This afternoon Keti Koti was celebrated early in Wijkcentrum de Cogge in Zwaag. The Surinamese holiday is held annually on July 1 to celebrate the abolition of slavery. “Keti Kot is for everyone who has the realization and knows that the chain is broken.”
This day is all about being together, talking about the past and connecting with each other. Team coach Jerrol Lashley of the Network Foundation is very satisfied with the way the party went.
“Last year we were unable to tackle it in a big way because of corona, but this year it is really different.” Still, Lashley hopes that the holiday will be celebrated even more grandly.
“This year it is still within the doors of the community center, but of course we hope that next year we can organize a festival in Hoorn, for example,” he says proudly.
Celebrate Bigger
If it is up to councilor Stephan Lallhit (GroenLinks), that will certainly happen. “Next year it will be 150 years since slavery was abolished,” he calculates. “It would be a great time to celebrate that broadly with the city, even wider than we are doing now.”
Lallhit is fighting for the disappearance of the infamous statue of JP Coen on the Roode Steen in Hoorn. His party also managed to get the municipality to investigate the role of the municipal council in the time of slavery.
Hospitality
Both Surinamese and non-Surinamese come to the organized event. “It’s good that they’re celebrating today,” said one visitor. “Because on July 1, everyone will be in Amsterdam.”
Another visitor is impressed by the hospitality. “I’ll be honest with you. I come from a West Frisian village called Wognum,” he says. “I used to read about Keti Koti in the newspaper, but now you are experiencing it. I think this day is completely justified. All these people mean it. They still feel slavery, as it were, I feel that.”