A new shocking unsolved mystery and big scandal about the House of Orange,
The Royal Family of the Netherlands, hidden somewhere in London.

Toto Hamisi, a former nigger toy-boy of Dutch Prince Bernhard von Lippe Biesterfeld (1911-2004)*, was deported from Germany to London. No one heard or talked about him ever since.
“Toto was taken in 1917 as a Native African child from Tanganyika (Tanzania) by the father of Prince Bernard, Herr Leopold Vorst Zur Lippe, to his castle in Reckenwalde – Woynowo. A town in former Germany, but since 1945 Poland.

“Herr Leopold Vorst Zur Lippe took Toto with him as a gift for Prince Bernhard (6 years old) and his brother Ashwin (3 years old). Toto became a play mate for the children. He stayed seven years at the castle in Germany and was a remarkable appearance. He was very successful with the village girls. But when Toto got sexually mature he became annoying and the family sent him to London, where he started to teach Swahili”.

This intriguing sentence is the exact translation of the authorized biography of Prince Bernhard and his family, written in 1934 by Prof. Dr Georg Freiherr Von Eppstein. This book was written to inform the Dutch people who was going to marry our future queen.
This is the only information about Toto Hamisi so far today, as I found out during my profound research over the last two years.* *

Who was Toto and what happened to him ever since?
When he will be found, Toto will become a worldwide scoop or Royal scandal because:
A. Was Toto a half brother of the Prince? Is he a legal heir of the heritage of the Prince of Orange who died in 2004?
B. Was Toto one of the last slaves in history of the Western World?***
Did Toto (or his family) get compensated by our Royal family? Are these facts also the main reason that Toto is hidden for the public by our government’s intelligence service? Prince Bernhard didn’t talk about Toto during his whole life and our present Queen Beatrix, his daughter, says she knows nothing about Toto at all.

I’m determined to find Toto and to tell the hidden story of Toto Hamisi. Was he a prince or a slave?
My question for you therefore: Is it possible to help me with my research and place a call in your newspaper, to find people who might have known Toto?
It would be great if you could help me and tell this story or do an interview with me.
I am willing to come to London when necessary, I have many photos and archive material of the House of Orange, when needed.
Some of the questions I would like to ask the London public:
-Is he still alive and is there anybody who knew him?
-Did he get married and started a family in London?
-Are there children or grand children around who can tell stories about him?
-Are there pictures of him around?
-Where did he stay?
-Did he make some money or was he poor?
-Are there people alive who got lessons in Swahili from Toto?
-How many people were speaking Swahili around 1924 in England?
-Why was he taken to Germany?
-Did Toto ever get in contact with Prince Bernhard ever since he left Germany?
-The Dutch Royal family escaped to London during World War two. Prince Bernhard lived there four years. Did they ever meet during the war?
-Is there correspondence around of Prince Bernhard and Toto?
-Was Toto perhaps a bastard son and half brother of Prince Bernhard? Who knows more?
-Or was Toto the last slave in the free world?
-How was it to be a black little native boy, disconnected from your mother, your family and your homeland in 1917 being only with white people?
-And how did it feel to be dropped in Germany in a castle on a hill as an exotic pet and deported to London when he became sexually mature?

Now, I think this is one of the last chances to find people who can bring Toto back to live, the longer it takes the less change there is to find a glimpse of this bizarre Royal Dutch history or the last slave in the world.


* Information about Prince Bernhard von Lippe Biesterfeld (1911-2004)
He was a flamboyant figure with a lot of scandals around him; he took slush money from Lockheed for buying army planes for the Dutch government, was member of the SS before World War 2, and had two bastard daughters.
I also found out that the estate in Tanganyika (Tanzania) inherited by Prince Bernhard of his father, has been given back at 16 march 1966 to the president Dr. Jules Nyerere.
Was Toto involved? Was this his land? Did Toto interfere in the transaction?
See for all this and more details about the Prince and the Dutch Royal family:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Bernhard_of_the_Netherlands
Or just Goolge them.

** Toto is not named in the archives of the Royal family (I’ve been there) not in the birth register of Reckenwalde (I’ve checked it) and not in the archives of the Swahili club in London. (That’s what they told me.) I also understood of the English embassy that England has no birth register, so nothing is there as well to look for Toto Hamisi.



*** Toto and slavery.
Toto was brought to Germany in a period when the Native African just was released of slavery. In the last days of the colonial time. In 1886 Spain stopped the slavery as last country of the world.
But Native African people were shown at exhibitions in the beginning of 1900 as a “funny kind of human” everywhere around Europe. They were showing Native Africans as animals in cages at world exhibitions. This took place from 1882 until 1920. For the visitors the Native Africans were strange creatures. 99% of the Europeans had never seen a Native Africans in their lives. They were seen as monkeys.
In the end of the 19th century it was a big hit to show Native Africans. That this was cruel and rude, showing people of other races for 6 months with an entrance price of 5 cents, no one ever thought about. At the world exhibition of 1883 in Amsterdam there were shown 28 naked Native Africans, men women and children. They where getting peanuts and bananas thrown at by the visitors.
In 1910, in the ZOO of New York, they showed two Belgium pigmies from Belgium Congo in a cage with chimpanzees, the visitors found it hilarious.
Also at the world exhibition of 1931 in Paris on the Dutch stand there were still six people from Suriname shown in native huts and half naked.
Source: Book “The First Niggers” (De eerste negers) written by Rudie Kagie, the Netherlands.
Another story about how we looked at Native Africans at these times is the story of El Negro. In 1889 a Native African male was stuffed and exhibited around the world until 1989. He ended up in the cellar of a museum in Spain and was only recently buried in his homeland.
Also there is the story of the 100 years old head of a Native African man from Belgium Congo, who is hidden and locked up in a museum in Bruxelles. There are much more stories like this. Looking at all these facts, you can place the action of the father of the Prince in the perspective of that time. What was the real purpose of taking Toto with him to Germany?
Around 1922 there were only 15 registered black people in the Netherlands. In Germany it must have been relatively the same kind of number. But no one in Germany or Reckenwalde had ever seen a Native African in his life.
How did it feel to be dropped as a child in Germany in a castle high on a hill and kept as an exotic pet? And then, later on, shipped to London? Toto is a story that must be told!

Rob Muntz, since 1991 a freelance journalist. he works for public television and public radio. He presents and produces documentaries, talk shows and radio shows. In 2004 he won the highest award for best journalist and documentary maker in the Netherlands, called the “ Nipkow Zilveren Reiss Microfoon”.
 robmuntz@planet.nl tel; 0031-629 340061