Statia alliance calls for First Salute commemoration to move to The Hague

The St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Ground Alliance has called on the Dutch government to move the 250th First Salute commemoration scheduled for Monday 16 November from St. Eustatius to The Hague. The alliance said the event, which marks the 1776 recognition of the United States by a foreign power, is painful for Afrikan descendants because of the island’s history of trans-Atlantic slavery.

Alliance President Kenneth Cuvalay said: “Our Ancestors lived in chains in 1776”. The group said Governor Johannes de Graaff, the historical figure associated with the salute, was the island’s largest enslaver.

The alliance also criticised an invitation extended to the US president. It said recent actions targeting diversity programmes and removing Afrikan-American contributions from US history were among its concerns.

The group called on the Dutch and St. Eustatius governments to relocate the programme, invest in history-writing that benefits Afrikan descendants, stop using the island as an “exotic backdrop”, stop wasting taxpayers’ money and return Statia Day to the community. It said it has launched a petition on Change.com.