The Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in the Netherlands contains ICH of which the communities, groups or individuals involved have written a safeguarding plan. Those plans are reviewed by an independent review committee. Every three years an evaluation of the safeguarding takes place.

Description

Emancipation day / Keti Koti / Dia di Emancipacion di sclavitud / Dia di Emansipashon  the commemoration of the victims of transatlantic slavery in Suriname and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom and the celebration of the legal abolition of slavery.

Keti Koti consists of four components, namely: 

  • The Memre waka (remembrance walk).
  • Keti Koti lecture on specific aspects of the slavery past and its repercussions and, in August, the Tula memorial concert.
  • Kabra neti (evening for the ancestors); prior to the commemoration and celebration on July 1, in honour of the ancestors, is a spiritual evening with prayer, singing, games from the slave era, storytelling and dancing in traditional costumes.
  • National Commemoration and Celebration on July 1 in Amsterdam.

The commemoration will include speeches, traditional libations, singing, two minutes of silence, playing the tattoo and hoisting the Dutch and Surinamese flags as well as those of the six Caribbean islands. Wreath-laying will then take place by the Dutch and Surinamese governments, representatives of the islands as well as interested Afro-Caribbean organisations and other institutions.

The celebration will take place through music, song and dance performances on three stages as well as debates, lectures, and a culinary fair. Some 20 other municipalities also actively commemorate and celebrate Keti Koti. More and more municipalities are joining in. As part of Keti Koti, activities such as exhibitions, lectures and debates, educational tours and theatre performances also take place, year-round.

Community

The overall coordination of the National Commemoration and Celebration of Emancipation day / Keti Koti / Dia di Emancipacion di sclavitud / Dia di Emansipashonlies with NiNsee. NiNsee was created in 2002 after years of struggle and lobbying by the Afro-Caribbean community in the Netherlands for serious and full attention to the Dutch transatlantic slavery past. NiNsee stands for a solid, approachable and at the same time an agile organisation with deepening and broadening public-oriented activities.

 In essence, NiNsee focused on making the slavery past structurally discussable by providing a nuanced and realistic picture of that past. This goal is given substance with a broad palette of activities and research in the areas: culture (education), museum presentation, scientific research and publication and documentation, commemoration and celebration. Practitioners and/or participants in Keti Koti activities are mainly Afro-Caribbean Dutch, of whom the number is estimated at one and a half million people. In recent years, there is a growing group from non-Afro-Caribbean backgrounds who also actively participate in Keti Koti.

History

From the 1930s, attention has been drawn to the transatlantic slavery and colonial past in the Netherlands by descendants of slavery and the colonial period. In the 1950s, a group of Surinamese students founded the association Wi Egi Sani (our own thing) and in the 1960s, Antillean students founded the association Kibra Hacha. These clubs regularly organised lectures, debates and theatre performances on slavery and colonial times. From the 1980s onwards, various writers, scholars and activists regularly reached a wide audience with their reflections on the slavery past.

After years of organised campaigning for attention to the Dutch transatlantic slavery past, the silence around this part of history has been broken. This zeal led, among other things, to the unveiling on July 1, 2002 of the slavery monument in Amsterdam by the then Queen Beatrix. Until the unveiling of this slavery monument, informal commemorations and celebrations, especially within the Afro-Surinamese community in the four major cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague), were held on a limited scale. With the national Commemoration and Celebration of Keti Koti, the offering of apologies by the city councils of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Haarlem and by Prime Minister Rutte on behalf of the Dutch state, the silence around the Dutch transatlantic slavery past was broken.

Safeguarding

  • A political lobby will be launched to make Keti Koti Day (July 1) a legal National Holiday and give it the commemoration legal status. We expect that the National Holiday will contribute to the understanding around Keti Koti among a broad Dutch public.
  • Efforts are being made to have the slavery past included in the Curriculum of schools. Efforts are being made to get as many schools as possible to pay attention to this past and intangible cultural heritage.
  • Structural consultation is organised with parties in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom and Suriname.
  • Education is provided as well as information and knowledge about the history of slavery and its repercussions in modern times.
  • By means of, among other things, Keti Koti dialogue tables, giving lectures and educational tours and engaging in conversations, information is provided about the slavery past and its repercussions.

Contact

NiNsee
Amsterdam
Website