Dutch protesters burn photocopies of Book of Negroes.

A Dutch anti-slavery group has followed through on its threat to symbolically burn a copy of Canadian author Lawrence Hill’s acclaimed Book of Negroes because of its title, wrote The Star
A spokesperson for Amsterdam’s de Telegraaf newspaper confirmed a photocopy of the book’s cover was burned Wednesday afternoon in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam, which has an anti-slavery monument.
The Dutch group, the Federation for Honour and Reparation of Slavery in Suriname, recently announced it would publicly burn the book on June 22 if the title wasn’t changed. The book has only recently been published in the Netherlands under the title, Het Negerboek.

The Book of Negroes is the title of an actual historical document which documents the migration of 3,000 African slaves who supported the British cause in the American Revolution and were allowed to go from New York to Nova Scotia. Many of them later returned to Africa.
“The title is not intended to be offensive, but. . . to shed light on a forgotten document and on a forgotten migration, that of thousands of blacks from the USA to Canada in 1783,” Hill wrote Groenberg in reply.
It’s not the first time the award-winning book’s title has raised controversy. Publishers in the United States and Australia insisted the title be changed to Someone Knows My Name and in Quebec, the book is titled Aminata, the name of a female slave who returned to Sierra Leone after being abducted as an 11-year-old.
to read more go here..

In an interview with theMontreal Gazette author Lawrence Hill said: "If Mr. Groenberg spent five minutes reading The Book of Negroes, he probably would not want to burn it anymore, Mr. Hill suggested."
He added. "Book burning is something that Nazis did, it's something that the people who led the Spanish Inquisition did, it's a gesture designed to intimidate and silence -- it's hateful."
In the Dutch newspaper Het Parool Groenberg said he was not going to burn the book. “ This book is my friend. It tells the history and the horrors of slavery. Things that happened to my family.”

Burning the entire cover wasn’t an option either. “ They have put one of our ancestors on the cover. We aren’t going to set fire to our grandmother,” said Groenberg.
The group "Eer and herstel" of Dutch Surinamese activist Roy Groenberg has threatened in the past to burn the standard Dutch dictionary “De Grote VanDale” because of the word Negro. Groenberg wanted the word to be removed. Although the word remained in the dictionary, the book wasn't burned.
The group was more successful with a candy called "Negro kiss", "Negerzoen" in Dutch. The name was later changed to "Buys Zoenen" ("Buys kisses").
But the Dutch publisher of the book knew this organisation would protest. In an interview in De Pers the publisher said they wanted to be provocative. Since Canadian author Lawrence Hill was in the Netherlands a few month ago to promote his book, he could have known that some black people in the Netherlands would protest against the title.
But both the publisher and the author got what they wanted, publicity. So one way or the other profit is being made. Again.
On the Dutch TV station AT5 the book was burned, but not by the Federation for Honour and Reparation of Slavery in Suriname of activist Groenberg.