The most important celebration of the Netherlands,more important than Christmas or even their"day of the Prince" is probably on the 5th of December the Sinterklaas celebration. I don't think that would be a problem, if this Sinterklaas figure, didn't have a servant they call Pieterbaas,or zwarte Piet(black Peter). Funny thing is that The real Sinterklaas was in fact a Turkish bishop of Myra who lived about 1700 years ago so there is no resemblance whatsoever with the Dutch.The story was made up,by some dutch sailors who heard of this holy man in Spain and brought it to Holland. To fit in their community they totally confused the story,and made up their "zwarte piet" Piet,who definitely portrays a black person ,who has a stereotypical role , by acting like a fool,beating up kids who were bad,entertaining the people by acting like a clown,gives a good indication of the roots of the Dutch who were amongst the meanest slaveholders and racists ever seen.
This last piece of their racist past has to disappear,to be able to claim to be a country that is against any form of discrimination. The Sinterklaas celebration starts at the 4th of December with what they call "pakjesavond" where Sinterklaas poems are presented by families,and lots of sinterklaas songs are sung,in the awaiting of the arrival of Sinterklaas on his white horse with his black servants who came from spain on a boat.
A well known Sinterklaas song says:"Wie zoet is krijgt lekkers,wie stout is de roe:"Those behaving good get sweets,those behaving bad get beaten(By BLACK PETER ).I think the dutch should grow up and be ashamed of themselves to persist in portraying a black person as a servant who is behaving like a fool. Every year there are discussions in the now multicultural country Holland,about the status of this celebrations and what should be tolerated,its time that they get rid of the pieterbaas figure. The dutch tried to fit this black figure to be correct,by claiming that black peters face became black from the chimney where he has to look into to check on the behavior of kids,and all kind of excuses.
Fact is that the very popular brown cakes during this Sinterklaas celebrations are called MOOR HEADS,and that says all about who black peter is: A Moor,thus a black person. Every year on the 5th of december children in Holland with a dark skin are pestered and called 'zwarte piet" by their white friends. Still the dutch persist that this is a festivity for kids.
I live in Suriname,a country that was ruled by the dutch for centuries. We the people descendent's of slaves that were brought from mostly West-Africa and later contractors who came after the slavery ended(on paper) in 1863 inherited a plundered country from the former owners the Dutch.My ancestors were forced to speak dutch,and were forbidden to use the language developed by my forfathers"Sranan Tongo"mixture of many different languages .Up until the 25th of november 1975 all Surinamese had the dutch nationality.We also inherited the Sinterklaas celebration,which was banned after Suriname became an Independent Nation,because of the racial profile of the black Pete (zwarte piet) This Sinterklaas celebration was replaced by "Kids day" .Unfortunately some shop owners re-introduced the Sinterklaas festivity in Suriname,because of the great commercial impact of presents and sweets.
I despise this celebration and hope that it will soon be banned !
