King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Queen Maxima visited the Izko Slave Hotel Museum in Cape Town during their state visit to South Africa on Friday, October 20, 2023.
The museum documents part of the history of the Dutch involvement as a colonial power in South Africa's 150-year slavery 300 years ago. As the King and Queen of the Netherlands were about to leave after a tour, an angry group of protesters surrounded the royal couple and chanted slogans accusing Dutch colonists of stealing land from their ancestors. The king and queen were taken into a car by security agents and quickly taken away, with some protesters dressed in traditional animal skin clothing clashing with police.
The Dutch colonized southwestern South Africa in 1652 through the Dutch East India Trading Company. They controlled the Dutch Cape colony for more than 150 years before the British occupation. Traces of a complex Dutch colonial history still exist in today's South Africa, most notably Afrikaans, which derives from Dutch and is now widely used as the official language of South Africa.