Apparently, there can be no Sinterklaas without Zwarte Piet (Black Peter). At least not in Vancouver, Canada. The organizers of the local annual Sinterklaas celebration made the decision after members of the African-Canadian committee objected to the presence of Black Peter, Sinterklaas’ black helpers, which they see as an expression of racism.
After four days of debate, the Dutch-Canadian group has now decided to let Sinterklaas pass them by this year. They explain their reasoning in an open letter on their Sinterklaas website:
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Dear fellow members of the Dutch community, We regret to inform you that the Sinterklaas celebrations for 2011, at the New Westminster Quay as well as at the Holland Shopping Centre have been CANCELLED. We thank you all for your input in the Zwarte Piet discussion, and we encourage the community to keep up their Sinterklaas tradition. For those of you who feel this is a great loss, we agree. We too are greatly saddened by the events of the past few weeks. Sincerely, The Sinterklaas Event Organizers |
Black Peter
There are several historical explanations for the presence of a Black Pete (or Peter) as Saint Nicholas' helper.
Early 19th-century myths tell how Saint Nicholas triumphed over a devil who became his servant. In the late 1800s in the Netherlands the assistant was depicted as a Moor.
Other legends say that Black Pete is a slave liberated by Saint Nicholas. Out of gratitude, Pete offered the saint his services.
Yet another interpretation is that Pete is simply sooty black because he climbs down through chimneys to drop presents in the fireplace for the well-behaved children, and to scare the naughty kids.
Helper
Today's Saint Nicholas celebrations are focused on the red-robed holy man himself, with the Black Peters carrying out additional tasks like handing out sweets, performing acrobatics or joking with the children. Nobody is ever seen humiliating, insulting or ignoring a Black Pete.
Controversy
In recent decades, the Pete character has become the subject of heated debate in the Netherlands. Surinamese, Dutch Antillians and immigrants with African roots increasingly object to being confronted with black-faced, slave-like characters on the streets every December.
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The organizers feared that including Sinterklaas’ black helpers in the parade would lead to large-scale protests from members of the African-Canadian community. Tako Slump: "They have made it clear that they were going to protest, with the media there."
Family party
That was too much for the organizers of the Sinterklaas celebration. Last week, the Vancouver Sun reported that there would be no Zwarte Pieten at the parade. Then, after consultation with the Dutch community, the whole event was cancelled.
Tako Slump: "We had four days to reach a decision to, and were under great of pressure. But at some point, you have to be smart. We didn’t want to expose our children and families to a demonstration, so we canceled it."
Black Peter
Dutch immigrants living in Vancouver have celebrated the arrival of Sinterklaas and his helpers for 25 years; this was the first year that anybody complained about racism. According to Roger Jones - a member of Vancouver’s African-Canadian community and the person who made the complaint - Black Peter is reminiscent of the stereotyping of African-American slaves in minstrel shows and vaudeville theater from the nineteenth century.
According to news website BCLocalNews.com, Roger Jones regrets the cancellation of the festivities. Although the presence of the traditional Black Peter was "not negotiable", he says traditions evolve, including Sinterklaas.
Teach
The question is: what now? Tako Slump: "We’re taking on a tough job. We have to teach Canadians and the entire North American population what Black Peter really is. It has to do with living together in one country. We have to accept that not everyone will appreciate all areas of our culture. But we also have to give each other some space."
The Canadian Dutch are not alone in trying to revise the Zwarte Piet character. In Pella, Iowa, Sinterklaas’ helpers aren’t black, but are rather historical characters (pioneers or pageboys and -girls). The people of Pella have managed to make Sinterklaas something that isn’t just celebrated by the Dutch, but by the entire local community.
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I sympathies with both side. It is convenient for the one side as the issue of superiority is subtly skewed in their favor. To neutralize the animosity let the good side of Africans be shown on television and other media, often time the negative side of Africans is what is shown. Take a trip to Lagos, Abuja and see the good side of Africa. There is hardly any human group without challenges, but horning the negative over the positive is simply entrenching stereotype in the mind of children, hence the bad feeling about the tradition. The Dutch to me are too wise to delbrarely want to denigrate a race oficially. There is simply a need to review this tradition.
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The question is: what now? Tako Slump: "We’re taking on a tough job. We have to teach Canadians and the entire North American population what Black Peter really is. It has to do with living together in one country. We have to accept that not everyone will appreciate all areas of our culture. But we also have to give each other some space."
The Canadian Dutch are not alone in trying to revise the Zwarte Piet character. In Pella, Iowa, Sinterklaas’ helpers aren’t black, but are rather historical characters (pioneers or pageboys and -girls). The people of Pella have managed to make Sinterklaas something that isn’t just celebrated by the Dutch, but by the entire local community.
http://xtreamer-world.blogspot.com/
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There is no point in trying to whitewash this shady relic of the 19th century. In the U.S. Blackface acts have all but disappeared:
http://black-face.com/
How about making him Asian and renaming him “Gele Piet”? That way we could piss off way more people.
http://yellow-face.com/
I grew up with this tradition as well but I think that running a black caricature past black children tasteless, even though there may be no harmful intent.
Dress him up as a proper chimney sweep without the afro look or ditch him. This issue is not going to go away.
I'm Dutch, living in Canada, and Zwarte Piet has nothing to do with racism. I've lived for years in Curacao where 80% of the population is black (the black people in Curacao don't mind being called black). Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet always were welcomed by everyone there, black or white. The blacks even put more black cream on to look blacker! In the tradition, Zwarte Pieten were Moors, Sinterklaas a Turkisch Saint........Racism, come on!!
Look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet
I am sorry to hear the celebrations have been canceled. I fully understand it: a Sinterklaas without his Zwarte Pieten is not correct....I have always enjoyed this tradition and I miss it dearly.....
I think the African-Canadians should not worry about innocent traditions of other countries and threaten with protests.
Dutch kids and parents by the thousands flock to ports around Holland to celebrate Sinterklaas' arrival each November. Many of those kids go dressed as Zwarte Piet, but few of them (or their parents) bother with any makeup. The black face aspect of Sinterklaas festivities is going to die out sooner or later. It might as well be sooner, because it's pointless.
I once dressed up as Zwarte Piet for a Sinterclau party in Windsor Ontario Canada. Fond memories around 1985. I'm not Dutch but married to a Nederlander. Judy
This celebration is all about RACISM and the dutch are acting like it's a party for children's. The whole world knows the history of the Dutch with slavery!!
Very amusing how someone can get a black skin from the chimney and suddenly big red lips, curly hair and have to do what the White Master tells you!! Otherwise you will get punished children's, learn this good and The Master will give you a present!!! Isn't that what all children's want??
We all know the Dutch and how racism they are since history and the still are. They can be racism but you as a black ore any color can't cause then it's racism. Got the point?
Really, Zwarte Piet has nothing to do with racism. One can not judge customs of an other culture with perceptions from ones own culture and background.
The Sinterklaas festivity is a mixture of ancient Germanic symbolism with those from many other cultures that were added. Black/White, death/life, dark/light, old/new, bad/good, they are symbols of the celebration in November and December, symbols of the winter-solstice.
The white and black represent the dark ending of the year and the coming of light in the new year. Also there are some elements of cleansing at the end of the year; like doing away with bad habits. (The helpers carry bags to catch naughty children, or have whips or canes).
The white figure comes to many countries in Europe. In some places he rides a donkey or a horse and his helpers can be redhaired brutes, devils (with black masks), goats or even angels.
Through the years, Sinterklaas has changed and the celebration is influenced greatly by the Roman Catholic church, that started the shoe ritual: the young mass servants left their shoes in the church and found them the next morning, filled with presents.
The dress of Zwarte Piet is the dress that was common in the old days. Nothing silly about that! Today the Swiss guards of the Vatican still wear them.
Yes, Black Peter tumbles around and loves to help Sinterklaas to bring presents to all the good children. Yes, his behavior is clownish. There is this other misconception that Black Peter is silly and uneducated. He is not. He is a clown. Clowns are not silly, they are wise. They joke about us, people; our arrogance, our mistakes, defects, greediness. Why is he black? Because he is a Moor (since Sint is a bishop coming from Spain) or he is black from coming down chimneys to put the presents in the children 's shoes. In earlier times he was a devilish figure or a black animal. It all has to do with doing away with bad things of the past year and to warn people to behave better next year.
Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet have nothing to do with the color of the skin; they are very old symbols of dark and light, of the winter-solstice.
Clearly has no idea on world history and the history of this "feast". What amazes me about the Dutch is that they claim that nobody should judge customs of one country through a "foreign" cultural perception, completely forgetting that historically slavery and the racist ideology to justify it was as common an activity across European countries as Christmas celebration and MTV are nowadays.
Secondly that this negro-piet is referring to some ancient germanic tradition....why in heaven's name is it that in the height of the debate on abolition of slavery in Holland in 1850, a black man was introduced as the servant of St Nicolas by author Jan Schenkman (he is the one who introduced Black Peter, the character was non-existant before then). Why did the role of this black servant evolved similarly to the other blackfaced charicatures that we witnessed in the post-slavery world?
Dutch people have a warped sense of reality when it comes to history, slavery, racism and the role they play in it...no wonder their descendants could drum up the apartheids system to perfection.....It really puzzles me how they can claim to be soooo nuchter and still get it sooo wrong...
Please, go and read the latest news about the history of Pieter on the site of the Meertensinstitute. Your claim about previous non-existence seems to be wrong. And yes, why would somebody make a negro the companion of a saint legendary connected with the liberation of people from slavery and such? What about: to make an abolitionist statement?
@Zra My: To me multicultural does not mean disallowing anything because it might irritate a couple of people, but allowing people to express their culture and traditions even if they're different from your own. It's the difference between multi-cultural and non-cultural.
If we make Black Peter rainbow Peter as in some places, must we avoid the colours red, yellow, must we include Petra's? And what is next in this progression: feminists complaining all apostles or wise 'men' were male and opposing nativity displays? I'm obviously charging the issue a bit, but I hope it makes my point.
Without this protest the children would have simply had a good time, without even making the connection as we did when we were kids.
I work in an international company and my American and Canadian colleagues find it hard to understand the need for the 'controversial' Zwarte Piet in today's world. As my Canadian colleague (who is Caucasian) recently put it "tell me any other celebration in the [Western] world that is so controversial." Vancouver is a multicultural city and in an increasingly globalised world, it will be difficult to export cultures that are controversial. Zwarte Piet, whatever we may think, is controversial to some people and as their voices become louder by the day, this culture cannot continue to be observed as though it were some benign celebration. I have a Dutch Caucasian friend who chooses not to celebrate Sinterklaas for the Zwarte Piet reason. I sympathize with the Dutch but firmly believe the days of Zwarte Piet are numbered.
I sympathies with both side. It is convenient for the one side as the issue of superiority is subtly skewed in their favor. To neutralize the animosity let the good side of Africans be shown on television and other media, often time the negative side of Africans is what is shown. Take a trip to Lagos, Abuja and see the good side of Africa. There is hardly any human group without challenges, but horning the negative over the positive is simply entrenching stereotype in the mind of children, hence the bad feeling about the tradition. The Dutch to me are too wise to delbrarely want to denigrate a race oficially. There is simply a need to review this tradition.
This just pisses me off beyond believe. As a child I was always told Zwarte Piet is black because he climbs down through chimneys to drop presents. Also all Dutch kids love Zwarte Piet, if anything, doesn't that teach kids not to be racist? Such a shame that some people take themselves serious enough to ruin a small celebration... If you want to prevent prejudice, this is not the way to go about it.
If his face is simply black from soot why does he also have an afro wig and exaggerated red lips? And if he is in face supposed to be of African origin is it acceptable to represent that with stereotypes like jet black skin, a curly wig and big red lips?
Blackface is not ok, no matter what the origins are.
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