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Politics
Manjari Chatterjee Miller, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations/Associate Professor of International Relations, Boston University

Colonized countries rarely ask for redress over past wrongs − the reasons can be complex

SWAPO Germany India Namibia Queen Elizabeth II Genocide King Charles III NAMA Netherlands
Indian visitors look at a painting depicting the Amritsar Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images)

The king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, apologized in July 2023 for his ancestors’ role in the colonial slave trade.

He is not alone in expressing remorse for past wrongs. In 2021, France returned 26 works of art seized by French colonial soldiers in Africa – the largest restitution France has ever made to a former colony. In the same year, Germany officially apologized for its 1904-08 genocide of the Herero and Nama people of Namibia and paid reparations.

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