The Dutch Royals disputed in the Caribbean (as happened to William and Kate)

The admission of guilt with an apology by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was not enough, who in December admitted that the Dutch state “has facilitated, stimulated, preserved and profited from slavery” for centuries, adding that “human beings have been transformed into commodities, exploited and abused”. Spirits, in the Caribbean countries still belonging to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, do not seem to be always aligned, in the sign of a world that, after centuries, is changing.

Proof it is the dispute of the Dutch royals in Aruba, a Caribbean island occupied by the Dutch in 1636 and still belonging to the Kingdom today, after refusing independence in the mid-1990s. The air, meanwhile, has perhaps changed, if King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima and Princess of Orange Catherine Amaliaon an official tour in the Caribbean, were interrupted by the peaceful but blatant protest of a student.

During a lecture at the University of Aruba in which the Royals had been invited to participate, a young woman stood up with her arm raised and began chanting “Oh, Freedom”, gospel song symbolizing the freedom of African Americans, written after the American Civil War of 1861.

The protester succeeded in attracting the attention of the Royals, who turned to look at her, and was then escorted towards the exit in general embarrassment, while her song continued to resound in the hall.

The Dutch Royals aren’t the only ones challenged on an official trip: in March last year, Prince William and Kate Middleton were forced to cancel one of their first outings during their eight-day visit to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, due to protests that began before their arrival.

The royal couple had planned to visit a cocoa farm in the foothills of the Maya Mountains in Belize, but villagers staged a protest against colonialism and the royals’ use of a soccer field to land their helicopter . Indian Creek villagers were photographed holding signs urging the Prince to leave their land. William and Kate’s journey then continued, but protests were not lacking in Jamaica either.

Isolated episodes, certainly, but which are an unequivocal sign of the times: times in which Australia decides that on its banknotes the face of Queen Elizabeth will be replaced by a design that honors the local indigenous people, and in which here and there she seems to always meander more insistent desire for independence.