Standing at the Crossroads

/ Black History /

The Black, Migrant & Refugee Women’s Movement in the Netherlands Standing at the Crossroads

A renewed interest in Black feminism in the Netherlands has surfaced recently. This interest goes hand in hand with a recurrence of feminism and the Dutch ‘Black Pete is Racism’ campaign, which now has evolved into a second wave anti-racist movement. These unique dynamics give space to a revaluation of the Black, Migrant, Refugee (BMR) women’s movement in a Dutch context.

/ Nancy Jouwe /

In this article I want to concentrate on Dutch Black feminists and feminists of colour and position them as the Dutch intellectuals, or- Iganisers, and activists who, as a movement and as individuals, have been the key to developing an intersectional theory and praxis. Early on, these feminists developed the inclusive term Black, Migrant, Refugee women’s movement (BMR) to encompass and celebrate the very diverse backgrounds of the women involved. They placed the politics of difference at the heart of their collective endeavour. Moreover, they took issue as well with ex-

isting uneven power relations that were often source: Moluks Historisch Foundation Museum (Moluccan Historical Museum)/coll. IWM/photo by: Otto Tatipikalawan very real in their lives, as they regularly got the short end of the stick. As such, it was Julia da Lima Black women and women of colour who stood at the frontline of an intersectional agenda. These women, in their turn, have inspired current young generations who strive for an anti-racist, just, and inclusive society, and who phobic rhetoric) or Sylvana Simons (and her development of the Black into the BMR are critical of patriarchal and neo-liberal struc- political aspirations in 2016 while being anti- women’s movement from the 1970s up to tures that maintain whiteness as the norm. Black Pete and publicly calling out white men now, by describing their collective voice and Despite these events, or maybe rather be- and their racist behaviour), provide us with looking at several individual women, who cause of them, Black feminists (and Black fe- great examples of this automatic reflex of have worked in a transnational European/in- male artists and writers for that matter) have ridicule within Dutch academia, traditional ternational context. been grossly neglected in mainstream Dutch mainstream but also social media, and the po- Secondly, I will try to analyse why these society until recently, especially within acade- litical arena. women often stayed invisible within Dutch mia and the media. A prominent feminist Despite the animosity, threats, and ridicule mainstream media and academia. And finally I scholar like Gloria Wekker (b. 1950), now these women have endured, their legacy and will connect current developments in the Professor Emeritus of Gender and Sexuality, body of knowledge have been rediscovered by Netherlands and the modern-day feminist and had relatively few Dutch media appearances the current wave of feminists and anti-racist anti-racist movements in the Netherlands, to up until 2016. activists, curators, and artists.3 Their legacy their legacy, and how that legacy lives on. If not ignored, BMR women are often has been given a renewed relevance and more- I will make use of an intersectional analy- ridiculed for being too outspoken on race mat- over: these women finally get acknowledge- sis, which is both a feminist concept and ters or feminist issues. The cases of Philomena ment for their work and ideas. methodological tool. Intersectionality refers to Essed1 (and her academic work on everyday In this article I want to focus on several categories of difference that can be embodied racism), Anousha Nzume2 (and her outspoken- questions: why has the work of BMR femi- simultaneously (race, class, gender, sexuality, ness on the book and movie Alleen maar nette nists stayed mostly invisible and why has it level of abledness) and how these categories mensen from 2008, which depicts a Black been acknowledged only recently? And who interact with each other on an individual, insti- woman in a very stereotypical manner), are these women and why did they organise tutional, and symbolic level. Using an inter- Khadija Arib (whose election of chair of Par- themselves the way they did? sectional lens, this means being aware of how liament was preceded by all kinds of islamo- In the first section I will concentrate on the social categories of difference are interde- >>

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pendent and interrelated: they interact, like an intersection or crossroads. The outcomes of these interactions create different power positions, which means we all inhabit different levels of privilege and discrim- ination. Thus, intersectionality lays bare the hi- erarchies and power structures that exist be- tween social categories (which does not mean that these are fixed: they work in context). 4

How did it start? Politically Black

The start of Dutch mainstream second wave feminism is usually connected to Joke Smit’s 1967 essay ‘Het onbehagen bij de vrouw’ (The discontentment of women). The Dutch rise of Black feminism followed in the late 1970s and culminated in the early 1980s.5 Cu- riously enough, this is sometimes perceived as a late start, both in the Netherlands and inter- nationally, but we have to bear in mind that women from postcolonial communities only arrived in the Netherlands in the second half of the 20th century. Women from the Indo-Eu- ropean community, Moluccan, Papuan, and Dutch Caribbean (Surinamese and Antillean) a relatively short time, see next paragraph) set up the HTKB (Holanda Türkiye Kadinlar communities, who had migrated from the (for- and pushed by Dutch feminists from the post- Birlig˘i) focusing on awareness raising and or- mer) Dutch colonies from the 1950s onwards, colonial community. In turn, they were in- ganising Turkish women. In 1982 the MVVN started to organise, often using the term spired by an international trend, the usage of (Marokkaanse Vrouwen Vereniging Neder- ‘Black’ as a political and relational term. The the term Black rose in feminist circles, notably land) was founded, the first Dutch based Mo- term Black referred to (a) solidarity among the United States and Western Europe. roccan women’s association, co-founded by non-white women; (b) engaging in a common Troetje Loewenthal, Antillean-Dutch femi- Khadija Arib (b. 1960), the current chair of struggle, sharing a colonial past and being vic- nist activist and thinker, speaking on the Dutch Parliament. A later chair of the associa- timised by racism; and (c) critiquing the domi- Dutch situation: “It was Indo-European tion, Fenna Ulichki (b. 1969), is now a sea- nance of white, middle class, heterosexual women who came up with the term Black. I soned local politician in Amsterdam for the norms of mainstream feminists. really loved that, because it showed a level of Green Left, making MVVN a springboard for Postcolonial women started to organise abstraction. Indo-Europeans are by default not political aspirations. themselves, in the first decades mostly locally associated with being Black.”7 Similarly, women with a political refugee or via church affiliations and in 1979 the first Da Lima’s strategic intervention in 1983 – a background, diverse in origin, class, and eth- national Moluccan and Papuan women organi- one-woman action with the appearance of a nicity, started to organise one of the first Na- sations surface.6 well-planned collective effort – was the real tional organisations called Zwaluw, which was When Julia da Lima (b. 1957), a young kick-starter for the Black women’s movement. founded in 1995. Dutch-Moluccan feminist, climbed the stage An outburst of organising and convening en- unannounced during the Winter University sued, which earlier happened in smaller pock- From Black to BMR Women Studies in Nijmegen in 1983, she be- ets here and there. The Black women’s phone, gan her famous speech with the words “We Black women’s radio, national Black women’s At the end of the 1980s, the Dutch Black Black women”. It was interesting to see that a days (1983-1987) and queer Black networks women’s movement evolved from Black into Moluccan-Dutch woman like Da Lima would such as ‘Sister Outsider’, ‘Black Orchid’ and a Black Migrant and Refugee women’s move- use the word Black. As a second-generation ‘Strange Fruit’ emerged in different parts of ment, in short BMR (ZMV in Dutch) which descendant from the Dutch East Indies, Black the country. The first Black women’s archive spoke to an inclusive term/acronym that femi- was not a common term used within the and documentation centre called Flamboyant nist women of very diverse diasporic back- Moluccan community nor did the Dutch gen- was started in 1985 at the Singel 260 in Ams- grounds came up with to tackle the diverse is- eral public refer to Moluccan-Dutch people as terdam. Unfortunately already at the opening, sues of a heterogeneous group of women. 10 being Black. But Da Lima made a conscious, Flamboyant had to be secured because of They took into account the differences with- political choice. She and fellow Moluccan- racist threats. Despite this, the place became a in the diverse groups of Black women and Dutch Dita Vermeulen, were already involved real hotspot for Black women and women of women of colour, whose cultures were diverse in feminist initiatives. But Da Lima got fed up colour who could convene or get information and whose histories and identities were rooted with the whiteness of Dutch mainstream femi- and where themes such as racism, dependency in postcolonial, labour migrant, and political nism. Within academia, women like Troetje on the husband, language barriers, and issues refugee migratory processes. For them or their Loewenthal, Tania Leon, and Philomena Essed with residence permits were not only under- parents, the Netherlands, the land of arrival, had already tried to make the case for more stood but also tackled.8 was quite different from what they expected. awareness for racism in the seventies, but the Meanwhile, women whose husbands and fa- The country itself changed quite dramatically resistance to such thinking was still too great. thers mostly were labour migrants (in some from a post-war nation in chaos in the 1940s, Having said that: it did probably pave the way cases the women and men were political to an economic and culturally transformative for Da Lima’s bold and timely intervention. refugees), mostly coming from countries time in the 1960s, into a rapidly secularised Black was now picked up as a common de- around the Mediterranean, organised them- nation with an economic crisis in the 1970s. nominator for the Black women and women selves. Already in 1975 Turkish-Dutch In short, BMR women, existing of two gen- of colour in the feminist movement (albeit for women, led by Maviye Karaman (b. 1949) 9 erations, had to deal with dissimilar issues and

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were organising and expressing themselves in nent public display. Today, in a visualised Mina, founded in December 1969. Born in quite diverse ways. But one central issue was world, it would be unthinkable to not use this Aruba in the forties, Van Trikt came to Ams- shared: the struggle against racism and its visual material. At the time our budget couldn’t terdam in 1966 to study. Because of her skin connection to gender. cover it, but now social media provides us colour, she stood out at the University of Am- As such, the term BMR feminism was a with low-to-no-cost and unprecedented means sterdam. Starting out as a timid student she clear intersectional intervention, a powerful for displaying these works. did a BA in Mathematics and MA in non- endeavour of complex self-representation that Archives like Atria, the Institute of Social Western sociology. preceded the coinage of the term intersection- History and ILHIA (LGBT heritage) are an in- She remembers a docent who found it ality in 1989 by US Professor of Law Kimber- tegral yet hidden part of our collective memo- strange that she studied math (“Only ugly girls lé Crenshaw.11 ry as social movements, even for those of us do math, why not art history?”) but also re- Over the years, a small number of books involved in anti-racist and feminist work. We calls the famous Dutch leftist intellectual An- and articles has been published, focusing on need to spend more time in those archives. ton Constandse (1899-1985) who invited her the BMR women’s movement, such as Met The current reappraisal of the archive in femi- to come and speak in class about her activist een hand kan je niet klappen (‘You can’t clap nist and LGBT activist and academic circles is activities. Right away she mingled the story of with one hand’, 1988) and Daar hoor ik ook apt and speaks to the renewed focus on Dolle Mina with the position of Caribbean bij (‘I belong there too’, 1990) and Caleido- knowledge production from hitherto margin- women. scopische Visies. De Zwarte, Migranten – en alised voices.12 Van Trikt explains, “I was asked to join Vluchtelingenbeweging in Nederland (‘Calei- Dolle Mina because I had The Second Sex on doscopic Visions. The Black, Migrant and Say their names my bookshelf, that’s how I got involved. Most Refugee Women’s Movement in the Nether- women were students and I was the only lands’, 2001). Who were these women that pushed the agen- woman of colour in Dolle Mina.”14 Caleidoscopische Visies marked 25 years of da and made waves? Many women were si- In 1980 Van Trikt became a lecturer herself the Dutch BMR women’s movement in and multaneously artists, activists, lobbyists, in Driebergen, at the famous university of ap- introduced the term intersectionality in the thinkers. Some transformed into politicians, plied science, De Horst, a progressive, left- Netherlands. It was co-edited by Gloria policy makers or consultants. Very few of wing hub. She started to teach ‘Black Sociolo- Wekker, Maayke Botman, and myself. For me them gained permanent positions within aca- gy’ in the 1980s and over the years she used it was about materialising an aspiration: to demia such as Philomena Essed, Gloria work by Nawal El Sadaawi, Fatima Mermis- produce a book I wanted to read but wasn’t Wekker and Pamela Pattynama. Others took sih, Philomena Essed, and Paulo Freire. Her there yet. on academia: Troetje Loewenthal wrote a students were ethnically mixed and found her The basis for the book was formed after a ground-breaking piece in 1984, ‘De witte course to be a revelation. six-month examination into the archive of the toren van Vrouwenstudies’ (The White tower Cisca Pattipilohy (b. 1926) is 90 years old Dutch women’s archive, in Amsterdam of Women’s Studies) in which she criticises in 2016 but still active and an activist. She (Atria). Many issues we tackled in the book – both the whiteness of the Dutch women’s fled the Suharto regime in Indonesia in 1968 from Fortuyn, islamophobia, and misrepresen- movement and the systemic exclusion of and came with her four children and parents to tation of Muslim women, to racism and inter- Black women within Women’s Studies in the the Netherlands as political refugees. She is sectionality – are relevant to this day. The end Netherlands. well-loved and respected in the different com- product is textual: regrettably we could not Before Black feminism was prominent in the munities of which she is a part. As one of the add visuals to the book. The beautiful posters, Netherlands, Claudette van Trikt (b. 1948) 13 founding mothers of Flamboyant, she became designs, and pictures we found are in itself a was already an active, albeit short-time mem- a key person and did pioneering work in docu- unique collection that deserves a more perma- ber of cutting edge feminist group Dolle menting the BMR movement. As an informa- >>

Poster of the Winter University Women’s Studies, 1983 in Nijmegen, retrieved from Atria, the women’s archive in Amsterdam.

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tion specialist and a librarian (similar to famous US-based feminist Audre Lorde), she put her expertise to good use. Pattipilohy was early on explicit about the use of ‘Black’ as a political term. “With the rise of the Black women’s movement, there was a crying need for information”, Pattipilohy explains. “Black women have their own perspective, arising from their vision on emancipation and feminism. That perspective cannot be separated from the struggle against racism, which is based on the international history of the women’s struggle.”15 Hellen Felter (b. 1944) also works from a transnational perspective. She co-founded Tiye International in 1994. Tiye purposely tar- gets the international realm with a feminist agenda. They lobby at UN gatherings, international women’s fora and network everywhere they can. To date, Tiye International is the only BMR women’s organisation with a con- sultative status at the United Nations. “We kept running into each other, me, Rita Naloop, Ozden Kutluer [now Ozden Yalim, NJ] and Alem Desta. We started talking with each other about the importance of focusing on our own issues on a strategic level.” She has always kept the door open towards white women and their organisations, because she believes in strategic alliances, “but you need to maintain a critical relationship with white Clockwise: Claudette van Trikt, Cisca Pattipilohy @ Kwaku festival, July ’16 , Hellen Felter, Anne Krul and women.” 16 Nancy Jouwe (photo’s by Nancy Jouwe) Coming to the Netherlands from Paramaribo in 1963, everything was new to her. From buying winter-clothes to getting around on your own, she did it through learning by do- that the BMR women’s movement did not plains in Racism and the Press (1991) that ing. Everywhere she found help from have the power of numbers. The groups they source texts of ethnic minority groups tend to strangers, Black and White. It has shaped the founded were very small and it made them or- be ignored and discarded in the media. way she goes about her work. ganise strategically and in a focused manner.17 This brings us to some of the external rea- During the 2001 World Conference Against The issues and partnerships mattered, not self- sons. Despite their formidable achievements, Racism in Durban (South Africa), Felter acted importance and self-aggrandisement. Nor did BMR women have often stayed invisible with- as the Vice President of the European they consider it a trait. in larger Dutch society and specific realms Women’s Lobby (the largest umbrella of Secondly, the women often set up networks like the media. When they do enter the main- women’s associations in the European Union). and collectives, which was common in those stream, eg. Khadija Arib, their feminist back- Many European nations were playing hardball days within social movements. It meant that ground is usually underexposed. and against the Transatlantic Slave Trade be- organisational structures were relatively flat Another external reason is the uneasy rela- ing called a “crime against humanity” but ex- (barring exceptions). Strong individual leader- tionship with different social movements, such actly that statement made it into the final dec- ship was not a trait that was necessarily as with White feminists. BMR feminists laration. To this day, Felter is proud of her pushed for or found important. Personal sensed a general lack of understanding. The lobby-work at this vital conference. The im- branding, now quite common, was ‘not done’ race card was simply less important for White portance of the WCAR waned due to 9/11 but within BMR circles at that time. women or even seen as divisive. And, White has resurfaced as an important milestone and A lot of women mistrusted the media and women with power who became gatekeepers, is linked to the 2015 instalment of the UN this is no surprise if we look at how the Dutch did not automatically let in their BMR ‘sis- Decade for People of African Descent. media generally poorly treated for instance ters’ because they often did not consider it part Van Trikt, Pattipilohy, and Felter, were Essed’s work and herself.18 Others simply did of their struggle. among thousands of first generation postcolo- not know how to enter this unknown, power- Take the infamous statement in 2001 of Cis- nial women who came to the Netherlands as ful domain that did not represent their ideas ca Dresselhuys, chief editor of the Dutch fem- (young) adults, having to find their way, often nor their beliefs or stories. They did not see inist magazine Opzij during her March 8 inter- in difficult circumstances. They gave back to their embodied selves mirrored in mainstream view in the Volkskrant: “(…) editors with the community in different ways but always Dutch media. On top of that, it was quite hard head scarves are not allowed in at Opzij.” She from a feminist, anti-racist, and intersectional for women of colour with journalistic aspira- also reiterated the invisibility of BMR femi- perspective. tions, to build a career. The Dutch, especially nists in an interview in Dutch daily Trouw those born in the 20th century, still remember a (December 22, 2015) when asked to compare Invisible feats rare feat like the first BMR radio voice or the the current anti-racist movement with the 80s first Black news anchor. Up until recently, the second wave of feminism. She treated the is- Why are the feats of BMR women unknown? Dutch media does not hold a strong track sue as if all the women were White and the There are both internal and external reasons record in portraying BMR women as movers BMR women’s movement had never existed. for it. Internally, the first thing noticeable is and shakers. Dutch scholar Teun van Dijk ex- Similarly, BMR women have been at the

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forefront of the anti-racist movement in the Dutch feminist intellectuals, who decon- was awarded the PC Hooft Award in Decem- 1980s and it seems to me that this has hardly struct this discourse in the classroom, are ber 2015, the three mainstream newspapers re- (if at all) been acknowledged within that same hardly seen in the media. BMR activists and sponded positively to this news but the literary movement: gender aspects were often consid- intellectuals inhabit an extreme minority po- critics of a very popular radio-show on Satur- ered unimportant, especially with men. And sition. Their messages are not what people day morning thought very differently. They yet it was mostly BMR feminists who devel- want to hear. were “unpleasantly surprised” by it all and oped an understanding of Black citizenship didn’t understand this “politically correct within the context of a social movement, prac- Current movements choice”, one critic could only interpret it as ticing activism and knowledge production and “ideological glory”. cultural criticism simultaneously while speak- In October 2014, young journalist Nadia ing out on racism in a Dutch context. Theirs Ezzeroili exclaims: “What a relief, Black fem- Conclusion was a movement towards more full-fledged inism!”25 In her article Ezzeroili perceives the citizenship of a powerful, pioneering kind. growth of a progressive movement, which is BMR feminists in the Netherlands have It meant that BMR women were rendered fighting against Black Pete and racism and for played a key role in thinking through race and invisible twice, in the mainstream feminist equal citizenship. She discovers Black femi- gender relations in Dutch society but this movement because they connected not just to nism through that same movement. seems to be acknowledged only recently, in gender and within the anti-racist movement Ezzeroili verbalises the feelings of a young part thanks to the second wave of anti-racist because they did not just connect to race. generation of BMR mostly cultural elite: jour- movement which developed an eye for their BMR women had to deny parts of themselves nalists, activists, artists, budding academics, feats and mere existence. Only now do certain and their struggles, to fit in more singular who adhere to a more inclusive and anti-racist pockets in Dutch society seem ready to learn frameworks. This was of course, impossible to Dutch society and claim full citizenship. They from these women. Their intersectional ap- do, although BMR women have tried. are saying: we are here, get used to it! One proach and placements have been key in Furthermore, a fair amount of the BMR can debate who is part of a movement and claiming agency and developing more com- headliners where queer women: Julia da Lima, who isn’t but the fact is that the anti-Black plex subject positions in a Dutch context. An Gloria Wekker, Pamela Pattynama, Astrid Pete movement26, which kicked off in 2011, inspiring key factor of the Dutch BMR Roemer, Tania Leon, Anne Krul, to name a developed into a broader second wave anti- women’s movement is that they adopted an in- few. A merger with the Dutch LGBTI move- racist movement in the Netherlands, that tack- tersectional approach right at the beginning. ment, which has always been predominantly les different domains: academia, the media, With their claim to agency and citizenship White and (at least in the public eye) quite heritage institutions, and public space.27 I no- they were standing at a crossroads of move- male, was not easy either. ticed this shift myself when I start receiving ments, intersectional placement, diasporic ex- In larger society, this invisibility is triggered invitations around 2013 to give talks about periences and transnational partnerships. Cen- by the fact that BMR women’s knowledge Black and intersectional feminism, which tralising them in this article, is not about ‘es- production is seen as – in Foucault’s words – hadn’t happened for at least 12 years. sentialising’ them, but about taking their posi- subjugated knowledge.19 The knowledge that The current movement starts to look for tions and insights seriously and problematis- BMR produced was left out, ignored, opposed, knowledge production on critical race theory ing their under-representation. and ridiculed by the dominant culture, and and praxis and intersectional thinking. This For BMR feminists, individual leadership rendered invisible. US-based Black feminist first leads them to American thinkers and do- was not a trait that was found important but Patricia Hill Collins, while referring to subju- ers but finally also to Dutch feminist intellec- they took the lead nonetheless. Unfortunately, gated knowledge, explains that Black feminist tuals, activists and writers. their leadership roles have been negated, and thought is derived from long-standing, inde- While pushing for more inclusiveness and their subject positions and knowledge produc- pendent influences that are omitted in Fou- stating that racism is a Dutch problem, some tion were considered unimportant or ridiculed. cault’s analysis.20 Similarly, Pulitzer Prize of the younger generations started off by This is no coincidence: their knowledge has winner Alice Walker21, when asked why Black thinking they were the first in pointing that been subjugated and historically, Black women writers are much lesser known than out, only to find out that BMR intersectional women have been sexualised, objectified their male counterparts, explains that generally feminists and activists had preceded them in (Gilman, 1985; hooks 1992) and made invisi- critics seem unusually ill-equipped to intelli- terms of activism, knowledge production, or- ble (Wallace, 1978). Canonized Western gently discuss and analyse the works of Black ganising, entering the political realm and set- knowledge production is largely white and women. ting up places of symbolic importance like a male, making it hard for society at large to While Dutch BMR women were busy or- Black archive and a slavery monument. shift the gaze towards more complex subject ganising well into the 1990s, the larger main- Has the subjugation of BMR feminist positions for Black and BMR women, let stream feminist movement is decreasing. It is knowledge subsided? Not completely. Certain alone accept them as leaders in their fields of deemed unnecessary and ‘they’ complain too tropes are reproduced or re-activated, as soon expertise. much.22 Minister of Emancipation Aart Jan de as the oxymoronic Black female subject (re-) Patricia Hill Collins (2009) pointed to the Geus confirms this, after a fashion, by declar- surfaces as an intelligent woman. For in- significance of Black feminist thought and ing the Emancipation completed in 2003, with stance, on the one hand formidable intellectu- its’ impact on the politics of knowledge pro- the exception of ‘allochtonous women’.23 als/writers like Wekker and Roemer get a lot duction. To her, it “fosters a fundamental par- With the start of the new millennium, a of airplay and attention. adigmatic shift in how we think about unjust landslide takes place in the Dutch political But the criticism Wekker receives, is of a power relations by highlighting the intersect- realm, right wing and islamophobic thinking particular kind: she cannot really be a schol- ing oppressions at the heart of relations of become the norm and a new discourse is intro- ar, as if being a Black woman and simulta- domination” 28 and it also “addresses ongo- duced called New Realism24 in Dutch society. neously an intellectual is an oxymoron. ing epistemological debates concerning the Politicians like Frits Bolkenstein, Pim For- When she delivered her inaugural lecture re- power dynamics that underlie what counts as tuyn, Rita Verdonk, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Geert garding her instalment as full professor in knowledge”.29 The importance of a paradigm Wilders share a belief that Islamic culture is 2002 at the University of Utrecht, the most shift and criticizing current power dynamics, the biggest threat to Dutch society. The mur- often asked question is “is your assignment both lie at the heart of the current debate on ders on Fortuyn (2002) and filmmaker Theo a real one or a politically correct one? Are race relations in the Dutch (and European) van Gogh (2004) on Dutch soil and 9/11 fuel you not simply a token?” realm. To me, this is why BMR feminist this thinking. With Roemer, it’s no different. When she thinking and praxis is so appealing to current >>

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22 younger generations. woman decides. The second feminist wave in the Nether- M. van Hintum. Macha Macha! Een afrekening met het lands], Wormerland, 2005. klaagfeminisme. [A settlement with complaint feminism], Ams- The fact that BMR feminism is revisited, 6 See: W. van Groningen, Holland ligt niet dicht bij de hemel [Hol- terdam, 1995. and currently acknowledged, speaks to a sense land is not near heaven], self-published, Utrecht, 2003, p. 67; 23 Editorial, ‘De Geus: post emancipatie is overbodig’ [De Geus: See: K. Von Benda-Beckmann and F. Leatemia-Tomatala, De emancipation post is superfluous]. NRC Handelsblad, Novem- of spiralling knowledge production and mean- emancipatie van Molukse vrouwen in Nederland [The emancipa- ber 17, 2003. ing making. Insights from the 1980s form the tion of Moluccan women in the Netherlands], Utrecht, 1992, p. 24 A term introduced by philosopher Baukje Prins in: Voorbij de basis of knowledge production and cultural 146. See the interview with members of the association at: Onschuld. Het debat over de multiculturele samenleving [Beyond http://www.west- innocence. The debate about the multicultural society], Ams- and social critique, but are read and interpret- papua.nl/Publiciteit/weeskinderen/Papoeavrouwen_wee- terdam, 2000. ed by a completely different generation, with a skinderen.htm. 25 N. Ezzeroili, ‘Wat een verademing, het zwarte feminisme’, in: De different skill set and powerful tools to work 7 Quoted from: E. Captain and H. Ghorashi, ‘Tot behoud van Volkskrant, Oct 19, 2014. mijn identiteit. Identiteitsvorming binnen de zmv-vrouwenbe- 26 See for an informative explanation on this tradition and the with, such as social media. It gives hope while weging’, in: Botman et al., Caleidoscopische Visies, p. 166. criticism: T. Leopold, ‘”Blackface”: Dutch holiday tradition or looking ahead into a Europe in dire circum- 8 Van de Loo, De vrouw beslist, p. 193. racism?’, CNN, November 30, 2015, in: stances. I anticipate not just the production of 9 See for instance: P. Onderwater, ‘Maviye Karaman. Een Turks- http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/30/world/blackface-docu- Nederlandse marxistische feministe’, in: Zenobia, Khadîja en mentary-zwarte-piet-feat. biographies of Dutch BMR feminists but Dolle Amina’s. Gender en macht in de Islamitische geschiedenis 27 See for a description of this development: N. Jouwe, ‘Gevan- transformative knowledge production, inspired [Yearbook of Women’s History 29], Amsterdam, 2009, pp. 179- gen in een paradox: racisme in Nederland’ [Captured in a para- by and based on their work. /// 192. dox: racism in the Netherlands], in: Waardenwerk. Journal of 10 In: Botman et al., Caleidoscopische Visies, p. 169. humanistic studies (2015) 62/63, pp. 10-23. 11 See footnote 4. 28 P.H. Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, Noten: 12 See for instance: K. Eichhorn, The Archival Turn in Feminism. and the Politics of Empowerment. London, 2009, p. 291. 1 The media on Essed and her work, eg.: H. Moll, ‘Het onvermo- Outrage in Order. Philadelphia, 2013. The recent Dutch trend to 29 Ibidem, p. 292. gen van de anti-racistische wetenschap’, [The inability of ‘queer the archive’ can be read as a similar need to centralise antiracist science], in: NRC Handelsblad, May 4, 1991; F. Halse- the marginal. ma, ‘Elke man een seksist, elke witte een racist?’ [Every man a 13 Interview author with Claudette van Trikt, May 25, 2016 sexist, every white a racist?], in: De Correspondent, December 9, 14 Dolle Mina became quite famous in a short time because of 2014 their playful, in your face type of social criticism. They tackled 2 See: S. Sanders, ‘Alleen maar nette vrouwen’, in: Vrij Nederland, women’s access to public space, abortion, burned corsets and May 16, 2009. demonstrated at the prestigious, posh business school Nijen- 3 See for instance the Van Abbe exhibit on Black Feminism rode, located in a castle, which in 1970 was still forbidden ter- Nancy Jouwe is a cultural historian and has which opened April 16, 2016; the exhibitions of Esiri Essi in rain for women to study. Museum Arnhem April-September 2014; and ‘Proud Rebels’ in 15 Quoted from: Groningen, Holland ligt niet dicht bij de hemel, p. worked more than 20 years in the NGO sec- CBKZO by Patricia Kaersenhout, 2015. See also: A. Meulenbelt 88-89. tor. As an activist she has been involved in and R. Rˆmkens (eds.), Het F-boek [the F book], Amsterdam, 16 Interview author with Hellen Felter, May 20, 2016. 2015. 17 See: Botman et al., Caleidoscopische Visies, p. 84. local and transnational squatters, queer, 4 K. Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and 18 See footnote 1. indigenous, and women’s movements. She Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, 19 C. Gordon (ed.), Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge. Selected currently works as a lecturer, curator and Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,’ in: The University of Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, Brighton, 1980, pp. Chicago Legal Forum (1989) 1, pp. 139-168. 81-82. researcher on Dutch (postcolonial) history 5 See for instance: M. Botman et al (eds.), Caleidoscopische Visies. 20 P. Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the present. De Zwarte, Migranten, Vluchtelingen vrouwenbeweging in Ned- and the Politics of Empowerment. New York and London, 2000, erland [Caleidoscopic Visions. The Black, Migrant, Refugee p. 291. Women’s movement in the Netherlands], Amsterdam, 2001; V. 21 A. Walker (ed.), Everyday Use. Women Writers, Texts and van de Loo, De vrouw beslist. De tweede feministische golf [The Contexts, New Brunswick, 1994, p. 71.

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