Myths /tales are not only the remembrance of the past, but a justification of the present.” (paraphrased from Edward Leach)
Through Facebook my Dutch friend Carl posted a link of YouTube video about an incident that happened in Holland recently (on Saturday the 12th of November) Two activists, wearing a T-shirt with: ‘Zwarte Piet is Racism’ written on it, were kicked and sprayed with pepper spray and forcefully arrested by the police(http://www.twitvid.com/TW9X6). Why? “Zwarte Piet is Racism” first and foremost stresses that they want to enter a peaceful dialogue. As one of the men arrested by the police in Dordrecht, Quinsy Gairo says in a radio interview: “Do not use force, we want to engage in dialogue, not violence”. They were protesting against the current style of celebrating of Sinterklaas during the arrival of Sinterklaas in Dordrecht.
Saint Nicholas, or in Dutch Sinterklaas, traditionally arrives by boat in the Netherlands from Spain in the third week of November and brings the presents to children and, often to adults too, by the 5th of December. He doesn’t come alone; during his arrival in the Netherlands, a white horse and many Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes) accompany the Saint. The helpers go through chimneys to bring the presents to the children and as a result, their faces are covered in soot. What nobody can clearly explain, is what kind of soot leaves such a evenly spread residue and won’t touch their bright and colorful clothes; and why this doesn’t happen to Santa, why their hair is frizzy/curly, why they have red lips and hooped earrings, or worse, why they speak in a fake accent that parodies the Black population of the Dutch former colony of Suriname.
As a child I didn’t like Sinterklaas nor Black Pete, I was so incredibly scared of them. Sinterklaas has a book in which he reads who is bad and who is good. If you are bad, you don’t get any present. If you are really bad you will get beaten by Black Pete with the ‘roe’ (birch), put in a jute bag and sent away to a Spain, a country Holland fought against for 80 years in the 16th century. This threat was to keep children quiet and docile. During this ordeal at school, I smiled to them, with fear and tears in my eyes. But I loved the presents, poems, at the special family evenings. And I remember ‘our’ Black Pete was the one, who was funny and compared to Sinterklaas, the kindest of the two, the one to fear the least.
I am living in England for 12 years now. Kate, a friend from England experienced Black Pete on a trip to Holland, and said to me :”What’s going on over there with the golliwog?” It is sort of an odd moment when you realize that one of the traditions you’ve internalized is really fundamentally racist. I was appalled by the reactions by some of his (white) Dutch Facebook friends; some of them read: “There are far worse things happening in the world; stop being so pathetic!” “Are we creating useless discussions about weather ‘negerzoenen’ are politically correct? We won’t moan about ‘blanke vla’ either!” “It’s a children’s holiday and has nothing to do with racism, racism is about hate; we love Pete, stop complaining about this now”. Very dismissive, defensive, arrogant replies that I sense across the board. I feel a lot of anger and frustration amongst the Dutch, also on the current situation. We want to come across as liberal and open minded by claiming to be a tolerant nation, but the Netherlands still has a long way to go, not only regarding the Black Pete issue, but also in terms of racial discrimination, and discrimination based on religion. (I’m a white Dutch woman who is married to a black British man, and has 3 mixed race children.)
The incident in Dordrecht and the whole issue of Sinterklaas (the little amount of press it got in Holland, nor apologies have been made) unsettled me and I invited my friend and neighbor Farhana Hogue, to talk about this issue. She is an anthropologist, who lived in Holland for over 10 years before moving back to the UK.
This was her view on Black Pete:
I felt that Black Pete was inappropriate. It seemed as though discussion wasn’t possible. You couldn’t ask questions about why; you’d find out about the story, how it started, but you wouldn’t be able to discuss whether, in this day and age, it was defensible (offensive) or not. People would just dismiss any discussion. “It’s only for the kids and families; it’s about sweets, presents, poems..” To me, it felt like a national taboo. In anthropological terms, it is a myth-making tool. You start with a story from the past and you adapt it to suit the modern situation; but essentially, the myth reflects an entrenched social value. That value is: white is dominant and black is subservient, because that is the power relationship between Sinterklaas and his helpers. White is good, smart and pure, and black represents mischief, silliness, and punishment. So it’s two sides of the same coin. It’s good and evil, superior and inferior, lots of dichotomies are going on in that symbol. Because it has become so much part of the national psyche, it has to be perpetuated. The result is to unwittingly or otherwise legitimize the sense that deep down, white is superior and black is inferior. In terms of myths; myths have a function. You cannot challenge them, because they are part of the cultural heritage. It stays in that story making realm, and that serves a purpose of keeping the belief untouchable.
Tisna Westerhof
P.S. Color Foundation is against the racist element of this festive event. It is not wise to abolish this custom, however it deserves adaptation to our modern times. Compare Santa Claus (Christmas) celebration, which serves a similar purpose and is not racist, although he is invariably white.
