Straatpolitiek.nl is proud to present our latest writer Mitchell Esajas. Mitchell Esajas is 20 years old, Business and Administration student at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. He is a marvelous poet, activist, writer and carries a certain African consciousness and pride.  We are very pleased to have Mitchell as one of our fellow brethren in the straatpolitiek network.

 

His first article is an open letter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the famous apartheid fighter from South-Africa. Archbishop Tutu visited the Vrije Universiteit the fourth of december, to start a new program, which includes cooperation between de Vrije Universiteit and universities in South Africa. The emphasis in the letter is that of linking on of the pinpoints of Tutu reconcilation (het beeindigen van vijandschap) to the institutionalized racist Dutch folklore tradition of Saint Nicolas. Nice it up.

The Truth is revealing.

 

May nuff blessings be upon I&I in this day and time.

 

Robert van Raalte & Ahmed Kissami www.straatpolitiek.nl

 

 

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Gisteren 4 december gaf aartsbischop Desmond Tutu ter ere van vier leerstoelen me de onderwerpen Sport, Jeugd en Verzoening een kort maar krachtige toespraak op de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Meneer Tutu is een bewonderenswaardige man die zijn hele leven voor de goede zaak heeft gevochten, hij is het icoon van Vergeving en Vergelijking geworden door zijn hartstochtelijke en onverzettelijke strijd tegen de apartheid in Zuid-Afrika.

 

Het toneelstuk ‘de Schaduw van de goedheilig man’ van Felix de Rooy[1] en het ‘Black Talk’ debat na de Black is Beautiful tentoonstelling in de Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam[2] hebben ons getriggerd om over de kwestie van Zwarte Piet na te denken en onze stem erover te laten horen. Respect aan de dames van mosa.FM die de persconferentie naar binnen zijn gesneakt en aan Desmond Tutu de kwestie Zwarte Piet hebben voorgelegd

 

Wij van Straatpolitiek.nl zagen de kans schoon om Desmond Tutu een brief te overhandigen waarin de kwestie over de Nederlandse Sinterklaas met name met Zwarte Piet wordt besproken. We hebben geprobeerd de traditie in een historische context te plaatsen en daardoor zo objectief mogelijk te beargumenteren waarom de traditie in haar huidige vorm racistisch en respectloos is naar niet alleen de zwarte bevolking maar naar de mensheid.

 

Aartsbisschop Tutu gaf een inspirerende speech waarin hij diverse problemen in de wereld aankaarte zoals armoede, honger, HIV/Aids en oorlog. Zijn boodschap was helder en duidelijk: “We’ve done some nice things, but we’ve messed up the world!…Young people don’t let cynicism infect you, dream that one day poverty will be history, dream that we’ll know we ware one family! Dream that one day poverty will be history, that there will be laughter and gentleness. You young people put a smile on my God’s face!” Dream, Dream, Dream!”

 

De brief is ook overhandigt aan enkele medewerkers van de Vrije Universiteit en zal nog verstuurd worden naar enkele personen. Zo hopen wij met name vanuit het onderzoeksinstituut mensen over de kwestie Zwarte Piet te laten nadenken en ze tot het inzicht te brengen waarom het in haar huidige vorm verkeerd is.

 

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Dear em. Tutu,

 

My name is Mitchell Esajas and I am a student Business Administration at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. As a young student I wish to ask your point of view on a certain matter which I’ll explain in this letter. It is with great respect that I write and ask you to share your opinion on the Dutch tradition of the Saint Nicolas holiday.

 

First I’d like to say I think it is great the Vrije Universiteit has offered four chairs on Youth, Sports & Reconciliation in bear of your name to stimulate academic partnership between South-Africa and the VU. I myself am leaving to South Africa to study at the university of Pretoria. I think this is a great opportunity for people to learn because you are a respectable man who has had a significant contribution to the development of the South African society after the apartheid alongside other great men as Nelson Mandela. Your message of forgiveness and reconciliation is an inspiration to me and many others and I think contains a valuable lesson which many people can still learn from today.

 

South Africa is a country which has severely suffered from one of the most terrible and horrendous happenings in human history, apartheid. It only 14 years a go that this terrible policy under which humans of many different colors suffered. Today South Africa into developing a better nation and it is only through forgiveness in the hearts of the people they can overcome mistake made in the past.

 

History should never be forgotten, I think it is a precondition for reconciliation that all parties acknowledge mistakes made in the past to learn from them. Otherwise the same mistakes will be made in the future. That is why I think we should forgive but never forget. 

 

It is a pity we don’t learn from the mistakes we as humans make in the past but continue to make the same mistakes all be it in a different form and a different time. In my humble opinion this is partly caused by lack of knowledge about certain parts of history and indifference to our human history. Today we face war in Iraq, Afghanistan, a climate crisis, an energy crisis, a hunger crisis and a credit crisis, partly because we don’t learn from past mistakes.

 

I would like to bring your attention an example in Dutch society of such a matter in which, I think, we haven’t learned about past mistakes, the traditional Dutch holiday Saint Nicolas on the 5^th of December.

 

As you might know, Saint Nicolas was a bishop in Myra (modern day Turkey), who lived during the third century C.E. Through several legends written, in the Legenda Aurea, becomes clear that he became a saint and patron for children, unmarried women, sailors and port cities like Amsterdam. During the years that Nicolas, the bishop of Myra lived, the Netherlands was run by several Germanic tribes, belonging to the Frisians, the Saxons or the Franks. Many tribes did not convert to Christianity at that time and served the gods of their ancestors. One of the gods Odin, or Wodan, was depicted as a man with a long white beard, riding on a white horse Sleipnir, accompanied by two black ravens Hugin and Munin. In 1325 when Christianity was already settled in the Netherlands, the first Saint Nicolas tradition started in the Old Church in Amsterdam. It became a popular festivity, in which children got rewarded with presents when they behaved proper that year. Bad behaving kids got a roe, a bundle of twigs and branches tied together. This links back to the old Germanic symbol of fertility, because the roe was also carried by the black depicted Germanic god Norwi. Some legends said that Saint Nicolas was accompanied by a black boy. Pitr was supposed to be an Ethiopian slave, that Saint Nicolas freed on a slave market somewhere in Byzantium. For freeing him, Pitr stayed faithful to Saint Nicolas and joined him in his journeys. This ofcourse is historically not a proven legend. During the years the Saint Nicolas tradition changed. Old Germanic traditions melted with the catholic ones. The Saint Nicolas tradition was also prohibited by the Protestant rulers for a while. In 1848, the catholic part of the Netherlands got the chance again to practice their religion freely. So they got the chance again to celebrate the festivity of Saint Nicolas, and maybe because of the emphasis on rewarding children, other Dutch citizens participated in it as well.

 

The modern story tells us that the holy saint Nicolas comes to the Netherlands. Leaving from Spain(?) with his steamship to reward all children that have behaved themselves with a present. Saint Nicolas is accompanied by the character, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), his servant who according to the story is colored black because he delivers the presents through the chimney. Zwarte Piet acts typically foolishly. He is also the one that gives punishment with the roe (the bundle of twigs I mentioned earlier) to bad behaving children. The story tells us that bad behaving children are put in the sacks in which the Pete’s carry their gifts, and are taken back to Spain.

 

At the surface this seems like a harmless children holiday and to many Dutch people it is experienced in this way too. But to a lot of people, mainly from black people of African origin, this tradition is viewed as respectless and discriminating because it reminds them to the horrific history of slavery and oppression. Most people don’t make the association between Zwarte Piet and black people and black people who express this feeling are frequently called oversensitive.

 I myself do make that association and I do perceive Zwarte Piet as a form discrimination although it is very subtle and unmeant. I’ll shortly try to make clear why I perceive Zwarte Piet as discriminating by putting the character in its proper historic context.

The modern form of the holiday of Saint Nicolas and Zwarte Piet originates from the children’s book ” Sint-Nicolaas en zijn knecht” by Jan Schenkman (1950). He was a teacher in the time in which slavery still was practiced and black people were viewed as inferior to white people. It is in this time in history that racial discrimination was invented to justify the slave trade between Africa and the so called new world for economic reasons.

 It is in this context that I view Zwarte Piet and perceive the character as symbolic for White Supremacy ideology which justified the slave trade, racial discrimination and formed a basis for the apartheid. I understand that most people find it hard too put themselves in this perspective because they lack the knowledge of this part of history and never experienced the legacy of it.

 I acknowledge society has changed and I can say with honesty this philosophy is not practiced as it once was today. The ultimate example being Barack Obama as the president of the United States of America exactly one month a go. I think tradition should change with time, as tradition like societies tend to be dynamic and change with the spirit of the time and the people.

 I hope this tradition will change because a group of people is feeling disrespected and discriminated against. I know some people haven’t been able to find the forgiveness in their hearts for the history partly because of this tradition and they feel the Dutch people never acknowledge their faults made in the past. Although this group is a minority I think their feelings should be respected too and it is only humane and moral respect the feelings of these fellow citizens. I think it works divisive and frustrates the peace in society if we don’t respect each others cultures and opinions, everybody will benefit from a society in which people respect each other. 

 

With this letter, honorable em. Tutu I ask with all  respect your viewpoint on the matter of the saint Nicolas holiday and Zwarte Piet as you of all persons know how it is to be feel discriminated against? Do you think it is justified for black people to view Zwarte Piet as symbolic for the White Supremacy ideology and do you have an idea for how this matter can be worked on?

 

With all the respect we thank you in advance,

 

Mitchell Esajas

Robert van Raalte

Ahmed Kissami

www.straatpolitiek.nl

 

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We sluiten dit artikel af met een quote van Desmond Tutu en een quote van Peter Tosh.

“There is no future without forgiveness”

“There is no peace without justice”

 

 

[1] http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2075517.ece/Play_points_finger_at_Dutch_holiday_tradition

[2] http://bruja.mtnl.nl/read/blacktalk2

 

 

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