Het Keti Koti festival

During Keti Koti we commemorate and celebrate the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands and Suriname. The commemoration is on June 30. We celebrate the liberation festival on July 1 with a Keti Koti Festival. On that day in 1863, the Emancipation Act came into effect and slavery was abolished in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. Keti Koti, pronounced: (kittie'kottie), literally means Broken Chains. In Rotterdam, the monument commemorating slavery is located at the Lloydkade, on the spot where ships of the Rotterdam slave trading company Coopstad and Rochussen left for Africa. Keti Koti Rotterdam is Real Rotterdam Heritage.

The Keti Koti festival takes place at two locations:

• Theater Square
• Neighbourhood park Old West