In the run up to December 5, when Saint Nicholas traditionally hands out presents, Dutch theatre director Felix de Rooy produced a play in which he points at Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) as a racist invention. “Black Pete is a product of slavery,” says De Rooy.
Dutch children are told he is black because he comes down the chimney to deliver presents and gets covered in soot, but Black Pete’s foolish behaviour and speech are typical of nineteenth-century attitudes toward black people. Unlike Saint Nicholas, who is a historic legend, Pete was invented by a Dutch teacher in 1852.
De Rooy’s play De schaduw van de goedheiligman (In the shadow of the saint) premiered last night in Amsterdam’s predominantly black neighbourhood the Bijlmer. It takes a critical look at the figure of Black Pete.
Racial stereotyping
The playwright, Mark Walraven, himself used to black up to play the Saint Nicholas’ helper. “But later I started thinking about it and realised that it is a racist thing to do,” says Walraven now.
The play’s story is about a black boy who establishes the First Truly Dutch Union for Black Petes and wants all white people barred from impersonating them. “It would solve unemployment among blacks,” is one of the play’s lines. White lobbyists are fierce in their defence of the Black Pete tradition. But the message of the play is that nothing is as changeable as tradition.
The performance seemed to strike a chord with many theatre-goers of Surinamese, Antillean and African decent.
During a discussion afterwards, a young Liberian-born woman, Clarice Gargard, explains why she hates the figure of Black Pete. “I go to a predominantly white school and I am confronted with racism on a daily basis, often out of ignorance.” She says that because the other students see that she is intelligent, well-dressed and well-spoken they think she is adopted. “As if the way I am disqualifies me from being African.”
Clear message
Imagine, says someone else, if all Surinamese people kept their children at home on December 5? “Wouldn’t that send a very clear message that we don’t want Black Pete as part of the Saint Nicholas celebrations?” The audience clearly agrees.
But why is it that white Dutch people fail to understand how hurtful Black Pete is to the black Dutch community? White actor Marcel Faber, who portrays a cynical ex-idealist in the play, tries to answer the question. “Before I did this play, I did not have myself down as a racist. That was my protective wall.”
To hisses from the audience he adds: “I don’t think Black Pete has anything to do with negroes.” Someone in the audience calls out: “We’re not negroes, we’re black”. Shocked, Faber answers: “The word negro is something to be proud of as far as I’m concerned.” The reply from the audience is clear: “Not to us!”
Artist Annette Krauss, who is also in the audience, agrees with Faber. “Dutch people say: we’re not racists, so what’s the problem.” But she has had to cancel a planned demonstration against Black Pete in the city of Eindhoven in September because of threats. “It seems there can be no discussion about this in the Netherlands,” she says.
“Obama was elected because he did not turn race into an issue,” says Priscilla Ramsahai, who works for a local radio station. “He was elected because the American people realised he was born to a white mother,” the play’s director De Rooy counters. As far as he’s concerned, Saint Nicholas can stay, but his helper should be someone without racial overtones, a blue smurf maybe.
De Rooy would like to turn his play into a multimedia theatre show but has so far failed to find funding.
