Ode to Ellin Maria Agnes Robles | Amsterdam Black woman, feminist, anti-racist and loving human being

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Ellin,
 

This year we celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Bijlmer Park Theatre. I think you would be proud of that. You followed this development when you became my colleague in 2002 and took office as regional director of the welfare umbrella organisation Alcides in Zuidoost.

You were born in Suriname, but you loved Amsterdam. ‘Amsterdam became the place where I wanted to live and be after 1984. I came to love the city immensely and felt happy there.’ You write this in the book Banneling, in which you reflect on your life and on your mortification process.
 

With my ode, I want to clear your name and tell the city that you were a feminist advocate, someone whose physical disability was no barrier to passionately fighting racism and prejudice. You were intersectional avant la lettre, claims your good friend Gloria Wekker. What she means is that you were aware of the interplay between gender, skin colour, ethnicity and other characteristics that simultaneously play a role in inequality and differences of power in society.
 

Together with Gloria Wekker and Mea Vester, you founded the Municipal Ethnic Minorities Consultation in 1984. This was unprecedented, such a consultation of officials of colour. This was the time when municipalities still talked about a ‘minorities policy’ and those ‘minorities’ were a burden they had to contain and, where possible, assimilate. You made sure that the municipality started looking into the multi-ethnic society and the needs and wants of different groups. Something like recognising that people want to go to their resting place in different ways with their own rituals and are entitled to facilities for that. Thanks to your efforts, those facilities have been provided.

You were a pioneer with keen insight, Ellin. When it came to injustice, you didn't mince words. You were no peoples pleaser. Your columns in the Parool showcased your sharp pen against injustice and were a call to action to make the city of Amsterdam more liveable, humane and just.
 

It doesn't surprise me that you were commissioned to reorganise the Blijf van mijn lijf Foundation in 1991. At Blijf van mijn lijf, you met Judith Meijer, who remained your lover until the end.
 

Where did you get the energy for the many board positions you held? For instance, you were chairman of the national documentation centre for black women (Flamboyant). I see your name recurring on the boards of the National Ombudswoman, Against Her Will Amsterdam, Children of Peace Foundation and Women Inc.
 

You are no longer here Ellin, but I am getting to know you better anyway. How vulnerable you were by writing your book Banneling. It helped me understand your take on that period of Alcides. You became regional director of that welfare foundation and when, after a thorough investigation, you fell flat on your face with the director and the Supervisory Board, you were given an obligation of silence which you wisely did not keep. I am grateful to you for being bold and daring because, as you say yourself, you exposed the tip of an iceberg and foresaw bankruptcy. Only now do I realise how many sleepless nights preceded this because you were worried about the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs.

As a lawyer of integrity and an experienced director, you very quickly put your finger on the sore spot and exposed the financial malpractices. Neither regulators nor politicians wanted to listen to you. You were suspended, but we, your colleagues were on your side and we took to the streets with our staff to stand by you. Of course, the organisation collapsed and it went bankrupt and hundreds of us lost our jobs. Did anyone ever apologise for the way they treated you as a whistleblower?

You continued to follow me and advised me to prevent Crater Theatre, the forerunner of Bijlmer Park Theatre, from going under with Alcides. I am retired, but at the anniversary party I saw that the theatre is in good hands and we have enriched Zuidoost with a vibrant beacon for the performing arts.

Shortly after the Bijlmer Park Theatre opened in 2010, I fell off my bike and was home after surgery on a double ankle fracture.  I can still see your worried face before me. A few times a week, you tore through the streets of Amsterdam to Southeast in your Canta with pans of moksi Alesi or peanut soup. For me and my family. I didn't know then that you suffered so much leg pain that it made you desperate.  You sympathised with me completely. Do you know that your sweet Judith gave me some of those pans as mementos, a few months after your death, in November 2011.

I still think of you regularly. Didn't you have such a gap between your front teeth? And that bass voice with which you could loudly light up the room?  The memory fades, which is why I repeat the stories about you and regularly tell your niece how exceptionally honourable, stubborn and loving you were. Simone Zeefuik, I mean. She has as sharp a pen as you and a razor-sharp analytical ability and knows so well how to expose hidden power relations in language.

I am not saying goodbye, because with this ode you have come back to life and everyone will know: Ellin Robles is an Amsterdam Black woman, feminist, anti-racist and loving human being. Her memory may we hold high.