Angry protesters in Cape Town have confronted the king and queen of the Netherlands as they visited a museum that traces part of their country's 150-year involvement in slavery in South Africa.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima were leaving the Slave Lodge building in central Cape Town when a small group of protesters representing South Africa’s First Nations groups -- the earliest inhabitants of the region around Cape Town -- surrounded the royal couple and shouted slogans about Dutch colonizers stealing land from their ancestors.
They were literally there to pay a visit to a museum about the atrocities of previous Dutch inhabitants in the land. I don't know what harassing them was supposed to accomplish.
First, protest’s don’t necessarily need to accomplish anything, people are allowed to be angry.
Second, the black white wealth inequality in South Africa is still insane and the Dutch are partially responsible for that. Plus you can’t really buy groceries from awareness or excuses.
Third, as a Dutch guy I don’t really mind them being uncomfortable for a bit once in a while, keeps them grounded.
First, protest’s don’t necessarily need to accomplish anything, people are allowed to be angry.
Obviously, people are allowed to be angry. The question is whether the anger is productive.
Third, as a Dutch guy I don’t really mind them being uncomfortable for a bit once in a while, keeps them grounded.
Sure, but shouldn't the protest have been, I don't know, elsewhere than the visit to the museum? It's a very "No good deed goes unpunished" - it's a small act, sure, but surely making the museum visit the locus for the discomfort is just discouraging high-profile figures from acknowledging these sins?
Didn't they go over poor and they just happend to build wealth when black people didn't? Why do they have to share with another group of people, no one else does. Even the groups in Africa don't so it's not like a European idea.
Remind them where their wealth came from, that real people remain affected by it... More (all) rich people should be confronted this way, if not with violence
You don't understand why South African people would want to protest the Dutch king and queen?
No, I don't particularly understand why the current Dutch king and queen are being considered responsible for the actions of the Dutch 200 years ago.
Sure, the brutal legacy of their genocide looms over the country to this day, but they went to a museum so we good now.
"of their genocide"
In what way were they, the current Dutch king and queen, involved? If you have some historical tidbit I'm missing, by all means, inform me of the sins of Willem-Alexander.
Going to a museum to pay one's respects, and accompanied by a representative of the people who suffered so, is a positive step, one that should be at least regarded neutrally, not attacked.
Nothing at all but turn more people off wanting to help south Africa. They already want to kill all white people and the country is collapsing again . So it's not a big deal
The last time Europe "helped" Africans, it didn't work out so well for us. Instead of helping us, they could just pay the nation back what they took + reparations. South Africa isn't a classroom for beneficiaries of colonialism, it's an active crime scene caused by them.
And as a white South African, I can assure you we aren't in any danger. And collapsing again? When was the first time?
On the other hand, you're right: it's not a big deal. I give this take a 1/5.
The dutch are NOT well remembered in South Africa, imagine if the confederates were their own ethnicity and that's a basic picture of how South africa views the dutch segment historically.
AFAIK now Afrikaaners are seen as ok enough as long as they don't do shit like US southerners still butthurt about the civil war do.