Acting mayor of Amsterdam Jozias van Aartsen, flanked by other officials, about to lay a wreath at the slavery monument in Oosterpark.
Minister Ollongren laying a wreath at the slavery monument.
The board of the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy at the Keti Koti festival.
People dressed in colourful costumes enjoying the Keti Koti festival.
By Marvin Hokstam
AMSTERDAM--Where Dutch politics sometimes creates the impression that the Netherlands is increasingly right-wing; the commemoration last weekend of the 155th anniversary of the abolition of slavery would beg to differ. Throughout the country large cities held events to mark Keti Koti, Surinamese for “the day when the chains were cut”.
In Amsterdam hundreds of people gathered at the Slavery Monument at Oosterpark on Sunday, July 1, where the annual Keti Koti Festival was held. “We are gathered here to commemorate what happened in the past. We are keeping these stories alive and together we celebrate the important step towards equality and justice that was taken 155 years ago,” said Minister of Home Affairs Kajsa Ollongren.
The Minister, who also holds the Vice Prime Minister portfolio, spoke of bone-chilling matters of which every Dutch person knows that it is horrible that they form part of Dutch history. She said that “the abolition of slavery is justice that is never certain, is never guaranteed, but deserves our active protection.”
Slavery in the Dutch kingdom was abolished on July 1, 1863, bringing an end to almost 400 years of oppression of African people who had been shipped to the then colonies. For years their descendants have called on the Netherlands to say sorry for the treatment of their ancestors, and this year it fell on deaf ears again. The Netherlands never apologized for its role in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, as that would open the door to legal claims for reparations. Calls for compensation have also always gone unanswered by the kingdom,
Aboutaleb
“Like its predecessors, the current cabinet regrets what took place during the time of slavery. It is a black page in our history. In 2013, the cabinet expressed deep sorrow and remorse regarding how the Netherlands treated human dignity in the past. Those words still stand. We should never forget what happened,” was as far as the Kingdom Information Service would go again this year.
The statement bypassed an appeal by Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb for Government to finally say sorry. Speaking at a slavery commemoration event at the Rotterdam Slavery Monument on the eve of Keti Koti, Aboutaleb said that “Minister Asscher expressed deep sorry in 2013, which was a beautiful gesture at the time. The next step is an excuse. I call on Government to do just that, so we can close this dark page in our history.”
The mayor also said that Dutch people know too little about the country’s slavery past and that the education should change that. “We are not performing well when it comes to slavery; there is a lot of work to be done,” he said.
Aboutaleb’s stance on slavery comes as a surprise to many in the black community. In 2016, he had ordered harsh police action against people who had travelled to Rotterdam to protest at the annual Sinterklaas parade; this parade includes features the zwarte Piet character that many people in the black community consider a racist caricature that stereotypes black people negatively and should be removed from Dutch culture.
DENK
The mayor, who is of Moroccan descent, also found a likeminded soul in Tunahan Kuzu, leader of the DENK party. Speaking at a slavery abolition commemoration at De Dam in Amsterdam, Kuzu said that “every Dutch person who can afford it should travel to Suriname at least once to see with their own eyes what enslaved people had to endure.”
He said that when he travelled to Suriname last year and “walked in Paramaribo and travelled over the rivers with plantations left and right on the banks, you think of the suffering that people endured; the blood, the sweat and the tears of the enslaved. The people who were dishonoured in a horrible, disgusting manner; it was inhumane and something that no one should ever forget. Every Dutch person should make at least a five-day trip to Suriname to experience that.”
Acting mayor of Amsterdam Jozias van Aartsen, who also spoke at Oosterpark, said that it is “everyone’s task to ensure that our community never derails like that again; especially of the people in power.” He said: “usually it is the role of the mayor to sing Amsterdam’s praise to describe our big acts, but today at this commemoration, I have to bow my head for the dark side of our history. I am thinking of the sacrifices and the suffering of many people of this city, by this city.”
Aside from Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the cities of The Hague, Tilburg, Zaandam and Almere also held Keti Koti commemorations.
