‘I tell stories, sometimes with images and sound, sometimes with words’

What are these questions? In response to VPRO program frontline, eight dilemmas for journalist Bram Vermeulen.

VPRO or NRC Handelsblad?

‘Both. Or is that not allowed? I have stopped as a correspondent for NRC in South Africa, but I continue to write for the newspaper. When I was faced with the choice to come back to the Netherlands, I didn’t want to give up writing. I tell stories, sometimes with images and sound, sometimes with words.

‘I’m going to watch ten episodes of for the VPRO frontline to make. This will be the second season. It used to take me months to get a visa for a few TV reports in Africa lasting a few minutes, sometimes months. I made the report, wrote an article for the newspaper and went home again.

‘I started to feel that I needed more time. In Eastern Congo we once ran into two American journalists who were there for PBS Frontline sat for a month. One month! Wow, I thought, that’s what I want too, telling the real story in places where a lot is happening, making 40-minute reports all over the world that are close to current events. I presented it to the VPRO and it was allowed.’

Maas or Waal?

‘The Wall. I grew up in Wamel, which is located on the Waal. It is Mesopotamia there, country of twos. Wamel is a Catholic village. On the other side is Tiel, which is Protestant. We celebrated carnival, they didn’t. My parents were not religious, but the culture of Wamel was: Catholics here, Protestants there.

‘It would have taken me five minutes to take the ferry to the VWO in Tiel, but that was not an option. Because of my parents I went to the Catholic Pax Christie College in Druten, 12 kilometers away, 45 minutes by bike. Father Heuft, brother of Theo Heuft of the well-known brothel Yab Yum, taught religion at school in full habit.

‘I feel very strongly as a child of Wamel, I come back often and I like to come back. My parents have not moved their entire lives. And neither do their parents. They have completely taken root in that village. I travel all over the world, end up in coups and experience all kinds of exciting things. But do I learn more from life than they do? I do not think so. They know what life is essentially about: births, marriages, children, deaths; all stages of life.

‘I often noticed that in African communities I looked a bit envious at the enormous families, how beautiful that actually is. Il faut cultiver notre jardin, wrote Voltaire in candide. After twenty years I have chosen to go home, despite the cold and darkness here.’

Bobotie or dolma?

‘Bobotie, a South African dish with minced meat. I never wanted to miss my time as a correspondent in Turkey, it was fascinating. The war in Syria broke out and I witnessed the uprising against Erdogan. But South Africa is closer to my heart, it has become my compass for everything. I got something South African in me. And nothing Turkish.

‘They say that a correspondent falls in love with his station only once, and that he compares all subsequent stations with it. South Africa is also a pretty easy post. You can immediately turn on the radio or buy a newspaper after arrival to follow the news. In Turkey you don’t understand anything because of the language. It took me months before I dared to say my first sentence in Turkish.’

Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela?

‘Desmond Tutu. Because he was not a politician and served no party. Tutu did everything without political interest. He also maintained this after the fall of apartheid, by remaining critical of the ANC, but also of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Israel, for example.

‘Like just about everyone else, I met Tutu. I was 24 and still studying. I wanted to interview him about the truth commission, there was a lot of talk about that at the time. I had prepared a critical interview. I turned on the recorder and the first thing he said was: but first we pray. He sat down next to the table and began to pray. I was completely upset.

‘Men like Mandela can be quoted forever. And Tutu too. Their leadership is unbelievably great. Compare that with those men and women on the steps in The Hague, with politics in the Netherlands. Who can compete with these people in terms of vision? It’s unparalleled.’

Village madman among journalists or the most famous Dutch nomad?

‘In the radio program Foreign Office I was recently announced by the VPRO as the most famous nomad in the Netherlands, but I am not. I have mine trademarked to tell forgotten and underexposed stories.

‘The longer you live on the other side of the world, the more often you think, ‘Damn, we really don’t understand. It is precisely because of the debate that is now taking place in the Netherlands, from Zwarte Piet to street names to statues, that other stories have become even more important. All those discussions distract from what it should really be about, namely about the way we have organized the world – us, the white men in generally the privileged positions. Like in South Africa.’

Traveler or journalist?

Traveling journalist? Okay, reporter. Let’s not forget that as a reporter for the Brabants Nieuwsblad have started. I was once allowed to make an opening about the hairdresser in Bergen op Zoom, who had painted his entire facade pink. The city was too small, everyone wanted that wall to be just white. The next day I went to see him again. It was just primer, he said then. I had another opening.

‘I want to bring other worlds closer, that’s why I have to travel. It also makes me really happy. The moment I arrive somewhere, my senses open up. The nice thing about traveling is that you immediately try to get a grip on what you see. US Naipaul calls that the enigma of the arrival. When you arrive somewhere, you are blind. You know nothing. So you have to force yourself to sit down first and see how it works exactly.

‘In Eastern Congo we once went to visit a Dutch priest in Bunia. When we got to his house, we saw a man leaning over a Toyoya Landcruiser. Father, there are two journalists here for you, said the nun who received us. He looked up, a man well into his sixties. ‘Hm,’ he said, ‘journalism, I think that’s an interesting profession. They come by for a few days and then write such stories about what exactly is going on in Eastern Congo. I’ve lived here for forty years, but I still don’t understand it.’ That’s exactly how it is.’

Amsterdam or Cape Town?

‘I refuse to choose, I am the sum of those places. Cape Town is in my blood. I cannot live in Amsterdam without acknowledging it.

‘Society in South Africa is unhealthy. In Cape Town, the wealthy live in a few neighborhoods by the ocean. On the other side of the mountain are the slums. That is an incredibly unhealthy situation. The Netherlands is still a paradise. Subsidies are given here in times of corona, so that people can save themselves somewhat. In South Africa, these people now live on the streets and it is becoming even more unsafe.

“It is easier for me to understand a corrupt African politician, with relatives calling him every day to ask if he has some money for them because their house has been flooded or because a child is getting married, than someone who has grown up in wealth all his life and nevertheless racist. The ease with which racist prejudices are thrown into the air in debates here, by politicians and by others, is abhorrent.’

“It all just gets airtime. Yes, I can get angry about that, but not cynically. Because I think there’s a way to do something about it: show how it works in the world. Ultimately, our core business is to show how all those theories, all those words, lead to action. Nothing else.’

Bram Vermeulen or Freek de Jonge?

‘When I worked for the NOS radio, I answered the phone once. With Bram Vermeulen, I said. Freek de Jonge, said a man on the other end of the line. You don’t believe that, but it really was him.

‘I met Bram Vermeulen once, on the radio program Nails with heads. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘what a shame that your parents called you Bram. Why didn’t you change your name?’ I looked at him and said: ‘Say Bram, aren’t you making yourself a little too big now?’

“It’s not a bad name to have. He is a widely appreciated musician, even after his death. And I also contribute a bit to the fact that his name is still mentioned regularly. Have I chosen now? Bram Vermeulen.’