Keti Koti - when slavery was abolished in Suriname

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Keti Koti



The chain is broken. When the chains finaly were broken

Ketikoti (Sranantongo: "the chain is cut" or "the chain is broken"), or officially Dag der Vrijheden (Dutch: Day of the Freedoms) is an annual celebration on 1 July that marks Emancipation Day in Suriname. The day is also known as Manspasi Dei or Prisiri Manspasi, meaning "Emancipation" or "Emancipation Festival". or Kettingsnijden (Dutch: chain cutting).


The National Slavery History Monument is a monument in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam to commemorate the abolition of slavery in the Dutch Kingdom. The statue is made of bronze and the pedestal is made of concrete.

Ketikoti marks the date when slavery was abolished in the Dutch colony of Suriname in 1863. However, enslaved people in Suriname would not be fully free until 1873, after a mandatory 10-year transition period during which time they were required to work on the plantations for minimal pay and with state sanctioned force: if they were discovered outside without a pass, they could be jailed. On June 30, 1963, the statue of Kwakoe was unveiled in Paramaribo, Suriname's capital city to commemorate the abolition of slavery.



After 1873 many slaves left the plantations where they had worked for several generations, in favor of the city of Paramaribo. The former slave keepers were compensated. For the 32,911 released people that were kept as slaves in Suriname, an amount of ƒ 9,867,780.00 (In 2020 about €250 million) was paid to the slave keepers.

As of 2009 several cities in the Netherlands hosted various activities, making this day a day of national celebration and remembrance throughout the country. Since 2002 there is an official monument for remembrance of the slavery in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This Nationaal Monument Slavernijgeschiedenis ("National Monument Slavery History") is in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam. The Keti Koti festival marks the date when slavery was abolished in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles in 1863. The festival organisation also aims to pressure the Dutch government for reparations and research. As of 2020, it is still unclear when the first slaves arrived.


Female slave hanging from a tree in Suriname, a Dutch colony. This shocking image reminds me of the song 'Strange fruit' sung by Billy Holiday.

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This live video is dedicated to Keti Koti, the day on which we celebrate the abolishment of slavery in Suriname and the former Dutch Antilles on July 1st 1863, and commemorate those who have suffered in slavery for over 200 years.

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Mitch Henriquez



Mitch Henriquez was killed by Dutch police at a music festival in the Hague on 27 June 2015. During an altercation, he was restrained by five police officers and was choked to death. The official narrative that Henriquez had died at the hospital was immediately disputed by bystanders who had filmed the incident; the killing led to four days of rioting in the Hague and a ban on public assembly. At trial two years later, two police officers were convicted and sentenced to six months in prison. On appeal, one sentence was quashed and the other upheld. At the final court of appeal, the Supreme Court, the remaining sentence was upheld in 2021. The case has been compared to other police homicides such as the murder of George Floyd and the death of Freddie Gray. RTL Nieuws revealed in 2021 that the Hague police force had spent €1.3 million on lawyers to defend the police officers involved in the killing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Mitch_Henriquez



This was our Dutch George Floyd case. At a music festival the altercation between Henriquez and the police officers resulted in his death.

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BIJ1, formerly known as Article 1 (Dutch: Artikel 1), is a political party in the Netherlands. It was founded in Amsterdam in 2016 by Sylvana Simons as Article 1, a television personality who was formerly connected to another party, Denk (Think), a migrant party of mainly Turks and Moroccans and a few Surinamese and Dutch Antillian people. BIJ1 aligns itself as an anti-capitalist, progressive left-wing party, advocating economic justice and fighting racism and discrimination in the Netherlands.

The party was sued by anti-discrimination think tank Art.1 for trademark infringement. The judge's verdict was in favor of Art.1, and therefore Simons was forced to change the name of the party. On 29 October 2017, the new name was announced: BIJ1. BIJ1 refers to the Dutch word bijeen, which translates to "together".

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIJ1



Surinamese creole inaugeration of Sylvana Simons, leader of the party Bij1 by a Black Priestes in the Hague in the Surinamese language Sranang

The priestes said to Sylvana Simons; "You have a great responsibility now, understand that your are there in the parliament not only for the Black people, you are there for all the people. You are going to work for the entire Netherlands." This is a black South-American ceremony, and it is part of the Netherlands. This is part of our colonial Dutch heritage.

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These adds would be impossible today

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Silvana Hildegard "Sylvana" Simons (born 31 January 1971) is a Surinamese-born Dutch politician and former television presenter. She has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2021 on behalf of BIJ1, an egalitarian anti-racist party founded by Simons in 2016.

She was born in Suriname and moved to the Netherlands while an infant. She was a dancer in the Amsterdam nightlife scene before becoming a VJ for the new music channel TMF in 1995. Simons left four years later to join SBS Broadcasting, where she presented reality television series De bus (2000). She subsequently spent almost a decade at RTL Nederland, hosting the first few seasons of TV makelaar (2001–05) about home buying and the Saturday evening show Dancing with the Stars (2005–07). Starting in 2009, Simons worked some years in public broadcasting as a radio presenter on Radio 6 and for the association NPS.

She transitioned to politics in 2016, when she joined minority rights party DENK ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DENK_(political_party) ). Her career change followed her questioning of a term which she deemed racially insensitive during talk show De wereld draait door the previous year. Her speaking out against institutional racism – and especially Sinterklaas's blackfaced companion Zwarte Piet (Black Pete)– caused fierce criticism on social media platforms and racist remarks and threats. Simons left DENK after seven months to establish her own political party called Artikel 1, which was later renamed BIJ1. She did not win a seat in the 2017 general election, but she was elected to the Amsterdam municipal council the following year. Simons became the first black parliamentary leader in Dutch history following her election to the House of Representatives in 2021.

Sylvana Simons in debate with Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the Dutch parliament


Sylvana Simons in debate with Joost Eerdmans of the rightwing Populist JA21 party in the Dutch parliament



Sylvana Simons leaves the parliament building after an altercation with a minister


Simons political party Bij1 is a far left Woke ("alert to racial prejudice and discrimination") party which ideology contains Egalitarianism, Anti-racism, Anti-capitalism, Intersectionality, Socialism, Dutch republicanism (Anti-monarchism; and thus opposed to the the Kingdom of the Netherlands, whcih in the eyes of Bij1 should be the Dutch Republic or the Republic of the Netherlands with a chosen president), (Radical-) Feminism, Afro-Dutch interests (Black empowerment, Black Lives Matter Netherlands, Kick Out Black Pete en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_Out_Zwarte_Piet ), and Minority rights.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, physical appearance, and height. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing.

Intersectionality broadens the lens of the first and second waves of feminism, which largely focused on the experiences of women who were white, middle-class and cisgender, to include the different experiences of women of color, women who are poor, immigrant women, and other groups. Intersectional feminism aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's different experiences and identities.

The term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. Intersectionality is a qualitative analytic framework developed in the late 20th century that identifies how interlocking systems of power affect those who are most marginalized in society. Activists use the framework to promote social and political egalitarianism. Intersectionality opposes analytical systems that treat each axis of oppression in isolation. In this framework for instance discrimination against black women could not be explained as a simple combination of misogyny and racism but something more complicated. For example, Crenshaw has pointed to the 1976 case DeGraffenreid v. General Motors, in which the plaintiffs alleged hiring practices that specifically discriminated against black women and that could not be described as either racial discrimination or sex discrimination alone.  Intersectionality engages in similar themes as triple oppression, which is the oppression associated with being a poor or immigrant woman of color. Intersectional analysis aligns very closely with anarcha-feminist power analysis frameworks.

Criticism includes the framework's tendency to reduce individuals to specific demographic factors, and its use as an ideological tool against other feminist theories. Critics have characterized the framework as ambiguous and lacking defined goals. As it is based in standpoint theory, critics say the focus on subjective experiences can lead to contradictions and the inability to identify common causes of oppression.

Ideology Bij1


The radical left Bij1 protested during Gay Pride in Amsterdam against the White Male gay domination, and the participation of commercial bank, accountancy, Military and police boats with the Pride. They want more emphasis on people of color, black people, transgender, the people and less on commerce and corporate interests. You hear the protesters shout; Anticapitalista A Anti Anticapitalista!!!! You see the anti-capitalist nature of Bij1 in this. Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, like socialism and communism.

This is not criticism on my part but a fact. I love pluriformity, Freedom and Democracy and that Bij1 can exist in the Netherlands. They are too Far left, Woke and colored for me. As a white, native Dutch, hetrosexual and European man my interests are different. We have come that far that different interest groups, professions, ethnicities and cultures have their own political movements and political parties. We are very pillarized and polarised again.

According to Bij1, its two pillars are radical equality and economic justice. The party strives for the emancipation of the LGBT community, stronger anti-hate speech laws and an end to ethnic profiling, and it supports intersectionality. Because of the party's left-wing radicalism, it is often cited along with socialist parties and movements. Rebekka Timmer, member of the commission for the party program and number three on the list for the 2021 elections, however, shows an indifferent view in regards to the term communism, but admits to drawing inspiration from anti-capitalist thinkers, for example Karl Marx. She does oppose communism as it is envisioned by China and the Soviet Union, calling it state capitalism.

The party advocates for the independence and recognition of the State of Palestine, Republic of South Maluku and the Republic of West Papua. It also supports paying reparations to former Dutch colonies such as the Dutch Caribbean, Suriname and Indonesia.



Economically, the party calls for a single-payer healthcare system, the closing of the gender wage gap and replacing gross domestic product with the concept of gross national happiness as the dominant economic indicator.

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Maroons - Bosnegers (Bush Negro's)

You hear Black people in this video who are Maroons. Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas who formed settlements away from slavery. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos. Most of them were enslaved people who ran away directly after they got off the ships. They refused to surrender their freedom and often tried to find ways to go back to Africa. The second group were enslaved people who had been working on plantations for a while. Those enslaved people were usually somewhat adjusted to the slave system but had been abused by the plantation owners – often with excessive brutality. Others ran away when they were being sold suddenly to a new owner. The last group of maroons were usually skilled enslaved people with particularly strong opposition to the slave system.

The Dutch Planters' treatment of the slaves was notoriously brutal even by the standards of the time—historian C. R. Boxer wrote that "man's inhumanity to man just about reached its limits in Surinam"—and many slaves escaped the plantations. In November 1795, the Society was nationalized by the Dutch Batavian Republic and from then on the Dutch Batavian Republic and its legal successors (the Kingdom of Holland and the Kingdom of the Netherlands) governed the territory as a national colony, barring a period of British occupation between 1799 and 1802, and between 1804 and 1816.

With the help of the native South Americans living in the adjoining rain forests, these runaway slaves established a new and unique culture in the interior that was highly successful in its own right. They were known collectively in English as Maroons, in French as Nèg'Marrons (literally meaning "brown negroes", that is "pale-skinned negroes"), and in Dutch as Marrons and Bush Negro's (Bosnegers in Dutch). The Maroons gradually developed several independent tribes through a process of ethnogenesis, as they were made up of slaves from different African ethnicities. These tribes include the Saramaka, Paramaka, Ndyuka or Aukan, Kwinti, Aluku or Boni, and Matawai.


Maroon village, along Suriname River, 1955

The Maroons often raided plantations to recruit new members from the slaves and capture women, as well as to acquire weapons, food and supplies. They sometimes killed planters and their families in the raids; colonists built defenses, which were significant enough that they were shown on 18th-century maps.

The colonists also mounted armed campaigns against the Maroons, who generally escaped through the rainforest, which they knew much better than the colonists did. To end hostilities, in the 18th century the European colonial authorities signed several peace treaties with different tribes. They granted the Maroons sovereign status and trade rights in their inland territories, giving them autonomy.

Golden Coach (Netherlands)


If you look at The Golden Coach (Dutch: Gouden Koets) a coach owned and used by the Dutch royal family, you see a painting with slaves on it.

In 2011, MPs Harry van Bommel and Mariko Peters suggested removing the left panel, portraying Hulde der Koloniën (Tribute from the colonies). According to activists, the panel showed half-naked slaves making gestures of submission to the royal house. Historians, on the other hand, stated that the scene does not depict slaves or the royal family, nor is it a glorification of the colonies. The panel shows the relations with the colonies at that point and, according to historian Susan Legêne of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, refers to the discussion about the Dutch Ethical Policy that focused on a moral vocation that the Netherlands should feel towards the people in the colonies.

After the Golden Coach was renovated, it was displayed in a glass box on the courtyard of the Amsterdam Museum from June until November 2021. In six surrounding halls were expositions of the history of the Golden Coach. There was also a study room for debate.

On 13 January 2022, King Willem-Alexander announced that he would not ride in the coach until all citizens feel they are equal and given fair opportunities.

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The history of the Netherlands has some very dark sides and one of these was the Dutch participation in the transatlantic slave trade. Via the Triangular trade the Dutch shipped over half a million enslaved Africans to their colonies in the Americas. This was done by the Dutch West India Company (WIC). These slaves were put to work on plantations in Suriname and Curaçao (Dutch Antilles). In recent years the dark sides of the Dutch Golden Age are more elaborated on.
History Hustle presents: Should the Netherlands Apologize for its History of Slavery?

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Dutch central bank DNB chief apologises for the bank’s past role in slavery



President of the Dutch central bank DNB Klaas Knot has apologised for the bank’s historic role in slavery at Friday’s Keti Koti ceremony to commemorate the end of slavery in the former Dutch colonies.

Knot had said earlier the bank would make ‘a gesture that would have lasting value’, NOS reported.

‘Apologies to all descendants of enslaved people in the Netherlands, in Suriname, on Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba, on Aruba, Curaçao and Saint Martin island,’ he said. ‘Apologies to all people who were reduced to a skin colour due to the personal choices of my predecessors.’

In February the bank reported on its own investigation into its founders, who were found to be closely involved in Dutch slave trade practices in the former colonies of Suriname and the Antilles. Knot said at the time he ‘deplored’ the bank’s role but stopped short of an apology at the time.

Other banks are also investigating their colonial past. ABN Amro apologised in April for its share in the fate meted out to enslaved people while the ING’s investigation is ongoing.

Festival

Friday’s Keti Koti (‘broken chains’) festival both celebrates the end of two centuries of slavery in 1863 and commemorates the people who suffered during that time.

It is the first time in three years that members of the public will be allowed to be present at the festivities in Amsterdam’s Oosterpark.

Apart from Knot, other speakers include minister for legal protection Franc Weerwind and Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema.

Weerwind will not be apologising on behalf of the government, although he made a strong call for more non-ethnic Dutch representation earlier this week. A formal apology for slavery has been postponed until later this year because it is currently deemed ‘unfortunate timing’.

National holiday

A suggestion to make July 1 a national holiday has not been met with a positive response either. Campaigners hope the government may change its mind next year, when it is 160 years since slavery was abolished in the Dutch colonies.

Meanwhile, some 100 companies have decided not to wait and are giving staff a day off.

Keti Koti celebrations are being held across the country. Rotterdammers are invited to go to the library or online and pick up a free copy of Koloniaal Rotterdam (Colonial Rotterdam) to find out more about the city’s involvement with slavery.

Live TV and radio coverage of the ceremony by broadcaster NOS starts at 1pm.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

And read; www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/13/dutch-bank-abn-amro-apologises-for-role-in-slave-trade

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57680209

www.reuters.com/article/netherlands-slavery-cenbank/dutch-central-bank-apologizes-for-role-in-slave-trade-idUSL1N2YI0OA