When I am in smaller villages or towns in South Limburg, Central Brabant, Southeast Drenthe or in the Achterhoek, Keti Koti is not exactly a concept that evokes much recognition. Dutch people who live at a relatively great distance from the Randstad do not seem to pay attention to the transatlantic slavery past of the Netherlands. They have taken note of the apologies that Prime Minister Rutte made on behalf of the Dutch state at the end of 2022, but no more than that. And that is a pity, because the slavery past also has an effect there in the present.
For one year I lived in Waspik in Brabant, a village with just over 5,000 inhabitants and part of the municipality of Waalwijk. I couldn’t stand it for more than a year for various reasons. When I got the research report Racist nuisance in Waspik (Forum, 2008) the puzzle pieces fell into place. The “rather closed community” and nuisance-causing youths contributed to a series of racist incidents against a black Liberian family. A family that had fled from war and thought to find peace in Waspik. What they found, however, was a village in which their home was repeatedly daubed with eggs. While waiting for the bus, they got ‘Go back to your own country’ hurled at them. The Liberian children were intimidated in the street when they walked or cycled through the village. Monkey sounds were regularly made. The family also received threats or abuse. This kind of ‘anti-black racism’ has its roots in the transatlantic slavery past.
Dehumanization
For more than three centuries, Africans have been enslaved by the Dutch, shipped and put to work on plantations in Suriname or on the Caribbean islands. This transatlantic slavery was an economic system that was morally justified by both church and state. A justification that came with the dehumanization of black Africans. They were considered inferior, God-cursed creatures without souls. Animals had a better life than enslaved Africans. Transatlantic slavery was a racist system in everything, born of a white sense of superiority that determined the collective view of man, society and the world.
Read also: Keti Koti is about transatlantic slavery
When slavery was formally abolished by law on 1 July 1863, racism was still very much present in all parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. And even now, racism is fully present in all facets of our society. From ethnic profiling by the police and military police to the Supplements scandal. From everyday racism in the labor market, housing market, in education, in football stadiums or in public space: the racism that has poisoned Dutch society in the past with far-reaching consequences is still present in our collective body.
However, there is hope. More and more Dutch people, white and black, enter into dialogue with each other about (un)conscious prejudices and about the impact of the slavery past. In education, young people are also learning more and more about historical facts and their contemporary consequences. There will be a national slavery museum and perhaps July 1 will one day be an official holiday. But that’s not enough. Especially in smaller municipalities in ‘the province’ there is hardly any attention for the slavery past and racism. The local government has a role to play in this as guardian of the general social interest and implementer of the Municipal Anti-Discrimination Facilities Act.
inclusive society
The racist nuisance in Waspik was partly due to the fact that the municipality dealt too laxly with all signals of widespread xenophobia for too long, did not direct the approach to discrimination and racism and lacked sufficient substantive expertise. I fear that what applied to Waspik in 2008 will still apply to many other small villages and their municipalities in 2023.
Municipalities can and must do more to prevent a ‘new Waspik’
The government is making serious efforts to implement the ‘Slavery Past Commemoration Year’, which will run from 1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024. Municipalities cannot be left behind as the closest level of government for all citizens. A ‘Local Agenda for Slavery History’ can help to manage this important subject for all Dutch people in all 342 municipalities. Because all Dutch people deserve equal treatment, the space to be themselves and to feel safe. Exactly as enshrined in the first article of our Constitution.
Municipalities can and must do more to prevent a ‘new Waspik’. A Local Agenda on Slavery Past can be an integral, structural way of taking steps towards a more civilized Netherlands together with civil society. An inclusive society with less racism and more human dignity and equality. 160 years after the formal abolition of racist slavery, it is time for its moral effectuation in the everyday Netherlands. So that every black Dutchman can also have a beautiful and happy life in villages like Waspik.