Zwarte Piet

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Sinterklaas will be received in the northern Dutch city of Groningen (2015). The bishop actor on horseback is preceded by a traditional black-faced Zwarte Piet. After a train through the city, Sinterklaas meets the mayor. On the right of the picture you can see a security guard.

The Zwarte Piet ( Dutch ; West Frisian Swarte Pyt , "Black Peter") is in the Netherlands and Flanders the helper of Sinterklaas , Saint Nicholas in Dutch tradition. The Zwarte Piet, omnipresent in November and December, is extremely popular with the population, and the Sinterklaas festival is much more important than Christmas. In France and in the French-speaking part of Belgium the character is called Père Fouettard .

The Zwarte Piet had a similar function to the servant Ruprecht , Schmutzli or Krampus : to punish bad children instead of the physically reserved saint. But since its introduction in the 19th century, the helper has been a dark-skinned servant with an oriental look. In the 20th century in particular, the individual helpers became a group of Zwarte Pieten who assist the Sinterklaas. The faces of the actors are made up in brown or black, and they wear brightly colored festive clothing reminiscent of servants of the 16th century.

Since 2013, there has been increasing criticism as to whether the figure of Zwarte Piet (as a case of blackface ) could be racist . The occasion was the request of the Jamaican professor of social history Verene Shepherd , member of a working group at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ( UNHCHR ), to abolish the Sinterklaas festival and the Zwarte Piet. The population reacted emotionally to the allegations. Since then there have been alternative costumes in which the black on the face is only hinted at as soot or the actors are made up in other colors such as green or red.

Function and characteristics

St. Nikolaas en zijn knecht during a disciplinary measure, around 1910

The Sinterklaasfest on December 5th is the most popular folk tradition in the Netherlands, as a 2010 survey showed. In its current form it is unique in the Netherlands and Flanders . It is primarily a children's festival that adults also take part in. According to tradition, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet bring presents during the Sinterklaas festival on December 5th. Zwarte Piet climbs through the chimneys of the houses - where people sleep - and distributes sweets. He also appears as a helper to Sinterklaas to hold onto his book or staff , to guide his horse, or to do other work for him.

A man is made up for Zwarte Piet, Amsterdam , November 30, 1945

Until the 1970s, Zwarte Piet often had a rod with him that he used to punish bad children. Nowadays the rod is rarely seen in the hand of Zwarte Piet. Although it still exists as an attribute, it is no longer used.

Some children are afraid of the Zwarte Piet, because all evil deeds are noted in the book of Sinterklaas. In addition, some parents claimed to their children that Zwarte Piet was taking the stubborn children to Spain in a jute sack.

More recently, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet can be seen in inner cities for weeks before December 5th, often near department stores. In the middle of November, the Sinterklaas makes its festive entry into a certain city, which is broadcast on television. Especially the one Sinterklaas, who is shown in the Sinterklaasjournaal of children's television, has many Zwarte Pieten as helpers. Pieten have received different tasks, such as purchasing, packing, transport, etc. There is also a head of the Pieten, the so-called "main piet". The mock news program reports on the difficulties of the Pieten on the way to the Netherlands. For example, a Piet has lost the presents, so that the episcopal entourage must work together to save the festival for the children.

In the older depictions, Zwarte Piet had a black face, large red lips, an afro hairstyle and gold earrings. He was wild, childlike, and unreliable, cracked antics and spoke awkwardly. According to a nursery rhyme he says: Want ook al ben ik zwart als roet / Ik meen het wel goed (Even if I'm black as soot, I mean it well). As a result, he had to assert his goodness first, since from the outside it could not be assumed. Later the Zwarte Piet became more serious and wiser as a support for the elderly Sinterklaas.

origin

The cult of St. Nicholas of Myra is very old, but the Dutch Zwarte Piet dates from the 19th century. In the Alpine region, the Krampus was known to be the black, demonic servant of Nicholas long before that . This contrast between black and white (the beard of Nicholas) has a pre-Christian origin: the (rewarding) good spirit overcomes the (punishing) evil spirit. A connection between Krampus and Zwarte Piet has not been proven.

The "modern" Zwarte Piet comes from the teacher Jan Schenkman . According to Schenkman (1850), the Dutch saint lives in Spain. This may come from the fact that the Dutch country name Spanje rhymes with appeltjes van oranje (golden apples, oranges), as found in the famous song about Piet Hein . Or it has to do with the fact that the Netherlands, like Spain, belonged to the Habsburg monarchy in the 16th century, since the children's festival has been documented . In any case, the country could have something to do with the fact that a Moor in oriental costume has entered the stage, because in Spain there was almost 800 years of rule of the Moors in al-Andalus . The word moor , which is often used for the Zwarte Piet, can refer to both a black African and a darker North African.

A Schenkman edition from around 1910, with a grim black servant .

According to the director of the Rijksmuseum there from 1520 a painting on the court of Emperor Charles V . A proud black man would already have the attributes that were later known from the Zwarte Piet. However, Sinterklaas initially had no company, and it was not until 1850 that Schenkman depicted him in his picture book with a black servant. In a later edition from 1858 he wears a page uniform with puff trousers and a beret. Schenkman did not invent the knecht , as there are references to an earlier use, but canonized it, according to the Meertens Institute for Folklore. A reference to slavery , as it still existed in the Dutch colonies at that time, cannot be proven, but the stereotyping images could well have been shaped by the discourse on colonialism and slavery of that time. The name Pieter has been around since 1859, and the name Zwarte Piet was not adopted until 1900 .

A reference to the black ravens of Wotan , however, can be ruled out, just as the comparison of the Wotan riding through the air with the Sinterklaas riding over the roofs is rather superficial. Zwarte Piet is also not black from soot, because he is already black when he arrives by boat from Spain and not only after he has delivered the presents through the chimneys.

controversy

Isolated protest

Dolls in an Amsterdam department store, November 2012

Since about the 1970s there have been repeated complaints about Zwarte Piet, because his appearance and behavior reminded of an uneducated black and was therefore racist. For example, a black Dutch woman said in 1987 on the children's program Sesamstraat that she did not like the tradition because black people were addressed as Zwarte Piet during the Sinterklaas era.

In 2011 two black Dutch people wanted to hold up a banner “Nederland kan beter” (“The Netherlands should do better”) when the Sinterklaas moved in. When the police forbade this, they followed the instructions, but showed their T-shirts with the words "Zwarte Piet is racisme". The police wanted to forbid this as an unauthorized demonstration, and the two victims did not follow the instructions. As a result, there was a scuffle and an arrest. The two were fined 140 euros.

EenVandaag from public service broadcaster collected comments from dark-skinned Dutch people (often of Surinamese or Caribbean descent) in 2013 . Many said that they had a nice Sinterklaas festival as a child, but that they were also offset by memories of discrimination and bullying . Both adults and children made “jokes” about whether the dark-skinned child had come to the country too early or missed the boat (back to Spain). If they had said something against it, they met with incomprehension. Therefore, they learned to adapt. As adults, many would celebrate Sinterklaas, but some avoided the festivities as much as possible. The festival should not be abolished, but the servant should be adapted to the present day.

Allegations 2013

Sinterklaas with two Zwarte Pieten in the Dutch colony of East India , first half of the 1930s

In October 2013, a nationwide protest broke out in the Netherlands when a Jamaican professor of social history suggested that the Netherlands should abolish Zwarte Piet. Verene Shepherd has been part of a four-person Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ( UNHCHR ), which draws attention to abuses in the field of human rights. In January 2013, the group asked the Dutch government for clarification about the Sinterklaas Festival. The Zwarte Piet maintains a stereotype that portrays people of African origin as second-class citizens and arouses racism. The group also wrote that they had heard that Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet should be proposed to UNESCO as the intangible cultural heritage of the Netherlands. The latter, however, said a government representative in July, was not true.

Shepherd said in an interview with a Dutch newspaper:

“As a black person, I feel that if I lived in the Netherlands, I would oppose it. As a member of the research group, I am obliged to do more research, but as a black person I would definitely defend myself. [...] We investigate whether the information we have received is correct. If not, we'll change our position. But the lawsuits we are receiving point to racism and a return to slavery. We are investigating. "

In her opinion, the Sinterklaas Festival should take place for the last time in 2013, a single Santa Claus would be enough (instead of both Santa Claus on December 6th and Santa Claus on December 24th). She wanted to see the issue dealt with in the UN General Assembly.

"Pietprotest", a demonstration against Zwarte Piet, Amsterdam in November 2013

The Belgian UNESCO representative Marc Jacobs replied a few days after the media riot that the working group could not speak on behalf of the United Nations or UNESCO. He called the working group incompetent and its quasi-official request should not be taken seriously. The instrument of the intangible cultural heritage is being misused. A delegation from the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament , which was in New York, wanted to speak to the social historian and explain the Sinterklaas Festival to her.

An online Dutch newspaper made a connection between the debate and the issue of compensation for the descendants of slaves. For decades, Caribbean countries have been demanding some form of compensation from those countries that have profited most from the slave trade. In the summer of 2013, the heads of government of 14 Caribbean countries formulated a corresponding demand on Great Britain, France and the Netherlands in Miami. University professor Verene Shepherd from Jamaica is one of the driving forces behind the “battle plan” of these 14 countries.

Approval or mediating positions

Sinterklaas with Zwarte Pieten in a primary school in Emmen , 2012

On the occasion, some voices questioned how the Zwarte Piet is portrayed. Peter Jan Magry, Professor of Ethnology in Amsterdam, told Algemeen Dagblad on October 24, 2013:

“Because the Sinterklaasfest is almost in the genes of the Dutch, we had blinkers in view of the appearance of the Zwarte Piet. Pieterbaas has transformed himself from a stupid bogeyman into a shrewd kid friend in the past few decades, but he's still sported with frizzy hair , puffy pants , red lips, and large earrings. For outsiders it is a black stereotype that is experienced as racist. "

Cultural traditions must be thoroughly understood rather than ventilating an opinion immediately. But the appearance of Zwarte Piet has actually changed insufficiently with society. From a servant he became a friend of Sinterklaas, no longer has a rod, no longer speaks in crooked sentences and is no longer a stupid grimace cutter. But it has to change that he still looks the way a white man imagined a black man in 1858.

Some organizers and politicians have also moved in this direction or at least expressed their understanding. If the people's opinion slowly changed, organizers and department stores would also go along. The right-wing liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he could hardly change the color of the Piet , while Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk (Social Democrats) said that the children would have no less fun if in the future a few green or blue pits ran along with the black ones.

Sinterklaas is also celebrated on the Caribbean island of Bonaire , which has had the status of a special Dutch municipality since 2010. Mostly dark-skinned residents put on black or brown make-up for their appearance as Zwarte Piet, while Sinterklaas put on white make-up. The Sinterklaas coordinator of a youth center said that there were never any accusations of racism because of the crowd. On the neighboring island of Curaçao, however, there was a discussion in 2011, which led to the Zwarte Pieten being painted in different colors. The children were told that the boat had passed through a rainbow. An employee of the youth center in Bonaire said that the Zwarte Piet got its color from the soot in the chimney. Bonaire residents would not like to remember the slave past; they would rather see themselves as descendants of Indians.

Negative reactions

A massive wave of protests with particularly violent emotionality has arisen among the general population. According to a survey, 92 percent of those questioned want to keep Zwarte Piet, a Facebook support page called Pietitie ( suitcase word from Piet and petitie , Dutch for petition ) received 2 million likes within two days . It is reported that thematic tattoos have skyrocketed.

Two girls in disguise, 2009 in Zoetermeer

Geert Wilders from the right-wing populist Partij voor de Vrijheid suggested on Twitter that the United Nations be abolished instead of the Sinterklaas Festival. The UN complained that members of the volunteer human rights group had been harassed, intimidated and their personal integrity attacked. The popular Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf called Shepherd, who was unreachable, a zeurpiet ('nag').

In Groningen , a foundation that organizes the festival for lower-class children wanted to have the Sinterklaas accompanied by black, yellow and green Pieten . She refrained from doing this when she received death threats and allegations that the foundation behaved like traitors in World War II or supporters of the Nationaal-Socialist Movement . The editor-in-chief of two children's magazines said the discussion was only among adults and her elementary school magazine did not cover it. Otherwise one would have to immediately reveal that these are only men in costumes. Children are conservative, they want everything to stay as they are used to.

According to police reports, 500 people demonstrated non-violently on the Malieveld in The Hague on October 26, 2013 for Zwarte Piet. The event was initiated by a sixteen-year-old. During the demonstration, Facebook petitions were handed over to the PVV parliamentarian Joram van Klaveren, who wanted to take them with him to the Second Chamber. A black woman protested on the sidelines of the demonstration against the UN for its role in the transfer of the former Dutch colony of Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia in 1969, which was justified by a controversial vote ( Act of Free Choice ). The woman was mistakenly mistaken for a Zwarte Piet opponent and harassed and verbally abused by demonstrators (“get off to your own country”). The police took the woman to safety.

The literary scholar Marleen de Vries wrote in the newspaper de Volkskrant on October 24th that the figure of "Zwarte Piet" had always been versatile. She traces the black man back to the Moors , who were present on the European continent for centuries through the conquest of Spain ( from 711 ; abandonment of the last fortress in 1492). Moors associated with a bishop have been known since the late Middle Ages. De Vries sees the model for the "Zwarte Piet" in the Saracens , who were feared. It describes the representation of the Moor as part of European cultural history for 700 years. The reference to slavery is misleading, according to de Vries.

UN and Dutch UNESCO list

Independently of Verene Shepherd's group, the Sinterklaasfest was also examined with a view to whether it should be on a UNESCO list for intangible cultural property. In early summer, the Sint Nicolaasgenootschap asked for the festival to be included in this list. The Kenniscentrum Immaterieel Erfgoed Nederland was involved in this .

The director of the center said in the handling of the request that she welcomed the request, but expressed concern that the discussion about the Zwarte Piet could revive and asked how the cooperative would deal with the issue. The Sint Nicolaasgenootschap, on the other hand, refuses to make any changes.

In 2015, the UN Committee against Racial Discrimination issued a recommendation. The Dutch government should actively work to ensure that negative stereotypes around the Zwarte Piet are banned. It would be about features that are reminiscent of the slavery past. The Dutch delegation understood the pain and was in favor of dialogue, but refused to let the government determine the appearance of the piet or forbid the piet.

Highway blockade 2017

On November 18, 2017, protesters drove to the province of Friesland in buses . They wanted to demonstrate against Zwarte Piet and racism at the Sinterklaasintocht in Dokkum . They had permission from the church to do this. They were stopped on the A7 motorway near Joure: activists who campaigned for Zwarte Piet blocked the motorway with cars and threatened the demonstrators. The anti-Piet demonstrators drove back under police escort, while the mayor banned the anti-Piet protest out of concern for chaos when the Sinterklaas moved in.

As a result, 34 Pro-Zwarte-Piet activists had to answer for the blockade in court. The verdict was issued on November 9, 2018. The judges largely followed the prosecutor's office. The activists prevented a demonstration, thereby curtailing the demonstrators' right to freedom of expression. Traffic was also seriously endangered. Most of the pro-activists received 120 community hours. Ringleader Jenny Douwes received 240 hours of community service and a month's suspended prison sentence. With crowdfunding, they raise money for a vocation.

Recent developments

The Algemeen Dagblad reported in November 2017 that TV presenter Humberto Tan has had to be protected for a year and a half. The reason for this were his statements against Zwarte Piet. The moderator had shown solidarity with Sylvana Simons from the DENK party, which had also received death threats and must be protected. In the same month, the same newspaper announced a Sinterklaas inventory , a kind of armistice in the interests of the children: While Sinterklaas is in the Netherlands, it should not be discussed. The call was joined by the politicians Mark Rutte, Jan Terlouw, Erica Terpstra, Lodewijk Asscher, the former Sinterklaas actor Bram van der Vlugt as well as singers, cabaret artists and other well-known Dutch people.

Dutch newspapers reported continued polarization of the debate in 2018, with protesters for or against the traditional Zwarte Piet. The majority society rejects the radicalism of the violent Zwarte Piet supporters and has become more open to change. There is now a juxtaposition of Pieten with full face painting and those with individual black lines on their faces that can be interpreted as soot residues.

The Volkskrant described how some children explain the changes: The Pieten are more lazy than before because they no longer transport as many packages through chimneys and are therefore no longer so black. Children would recognize Pieten through the costume as Zwarte Pieten and also call them that, even if they do not wear face paint at all. A study by the University of Leiden in 2015 found that children between the ages of 5 and 7 perceive Zwarte Piet as smart, friendly and meaningful and associate him more with a clown than with black people.

While the German manufacturer Playmobil offered a set with Zwarte Pieten with dark skin color in 2018, only the supermarket chains Jumbo and Albert Heijn offered Zwarte Pieten as chocolate figures. AH reported that the Piet had been adjusted for a few years and had no earrings and red lips. The other supermarkets only offered soot piets or none at all, or the soot piet only appeared on billboards. In some AH branches, strangers pressed the heads of chocolate Zwarte pies in with their thumbs.

When the Sinterklaas moved in, unrest broke out in various cities in November 2018. According to the police, the activists from Kick Out Zwarte Piet demonstrated peacefully and obeyed the rules. In Eindhoven and Rotterdam, for example, they were besieged and verbally abused by Pro Zwarte Piet demonstrators. Eggs or beer bottles were thrown. The mayor of Eindhoven, the right-wing liberal John Jorritsma, spoke of the very intimidating behavior of a large group of aggressive and undeclared hooligans .

See also

literature

  • John Helsloot: The ambivalent message of the first "Zwarte Piet" (1850). Working group image printing paper, conference proceedings Amsterdam 2007, volume 12, pp. 29–44

Web links

Commons : Zwarte Piet  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. a b c d e Piet en Sint - veelgestelde varsh. Meertens Instituut , 2013, accessed October 25, 2013 (Dutch).
  2. a b c Het slavernijverleden van Zwarte Piet. In: nieuwsuur.nl. NOS / NTR , October 23, 2013; archived from the original on October 26, 2013 ; Retrieved October 25, 2013 (Dutch).
  3. NRC.nl: In 1987 Gerda het al uit aan Pino: Zwarte Piet is 'helemaal niet leuk' , accessed on October 24, 2013.
  4. ^ John Helsloot: Zwarte Piet and Cultural Phasia in the Netherlands , accessed April 12, 2016.
  5. EenVandaag opiniepanel: 'Heb je de pakjesboot gemist?' , Accessed on October 24, 2013.
  6. a b Verenigde Naties: vrijwilliger Shepherd spoke niet called VN over Zwarte Piet. de Volkskrant , October 24, 2013, accessed October 24, 2013 (Dutch).
  7. Volkskrant.nl: Hooft VN-onderzoek: Zwarte Piet is terugkeer slavernij , accessed on October 24, 2013.
  8. a b c 'Zwarte Piet terugkeer naar slavernij en moet stop'. In: EenVandaag.nl. AVROTROS , October 22, 2013, accessed October 24, 2013 (Dutch).
  9. www.dailymail.co.uk: 14 Caribbean nations sue Britain, Holland and France for slavery reparations that could cost hundreds of billions of pounds October 10, 2013
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  24. UN wil dat negatieve kenmerken Zwarte Piet aangepast Service. In: NU.nl, August 28, 2015, accessed on November 17, 2018.
  25. Christiaan Paauwe: 34 suspected snelwegblokkade anti-Pietdemonstranten voor de rechter . In NRC.nl, April 19, 2018, accessed on November 17, 2018.
  26. Friese snelwegblokkeerders willen in hoger beroep , in: NOS, November 9, 2018, accessed on November 17, 2018.
  27. "Wij bankruptcies voor een #Sinterklaasbestand" . In: Hart van Nederland, November 23, 2018, accessed on November 17, 2018.
  28. Peter de Graaf and Irene de Zwaan: Een Piet who is wit? For kinderen geen problems. De Volkskrant. November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  29. Sybilla Claus and Orkun Akinci: Chocoladepiet moet het ontgelden in de strijd tegen Zwarte Piet. In: Trouw, November 16, 2018, accessed November 17, 2018.
  30. Zes aanhoudingen rond Zwarte Piet-betoging Eindhoven, ook elders onrustig , NOS.nl, November 17, 2018, accessed on November 19, 2018.