“Rotterdam was a white city. I was the only black child at my school,” says Peggy Wijntuin. She was born in Paramaribo and came to Rotterdam with her mother as a young girl. Her aunt already lived there, so the move to the Netherlands was an easy one. At home, Peggy spoke Dutch, just as she did in Suriname, where it was the official language. “If you spoke anything else, you had to rinse your mouth with soapy water. Because of the superior thinking of the Netherlands, the colonizer.”
Her first impressions of the city were intense. It was the 1960s, a different time. That made her visible and vulnerable. She remembers being bullied by children across the street, who targeted not only her Catholic background but also her skin color. “I had to stand my ground. It made me the person I am today.”
She also encountered discrimination in education. Although she got good grades, she received a low school recommendation. “They said: your mother is a domestic helper, she can’t help you. So I was under-recommended.” Her white friend Marina, with worse results, was allowed to go to secondary school. Peggy did not let that stop her. “I went to the same school as Marina. The principal saw a rebellious girl and gave me a chance anyway.” She turned out to be too good for secondary school and continued to move from one course to another until she got where she wanted to be.
Now she is fortunately better able to speak out against racism and inequality than she used to be. “I had to be assertive, I had to speak up. And I owe that partly to my mother. She was a big driving force in that.” Peggy believes assertiveness is important, but so is kindness. “In a world full of toxicity, I want to give my grandson a different legacy. Injustice must be addressed and fought. It is my responsibility to remove as many obstacles as possible now, so that he won’t have to fight that battle later.”
At home in Rotterdam
Rotterdam gradually became her home. She calls it a process, without a turning point. “Both my daughters were born here, as was my grandson. Rotterdam is our home base.” She feels a deep connection to the city: “This is my sacred ground. I take responsibility for the part where I live. My sidewalk is always clean, because this is also the earth where I will be buried.”
Culture and awareness
An important element that Peggy passed on to her children is black consciousness. “Keti Koti, the day slavery was officially abolished, also reminds us of our mental chains. We have to ask ourselves: what is still holding us back and preventing us from spreading our wings?” In addition, Surinamese cuisine plays a weekly role in her life, especially Creole and Afro-Surinamese dishes.
The many faces of Rotterdam
She thinks for a moment about the question of what a Rotterdammer is. “The Netherlands has so many faces. Rotterdam also has this diversity; Rotterdam is a melting pot of many faces and many ways of thinking. There are things that connect us, such as language and standards of safety and human values.”
Advice to newcomers
She gives practical advice to new Rotterdammers: “Visit the neighborhood center, get to know people, and learn the language. If something happens, it is often the neighbors who are the first to help you. So you need to be able to understand each other.”
For the future of Rotterdam, Peggy hopes that young people will be given opportunities and judged on their talents, not their background. “Never judge them by the color of their skin. Take the space you need. Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t belong here. This is your home.”