“In this city, I discovered myself as a poet and writer. The city is my muse and inspiration,” says Ishmail from Sierra Leone. He fled his homeland and was brought to the Netherlands by others. He arrived in 2012 after a long and traumatic flight. “But the government did not want to give me a residence permit at first. I had to leave the country in 28 days.” He could not do that, so he dove into illegality while appealing against the government’s decision. “Someone at the asylum seekers’ centre in Dordrecht then referred me to the Paulus Church in Rotterdam. There, people would take care of undocumented people.”
He took the train to Rotterdam and first saw lots of bicycles. ‘I thought everyone was allowed to use all those bikes in the sheds at Rotterdam Centraal for free,’ he laughs. “Then I asked someone at the station where St Paul’s Church was. That person said ‘Sorry brother, but in this country people steal bikes, and I am one of those people.” In the next three years, my bike was stolen three times. Then I kept thinking about that man. That was my introduction to the city,” he laughs.
Different backgrounds
Fortunately, he was otherwise well treated. “The first thing I saw in St Paul’s Church was a lot of people from different backgrounds. Also in the rest of the city; that gave me more confidence to find my way in this city. At St Paul’s Church, I saw people from Sierra Leone for the first time. I immediately felt a click. They helped me get to know the city. We also talked together about the challenges as undocumented people. We have been friends ever since.”
Besides making new friends, he also got Dutch lessons from the Rotterdam Undocumented Persons Support Centre Foundation, which he could not get outside. He was also able to participate in a story-writing workshop. A teacher told him he saw a writer in him. So he started writing
Rotterdam as inspiration to write
“That changed my life. I was undocumented so could not go to school, work or live in a house of my own. I had no future and no hope. But then i could discover myself as a poet and writer. And many Rotterdammers helped me with this. For instance, organisations immediately gave me a stage in the city at events they organised. There I met new people interested in art and me as a person. That worked as a kind of wheelbarrow; it took me further. It allowed me to transform my identity as an undocumented person into that of poet Ishmail. That really changed me. Because that happened in Rotterdam, this city has become a great inspiration for me to write and Rotterdam has become my second home.”
Legality
He filed a lawsuit against his deportation and won it in 2013. However, he still had to wait 10 years for his residence permit. In the meantime, he learned Dutch in class but also on his own. “I was curious about the Dutch language, because I realised that if I wanted to become a Rotterdam poet, I had to write in Dutch and learn to understand other Dutch poems.” He also worked for the municipality of Rotterdam as a host at Lokaal Cultuur Centrum Romeynshof (LCC), now at the Fenix migration museum. Almost every weekend he was and still is to be found at the Kuip. “I am a true and proud Feyenoord supporter,” he says happily.
Directness
So this Rotterdam native feels completely at home in the city and will never leave it. “Here I have settled in and learned about the Netherlands, made friends. And so the love for the city keeps growing for me.” One of the things he appreciates about the city is the culture of being straightforward. “In my culture, we respect older people and there you don’t talk so directly. There, people don’t dare to look each other in the eye when you talk to each other. Here you have to be direct and make clear what you want. And don’t bullshit, but polish. Just do it! This directness here has brought me more. It has made me better as a person, because of that I can communicate better.”
Despite his love for the city, he also remains committed to the community from Sierra Leone and connecting it with the Dutch. “The community in Rotterdam from Sierra Leone is very important to me, so I am well involved in that. No matter how well integrated you are, you cannot 100% leave your traditions and culture, because that is who you are. I think I am well-integrated in the Netherlands, but I have also built a good bridge to Sierra Leonean culture, for example, I almost always eat Sierra Leonean food at home, and I almost always attend activities of our community and play football with a football club of people from Sierra Leone.” These days, he is even the cultural ambassador of the cultural centre in the Netherlands.