オランダ国王、奴隷が描かれた「黄金の馬車」の使用を休止

【ハーグＡＦＰ＝時事】オランダのウィレム・アレクサンダー国王は１３日、人種差別をめぐる議論の的となっていた「黄金の馬車」について、使用を休止すると発表した。（写真はオランダ王室の「黄金の馬車」）
　問題視されているのは、車体の左側面に描かれた奴隷の絵。カカオの実やサトウキビなどの作物を、黒人がひざまずいて白人領主に献上する様子が描かれている。
　中央には、オランダを象徴する白人女性が玉座に着き、その横に立つ若い白人男性が黒人少年に本を手渡している。制作者は１８９６年に、これは「文明」を表していると語っていた。
　国王は公式動画の中で「われわれは過去を書き換えることはできないが、共に受け入れる努力をすることはできる。これは植民地時代の歴史にも言える」と話した。
　その上で「黄金の馬車は、オランダの準備が整うまで使用されない。そして、今はまだその時ではない」と明言した国王は、「日常的に差別の痛みを感じる人々がオランダにいる限り、過去は現在に影を落とす」との考えを示した。
　米国で「Ｂｌａｃｋ　Ｌｉｖｅｓ　Ｍａｔｔｅｒ（黒人の命は大切）」運動が巻き起こって以来、他の欧州諸国同様、オランダでも過去の植民地主義や奴隷制をめぐる議論が再燃している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/01/17-11:38）

Dutch King Willem-Alexander announced Thursday that he is mothballing the royal Golden Coach which has been embroiled in a racism controversy.
The opulent horse-drawn carriage, called De Gouden Koets, has traditionally transported the Dutch monarch to the opening of parliament and other state occasions, but has not been used since 2015.
At the centre of the slavery controversy is a picture on the left-side panel of the golden coach.
Called Tribute of the Colonies, the image depicts kneeling black people handing over produce like cocoa and sugarcane to their white masters -- including to a young white woman on a throne representing the Netherlands.
Next to her, a young white man is seen giving a young black boy a book as he is presented by his subservient father, an image which painter Nicolaas van der Waay in 1896 said was meant to portray civilisation.
We cannot rewrite the past, the Dutch king said an official video.
But we can try to accept it together. This also applies to the colonial past, he added.
The Gouden Koets can only be used when the Netherlands is ready for it. And that is not the case at the moment, he continued.
After a complete renovation that lasted five years, the royal coach became the centrepiece of an exhibition in Amsterdam on the colonial past of the Netherlands.
The Gouden Koets won't be used until the Netherlands is ready for it, and that's not the case at the moment, the king said.
As long as there are people living in the Netherlands who feel the pain of discrimination on a daily basis, the past will still cast its shadow over our time, he added.
In the Netherlands, as in other European nations, debate over the colonial past and slavery has resurfaced since the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.