Holland gears up for Ketty Koty, lots of festivities planned

A week later, on July 1st, it will be exactly 150 years since slavery was effectively abolished under Dutch rule. Activities are taking place across the country in preparation for Katy Coty, a day to celebrate and commemorate the abolition of slavery.

From Tuesday, chefs in the kitchens of the Royal Palace on Amsterdam’s Dam Square will prepare heli heli, a Surinamese dish formerly eaten by enslaved people on the plantations. As part of Free Heri Heri For All, this dish will be distributed free of charge not only in Amsterdam but throughout the Netherlands.

On Tuesday night, rapper and author Akwasi will be giving his annual Anton de Comme talk at the Verzetsmuseum in Amsterdam. Each year, the lecture focuses not only on intolerance and discrimination, but also on the history of minorities and their place in Dutch society.

The next day, Chancellor Mark Rutte and Minister for Interior and Kingdom Relations Hanke Bruins-Slott will discuss the history of slavery with children at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. In the evening, the Ketty Coty Lecture will be held at the Tropical Museum in Amsterdam, in the presence of Robert Dyckgraf, Minister of Education, Culture and Science. Trinche Oosterhaus, Kenny B and Jung McRoy will perform at the Ketti Coty in concert at the Carré Royal Theater in Amsterdam later that evening. In addition, the Hague Museum of History will hold a conference on a memorial to be built in The Hague to commemorate the past of slavery.

On Thursday, a wreath laying will be held at the Mauritshuis to commemorate slavery in The Hague. Commemorative events attended by ministers will be held across the country on Friday. For example, Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag will attend the Arnhem ceremony, Pete Adema (Agriculture) will attend the Leeuwarden ceremony and Karien van Gennip (Social Affairs) will attend the Zoetermeer commemoration. . Minister Hanke Bruins Slott (Minister of the Interior), Minister Carola Schouten (for Poverty Policy) and Minister Fran Weervind (for Legal Protection) announced that the Dutch churches will jointly commemorate the abolition of slavery in Amsterdam. come to the New Church of

In Utrecht, the ‘Escape and Resistance’ monument commemorating the Netherlands’ slavery past will be unveiled on Friday. Mayor Sharon Dyksma will also attend the unveiling at Grift Park. Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw will close on Friday with a memorial concert. Music that was banned during the slavery era is played there.