“If you live in Rotterdam, you don’t have to leave. Because the whole world is already here,” says Kanja from Kenya. And that is exactly what he loves about Rotterdam. As an acrobat from the age of 19, he travelled to different countries around the world: African countries but also Dubai, South Korea, America and Russia. “There I learned different cultures and that also made me curious about other cultures. For example those in Europe, I hadn’t been there yet. And I heard that you can just smoke a joint here. In my country, in most countries, it’s punishable. So I became curious about the Netherlands, where everything seemed to be possible.”
At the age of 26, he set foot on Rotterdam soil. “I already heard that Rotterdam was diverse, so that seemed nice. But I didn’t know it was so diverse. Then I came here and saw people from Cape Verde, Indonesia, Suriname…. I think it’s so beautiful; all the people from all over the world in one city.” Yet he met and married his Kenyan neighbour. “We went to Dutch classes together.”
Talking to strangers
With the Dutch language, he struggled a lot. “In the beginning it seemed impossible to me, but I had to learn it if I wanted to work.” So he read a lot of books and watched Dutch TV. “But the easiest way is still to talk to people on the street,” he says. In his country, he is used to being able to just talk to strangers on the street, but here it proved more difficult than expected. “Many people were shy or withdrawn. The Netherlands is very individualistic. They don’t open up as much. But that didn’t stop me. Because to live here, I have to learn how they live. And for that, I have to get to know them.”
So his advice to other newcomers is not to be shy and live. “You are not new to the world. The world is your home. There are not those or these people; there are only people. So keep on doing what you are doing!”