with its colonial past, an issue that the Black Lives Matter movement has pushed into the global spotlight.
It is estimated that from the 16th to the 19th centuries Dutch merchants sent as many as 600,000 Africans to the Americas, about 6% of all slaves sent across this ocean.
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