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Ruud Gullit’s Barber
November 8, 2021
Stadhouderskade is a teeming thoroughfare in the heart of Amsterdam, part of the city centre ring connecting Amsterdam-West to Amsterdam-South. It begins at a bridge over the Amstel river snakes for two kilometres alongside a series of canals, running past the historic Vondelpark, Leidseplein, the Amsterdam Marriott and several national monuments like the iconic Rijksmuseum. […]

Stadhouderskade is a teeming thoroughfare in the heart of Amsterdam, part of the city centre ring connecting Amsterdam-West to Amsterdam-South. It begins at a bridge over the Amstel river snakes for two kilometres alongside a series of canals, running past the historic Vondelpark, Leidseplein, the Amsterdam Marriott and several national monuments like the iconic Rijksmuseum.

It was one of the first streets I became acquainted with when I moved from Nairobi to Amsterdam two years ago. At the intersection of Stadhouderskade and Ferdinand Bolstraat street, situated between the distinct Heineken Brewery and a small sex club called Tour De Boton, sits a nondescript barber and board store with a cool name.

Shortcut & Hardwear. 

It is a small lifestyle shop that sells snowboarding gear and urban street wear. Inside past the racks of clothes and merchandise, at the back of the shop, hidden from the street view is a single barber chair facing a full length mirror. One side of the mirror is dominated by a charity poster advertising a relief effort in India. On the other, hangs a large and colorful snowboard with the image of Chairman Mao staring back.

This is my barber shop and my barber, a middle aged man named Brian, is an institution on this street. He has been in the same location for 30 years and has the laidback demeanour of a man who has cultivated an unhurried life. It is the vibe you stumble onto when you escape the chilly autumn streets into the cozy interior of the barber shop. There is always some music with a deep bassline playing. Typically, you will meet his friends who drop by to say, “Hola’’, a collective of Spanish speaking South American brothers who greet you with the warmth of people who grew up in the sun.

For Africans abroad, a barber who knows how to handle black hair is a lifeline.

Brian draws his heritage from African, Asian and European ancestry. He is Dutch but his roots are in Suriname, a nation four times the size of the colonial master’s homeland that was once part of the Dutch colonial empire. Before I arrived in the Netherlands, I could not place Suriname on the South American map sandwiched as it is, between Guyana, French Guiana and Brazil; Nowadays, it’s the Surinamese cultural footprints that guide me through Amsterdam’s foreignness. 

Shortcut & Hardwear has grown to be more than a barber shop. It is a black space, where I find anchoring as I explore Amsterdam through a network of spaces that evoke feelings of “home’’. 

I am a Kenyan writer, a former newspaper columnist who moved residence from Nairobi to Amsterdam. I am the father of two young children, one of whom is a pandemic baby. They might speak Dutch as their first language and never master Kiswahili. I am living in the post-Covid-19 reality in a transformed physically distant city of QR codes, PCR tests, vaccination certificates thrown in the face of anti-vaxxer protests, and the daily drumming of xenophobia and nationalism on social media. 

The coronavirus had an effect on this city. I once knew a freer Amsterdam, the epitome of personal liberty where tourists smoked joints in front of the police and public sex did not even raise eyebrows. I have watched it transform into a 1.5 meters society, marked by glass barriers in public spaces and where citizens hoard toilet paper in a gut response to an existential crisis.

Amsterdam, like the daily street construction work on Stadhouderskade, is undergoing rapid social transformation and I struggle to make sense of this new world I find myself in. The city is in the midst of a radical shift to overhaul its infrastructure in the wake of climate change and its cultural foundations once thought entrenched and secured are challenged by vocal minorities. On Twitter, behind the facade of an old city by the shores of the North Sea, moving to the rhythm of its bicycles, trams, and boats, I catch a glimpse of the anti-Islamic and anti-immigration rhetoric of Dutch politician Geert Wilder, the notoriety of Thierry Baudet known for his anti-Covid restrictions and anti-Europe sentiments and the audacity of Sylvana Simons, the founder of the anti-racist political party BIJ1.

The Dutch Puzzle, is the title of a book written by Duke de Beana from a Spanish ambassador’s viewpoint and published in the 70s. Decades on, I have also found a low country of paradoxes, perhaps best illustrated by the coffee shop located across the road from a church building. I may have been primed for the touted Dutch tourist attractions, its Red Light District and its Coffeeshops but one quickly becomes blasé after the initial culture shock.

Netherlands, a culturally liberal society and the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriages, is also a place that celebrates a Christmas tradition where the Dutch Santa in white appears on a boat to the delight of the kids trailed by his blackfaced sidekick, Zwarte Piet. This supposedly benign cultural festival in a country with a gory slave trading past is vehemently defended as a Dutch thing that outsiders could never understand.

Europe is a place where privacy is a right. Sierra Leonean columnist Babah Tarawally said it is where you learn to become an individual first. I feel it the most on the metro, during rush hour in a train full of individuals where eye contact is deliberately avoided and aloofness is the norm. Navigating Amsterdam as an African man has been confusing. For a long time I was the eager new arrival who tried to acknowledge every black brother on the street with a solidarity nod and wondered why some of my black brothers did not respond to my spirit of ubuntu

What did I really see other than pigmentation?

I did not have the foggiest clue of the vast representation of Global Africa on the streets of Amsterdam and despite my bred-in Africa credentials, I was learning to see my blackness anew. 

Your black worldview changes when you begin to notice resonance with the diversity of people with African heritage congregating in the Netherlands. I have met men from the Caribbean islands of St Vincent, Aruba and Curacao who reminded me of family members in Kenya. I have struck instant rapport with an Ethiopian Uber driver, a Jamaican cloth store attendant, a Ghanaian delivery man, a Congolese-Dutch columnist who spoke Kiswahilli, an African American poet from Charleston, a Guyanese who spent his youth in Uganda under Idi Amin and Tanzanian sister at a lifestyle store who exclaimed in excitement, “Jirani” ( my neighbour), when they all discovered that I hailed from Kenya. 

Not a single one gushed about a wildlife safari or a golden sunset over the Maasai Mara.

I recently spoke to an African man whom I had seen selling newspapers outside supermarkets around the Amstelveen suburb. He said he was from Biafra, not Nigeria and as soon as I told him I was from Kenya, he complained bitterly about the betrayal of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra who was abducted in Kenya and deported to Nigeria.

“Why are you Kenyans not behaving like Africans?”

I knew the context of the word behave, a refrain to post-colonial Africans living in Europe who are prone to forget the struggles of family left behind in the motherland. Yet, you stay in a place long enough, it changes you. A Moroccan taxi driver told me as much about the lure of the Dutch lifestyle and how difficult it is to let go of the comfortable life. 

“It’s hard to leave. The system works, you can make progress and invest back home. Then the women join you and you start to make babies, now they are Dutch and they grow up to be told to go back home by the racists because they are not Dutch enough and when they arrive home, they are reminded they are no longer Moroccan, they have become Dutch”. 

**********

I am 15 minutes early for my monthly haircut. Brian is busy cutting a client’s hair. Burna Boy is the musical mood of the moment.  From the street window, I watch the traffic zoom past on Stadhouderskade, processing a new set of city sounds. Clanky bicycles on stone paths, trams squealing on the rails to a slow stop, and the recurring sirens of a speeding ambulance. The streets are covered in leaf fall, the trees are naked, a sure sign that winter is coming. 

The Netherlands is a flat country with no natural barrier against the assault of the North Sea winds that sweep across unrestrained. On my weather app, I pay attention to the codename Orange warning of unusual coastal activity. I used to complain about the weather to friends back home in Nairobi until I had an encounter at the Irish pub on Leidseplein whilst taking shelter after getting caught wrongly dressed in the icy cold rain. I wouldn’t stop whining about the duplicitous Dutch summer causing a lean, sinewy stranger in workman clothes to blurt out,

“You are not made of cotton candy and sugar. It’s just water!”

Fair point.

Now I have accepted that the weather is shit! and I am learning to be a weathered rock of all seasons.  

My turn arrives and I take a seat on the barber chair. Brian, normally a man of few words, is in a chatty mood today. He complains about the construction work on his street and how bad it is for business and then we talk about football. The Dutch did not have an impressive UEFA Cup run last season and I ask, what happened to the spirit of the flying Dutchmen of my youth, the magical trio of Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco Van Bansten.  To which he answers,

“Gullit was here’’

“Where?’’

“On this chair, in the morning, he came for a haircut before a TV appearance in Qatar…he is a busy guy….’’

He continues to tell me about the Dutch football legend, who he counts as a childhood friend. Gullit no longer spots dreadlocks and has morphed into a celebrated TV sports commentator. 

What were the chances, I wondered? That I would share a barber with Ruud Gullit, the foremost disciple and master of the Dutch brand of total football, the international superstar from the Netherlands that I admired as a teenager. 

Dunia Ni Duara. The world is round

*******

I have returned to column writing after a two year break to make sense of this living reality employing the tools of story. I also want to write about parenting and how confrontational it can be. The COVID-19 pandemic points us back to the quest for meaning for without it, we may be driven to madness by anxiety over the unknowns. 

This weekly column will be published on Mondays. It  is a reflection on these ordinary daily encounters and how they speak to my experience in Europe as a diaspora African,  a journalist, and a general observer of life, through the trials and triumphs of my fatherhood journey.

In the spirit of Steve Biko, I write what I like, and dance to my own beat since there has not been much dancing in Amsterdam following the arrival of the Corona virus.

I invite you to walk with me, to share in my experiences and interrogate my observations.

Karibu.

Yours Truly,

Oyunga Pala

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Blanco
Blanco
3 years ago

Welcome back Oyunga. Looking forward to what you have in store for us.

Deu
Deu
3 years ago
Reply to  OP

Fantastic read as always. Serve us some more please. Welcome back

Leslie Nteere
Leslie Nteere
3 years ago

A thrilling read. Looking forward to next week’s column!

Angey
Angey
3 years ago

Wonderful storytelling…Good to have you back…He was here 😉

Annet
Annet
3 years ago

Oh my goodness you have been missed ready for the read!welcome home..

Kenneth Kola
Kenneth Kola
3 years ago

Welcome back.

dsolika
dsolika
3 years ago

Good to be back.

Ken Ayuyo
Ken Ayuyo
3 years ago

Am onboard

Bikozulu
Bikozulu
3 years ago

About time, Pala. Cut it.

Eve Mwangi
Eve Mwangi
3 years ago
Reply to  Bikozulu

Ala Bikozulu, you also in these streets? he he

Karamoja
Karamoja
3 years ago

Karibu Tena OP. Definitely subscribing for more.

Emmanuel Disii
Emmanuel Disii
3 years ago

Kumbe huku ndio ulipotelea

Alex
Alex
3 years ago

Welcome back Pala.

Gillianne
Gillianne
3 years ago

Really looking forward to this weekly treat, I have missed your voice.

Fitzgerald Brown
Fitzgerald Brown
3 years ago

Fantastic read. Simply Fantastic!!!

Chuma
Chuma
3 years ago

Glad to have you back Oyunga.

Pamela ten Wolde
Pamela ten Wolde
3 years ago

What beautiful art. Now I believe that beautiful art is not only exemplified in paintings but also in the written word. This reading is beautiful, a work of art. I got submerged into the story and felt the icy rain as you describe it. I have enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to the next.

James N.
James N.
3 years ago

Welcome back OP, looking forward to some nice articles. I wouldn’t miss my copy of the Saturday magazine for nothing. You did well with Man Talk.

Ombasa
Ombasa
3 years ago

The legend himself. Great to have you back. We had missed your content

Tom Osanjo
Tom Osanjo
3 years ago

Oyunga

Nice to reconnect. Was wondering uliendanga wapi brother. Haya now serve us stories from the land of Ruud Gullit. All the best

Josh Ogada
Josh Ogada
3 years ago

Thanks for this piece, Oyunga! having visited Amsterdam numerous times for varying periods, your experiences strike an eloquent chord. You took me back to a couple of places and experiences 🙂

Ivy
Ivy
3 years ago

Yaaaay…..

Oby Obyerodhyambo
Oby Obyerodhyambo
3 years ago

Wonderful piece as usual OP. I want to walk silently beside you as you happen on this journey.

Gabriel Okumu
Gabriel Okumu
3 years ago

Welcome back

Lilian Wanjohi
Lilian Wanjohi
3 years ago

Put a smile on this cold morning all the way in Wisconsin! Look forward to you writings. Stay warm, we are made for the sun

Steve Gichuki
Steve Gichuki
3 years ago

I have always enjoyed reading your column OP. Looking forward to hearing more about your diaspora experience.

Charles Ndugire
Charles Ndugire
3 years ago

Tell us more… again. Looking forward.

Juliet
Juliet
3 years ago

Wow welcome back

Betty
Betty
3 years ago

Fantastic!

Bernard Itebete
Bernard Itebete
3 years ago

Great to read from you again OP. Looking forward to next week.

John Kodhek
John Kodhek
3 years ago

Excited to read about your experiences!

Larry
Larry
3 years ago

Still biking i see, or thats not your bike outside the barber’s?
Great to have you back!

Jones Mereu
Jones Mereu
3 years ago

Great stuff. Writing with a pulse.

Dave Adriance
Dave Adriance
3 years ago

Something new to look forward to every Monday. It’s on the calendar as a recurring event…

Zack
Zack
3 years ago

Read you avidly years back.Welcome back!

victor okwaro
victor okwaro
3 years ago

Powerful writing as always

Richard Sarati
Richard Sarati
3 years ago

Am glad to see you back

Waff
Waff
3 years ago

Leslie,tuko hapa na wewe. Bwana OP,we are elated to hear from you again.

Sean Omondi
Sean Omondi
3 years ago

Nice read Welcome!! Welcome back, Pala!!

Nellie Njire
Nellie Njire
3 years ago

OP as always never disappoints. I can’t wait for Monday’s now! We have waited long! ❤️❤️

Timothy Wafula
Timothy Wafula
3 years ago

Good to see you back OP

Moyo Kaigwa
Moyo Kaigwa
3 years ago

Aah to be an African abroad… So glad I stumbled into you here. Loved your writing way back! And still do. Enjoyed this and looking forward to more pieces. As a Kenyan living in San Jose, much of this deeply resonated with me and had me nodding vigorously and right, yeah?!

“You are not made of cotton candy and sugar. It’s just water!” Yup, Kenya spoils you

jacob aliet
jacob aliet
3 years ago

Welcome back! Its been a long, long time.

Mariam
Mariam
3 years ago

Welcome back Pala…Mondays will no longer seem so bleak!

Carolyne Ottieno
Carolyne Ottieno
3 years ago

A very good article that resonates only too well even for me living here in Paris for several years now.
An African in the diaspora it is no easy task and while the system works any you can save and invest; family back home tend to believe falsely that you are constantly flowing with extra money in abundance ready to distribute to them. The similarities in the stories of all Africans is really something. As you earlier said, you learn to be an individual and become more aware of your identity.
True that ‘your not made of cotton candy and sugar. It’ s just water’, that is when you realize that Kenya truly spoils you. Looking forward to reading more experiences.

Kawala K’Otieno
Kawala K’Otieno
3 years ago

Excellent piece OP. Welcome back!

Simon Ochieng
Simon Ochieng
3 years ago

welcome back brother

WanjohiK
WanjohiK
3 years ago

Sports Monthly….. Back in the day…. Way back when…

Godspeed OP…

Geoffrey
Geoffrey
3 years ago

Excellent piece, thanks for taking us along with you on the journey!

Lucas
Lucas
3 years ago

How refreshing to read you again Oyunga. First as a young Nairobi kijana for years every Sato devouring your Man Talk column.
Secondly as a blogger now, inspired by you and Biko.
Didn’t even know you’d left home. It can be harsh out there so we’ll keep you company here.
All the best sir.

Gakiria
Gakiria
3 years ago

Karibu nyumbani OP! Finally something to look forward to beyond the political theatrics!

Eve Mwangi
Eve Mwangi
3 years ago

Welcome back OP. We definitely missed you. Looking back to drinking more from your well of story telling and sense of humour.

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