Black Pete supporters on Saturday afternoon, dressed as Black Pete, rang the bell at the home of rapper Akwasi and left a burlap sack. Politicians, among others, are indignant about the incident and speak of “pure intimidation”.
A video distributed by a pro-Zwarte Piet action group shows how the doorbell is rung at the rapper’s home. In the video, a member of the action group says that they are at Akwasi’s house and “go and see if he is home”. When they didn’t answer, they left the burlap sack with fake gifts.
Police confirm that an incident took place on Saturday morning. They say they have good contact with Akwasi, but are unable to say whether he has filed a complaint due to privacy reasons.
Akwasi calls the action “another proof of why BLACK broadcaster is needed”, referring to the one he founded himself to bring more diversity and color to television.
‘This is pure intimidation, here a line has been far exceeded’
Politicians are indignant. “It is pure intimidation to bother Akwasi at home in this way. A limit is far exceeded here, stop this, this is really not possible”, GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver said. Twitter. D66 leader Rob Jetten also commented on the incident. “You can demonstrate in this country, but you stay away from the private domain of others!”, Said the D66 leader.
Jetten himself received “unwanted visitors” last month when five members of the farmers’ campaign group Farmers Defense Force visited him at home with a food package. At the time, Jetten was in self-isolation after a positive corona test.
Negative reactions appear not only from politics. Columnist and writer Özcan Akyol calls the men “incredible losers”.
During a demonstration in Amsterdam in June, Akwasi said that he would personally kick Zwarte Piet in the face if he ran into him in November. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) dismissed a case against him for sedition, after Akwasi withdrew those words.
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