editorial room / longread

archiving queer of colour politics in the netherlands

De longread “Archiving queer of colour politics in the Netherlands” is gebaseerd op een rondetafelgesprek met activisten en culturele organisatoren, die zich vanaf de jaren ‘80 tot nu inzetten voor feminisme en queer of colour politics in Nederland. De deelnemers reflecteren in een rondetafelgesprek op onder andere politieke organisatie rondom blackness in de jaren ‘80 en ‘90 in Nederland, de relaties tussen queer of colour collectieven en andere bewegingen, en de verbinding tussen politiek en cultureel werk.

(Dit artikel is alleen beschikbaar in het Engels en werd eerder gepubliceerd in het Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, 2019, issue 2)

Gianmaria Colpani, Wigbertson Julian Isenia, and Naomie Pieter

Abstract

This roundtable stages a conversation amongst activists and cultural producers involved in feminist and queer of colour politics in the Netherlands from the 1980s to the present. Its primary focus is on the collectives and initiatives that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, such as SUHO (Surinamese Homosexuals), Flamboyant, Zami, Sister Outsider, and Strange Fruit. The roundtable participants – Anne Krul, Tieneke Sumter, Andre Reeder, Marlon Reina, and Ajamu – reflect on several issues, amongst which the political organising around blackness in the 1980s and 1990s, the relations between queer of colour collectives and other movements, the links between political organising and cultural work, the differences between activism and archiving in Curaçao and the Netherlands, and, finally, the possibilities and limits of archiving queer of colour histories in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The roundtable also discusses two exhibitions held at IHLIA LGBT Heritage in Amsterdam: We Live Here (2009), on the history of the black lesbian and gay community in the Netherlands, and With Pride (2018), on the history of Dutch sexual politics.

Keywords: Dutch sexual politics, queer of colour, queer archives, Flamboyant, Zami, Strange Fruit

Figure 1 Panel discussion ‘Black Queer Archive Meetup’ at the Amsterdam Museum. From left to right: Naomie Pieter, Anne Krul, Andre Reeder, Tieneke Sumter, and Wigbertson Julian Isenia (2018). Source: Black Queer Archive.

Figure 2 Founding members of Sister Outsider. From left to right: José Maas, Tania Leon, Gloria Wekker, Tieneke Sumter (1984). Picture by Robertine Romeny. Source: Collection IIAV-Atria – Institute on Gender Equality and Women’s History, Amsterdam.

Figure 3 Meeting for the fifth anniversary of Ashanti, with the theme ‘What is the relationship between the black and migrant women’s struggle in the Netherlands and the struggle of women in the third world’ (1986). Source: Collection IIAV-Atria – Institute on Gender Equality and Women’s History, Amsterdam.

Figure 4 Members of Strange Fruit. Standing in the back from left to right: Andy Garton, Marlon Reina, Reggie Williams, and Jerry Haimé. Sitting in front from left to right: Anne Krul, Gilbert-Jean Francourt, Oebele Kooistra, and Andre Reeder (1997). Source: personal archive of Jerry Haimé.

Figure 5 Flyer of the exhibition We Live Here (2009). Source: personal archive of Ajamu.

Figure 6 Picture of members of SUHO in a display at the exhibition We Live Here (2009). From left to right: unidentified, Max Lievendag, Egmond Codfried, unidentified, Lionel Jokhoe. Source: personal archive of Ajamu.