86 Michiel De Ruyter on shore

After his lucrative period on the Salamander Michiel De Ruyter settled into the life of a respected Burger of Vlissingen. He married Anna van Gelder a 38 year old widow with children and bought a house. To celebrate his love for his new wife he called his house: ‘De Gecroonde Liefde’ (The Crowned Love). It could have been the name of a ship. With the narrow, steep stairs and small low-ceilinged rooms houses in Holland and on the islands (Zeeland) could be seen as ships on shore. Of all the properties in Vlissingen De Ruyter chose the house right across the warehouses of Cornelis Lampsins. I drew the street and the house. There was a sharp cold wind from the north. It made sitting out of the sun very unpleasant. There was also no seating. However the man of the house where I leant against the windowsill kindly gave me a chair: to leave when I had finished. De Ruyter never sold the ‘Crowned Love’. However his plans for a peaceful life on shore was never to be. That same year the Republic got into war with England. The Admiralty of Zeeland asked him for help and he couldn’t say no. Although he really didn’t want to go back to sea. From that time onwards till his death in 1676 he was in the Navy. The ships the Province of Zeeland send to war were just merchant ships with guns. Nevertheless De Ruyter defeated the English war ships in the Battle at Plymouth. After the death of Admiral Maarten Tromp, De Ruyter was asked by Johan de Witt the ‘Raadpensionaris’ (leader of the governing council) of the Republic to take Tromp’s place in the Dutch fleet. This promotion forced him and his family to move from Vlissingen to Amsterdam. He and his wife bought a house on the ‘Buitenkant’ (Outside) with a view of the harbour. Now it is Prins Hendrikkade 131. He became the hero of three sea wars with England, invented the Marine Corps and modernized the fleet.

76 In search of Michiel de Ruyter

The first chapter of the Graphic Story about Iligh will be about the Michiel de Ruyter connection. Michiel de Ruyter was born in 1607 and died in 1676 during a sea battle against the French. He hailed from the town of Vlissingen on the island of Walcheren in the Province of Zeeland. Zeeland was in the 17th century an independent region of small but rich and powerful islands within the Dutch Republic of Seven Provinces. Michiel de Ruyter is an iconic hero of the seas. His sailors gave him the honorary title of ‘Bestevaer’ (grandfather). The latest biography about him by Ronald Prudhomme van Reine was called ‘De rechter hand van Nederland’ (The right hand of the Netherlands) and a movie about his exploits during the wars with England was titled ‘Admiral’. At primary school I learned the song ‘In een blauwgeruite kiel’ (In a blue tartan shirt) about him as a youth dreaming about going to sea while working on a ropewalk. Lately his heroic status has been questioned and to have an interest in him is considered dubious and ‘not done’. He is accused of facilitating the slave trade. The Dutch had taken over the cross-ocean trade from the Portuguese and made it more ‘efficient’ and thus more vicious and dehumanizing. As with all iconic figures a lot of myths were attached to him and he had become more like an institution than a human being. Time to get a ‘feel’ for this man and to make drawings ‘in situ’ for the graphic story. I took the train to Vlissingen. It was a beautiful sunny day when I set out to the railway station only to find out that the scheduled direct train to Vlissingen had been cancelled. Time enough to sit down and do some serious sketching of the monumental Amsterdam Central Station.

73 Who was Willem Heinemeijer?

Bert Hogervorst was given a copy of the book by Paul Pascon about Iligh as a present by Herman van der Wüsten. The former owner had written his name inside and that was not VD Wüsten. The name didn’t mean a thing till our conversation with Paolo de Mas in the 1ste Klasse Wachtkamer in Amsterdam Central railway station. Suddenly we read what had been written: W. Heinemeijer. The name brought back memories. This man had not only had a very important influence on the life of Paolo de Mas, but I had also known him in a totally different context and only very shortly. Who was he? Willem Heinemeijer was born in Amsterdam in 1922 and died there in 1999. He didn’t live anywhere else, but apart from Amsterdam he loved Morocco. Paolo de Mas told us the story that Willem’s father was as stamp collector corresponded with the (French) postmaster of a small village in the High Atlas. One day Heinemeijer saw a picture of the postmaster’s daughter and fell instantly in love. He hitchhiked via Marseilles and Algeria to the high Atlas. At the time both Algeria and Morocco were French colonies. His infatuation with the daughter didn’t pan out and instead Heinemeijer fell in love with the country. Heinemeijer studied Social Geography at the University of Amsterdam and later became professor there. Reflecting his continued interest in the country his 1968 phd thesis was about National Integration and Regional Diversity in Morocco. Heinemeijer wasn’t just a academic he also loved to mingle in popular political and social debates. In particular where it touched on his ‘beloved’ Amsterdam. In the mid nineties I came to know him as member of a think-tank set up by the squatters of the Nineteenth Century port of Amsterdam. We, the squatters wanted to make an ‘alternative’ development of the old port possible based on ‘what was already there’. The city wanted to make as much money as possible on the land and location. Heinemeijer and a few of his old ‘cronies’ helped us. Paolo de Mas knew him a very long time. He got to know him as a very inspired and inspiring teacher and hands-on intellectual with whom he became fast friends and who stimulated his choices. As a Social-Geographer he saw ‘development’ and ‘under-development’ in the context of the dynamics between the land and the communities that develop there. Exactly what we did as squatters in the old port of Amsterdam (The Turning Tide, Buchel, Hogervorst, Vermaase, 1996 Amsterdam, see my website: www.petibuchel.com). A pungent detail for Dutchs fans of the author Gerard Reve: in his acclaimed novel ‘De Avonden’(the evenings) Heinemeijer and his wife are both portrayed . Eduard Hoogkamp is Heinemeijer.

Aicha on the move

Aicha was still in Amsterdam when I left for Ireland. But before I left she cooked up a storm in Bert's kitchen. She made a wonderful Tagine. She did her mother Fatima proud. After ten days in Amsterdam Aicha left for Paris to visit her sisters. By that time her luggage had grown to such proportions that Bert decided to rent a car and drive her to Paris. In the meantime they had made contact with Paul Dahan of the Jewish Museum in Brussels and he wanted to meet them. Paul Dahan is a Jewish Moroccan living in Belgium and specialized in documents in Hebrew and documents related to Jewish history. On the way to Paris they made a stop at the Jewish Museum to meet him. For the occasion Paul Dahan also made a Skype contact with another expert on Moroccan Jewish history a retired professor of Haifa university who was born in Taroudant. All things considered Aicha's visit to Amsterdam and Brussels proved very useful. In Paris Bert received a very warm welcome from Aicha's sisters.

Aicha meeting the Polranny Pirates

In Amsterdam Aicha was kindly taken in by Polranny Pirate Coby Prins and her husband Tom who live on a romantic canal called 'De Teertuinen' (The Tarring Yards). Riny Meyer, president of the Polranny Pirates also wanted to meet and greet Aicha. That happened in 'Broodje Mokum'(Mokum is the Jiddisch word for Amsterdam and 'Broodje' means bun) on the Rozengracht as seen in the sketch. Riny has occasionally privately sponsored Bert's and mine Iligh adventures and Graphic Novel aspirations. I don't know how Aicha liked Amsterdam. It must have been a change from Agadir where she usually lives as it rained most of the time. She did a lot of traveling by tram between Coby's home and Bert's home and there was a lot of walking to do as she also visited the Ten Kate street market, the Jewish Museum and the Prince Claus Foundation. But I think the most important thing for her in Amsterdam was the 'Primark', the cheap clothes and home accessories store on the Damrak. She had to buy extra suitcases to accommodate all the stuff she bought for herself, her mother, brother's family and her sisters.

Aicha Aboudmiaa comes to Amsterdam

In the last week of September and the first week of October 2017 Bert Hogervorst and me were in Iligh on reconnaissance. There we met with Moulay Imam Aboudmiaa and his wife Fatima and got to get to know their daughter Aicha better. I came back to Amsterdam before Bert after having spent another week in Tangiers and started immediately on the graphic novel about Iligh. Bert had kept a diary while in Iligh and I used this diary as scenario. Bert in the meantime contacted everybody who in the past had had something to do with Iligh. And although she stayed in Morocco till the end of October and almost immediately moved to the Orkney Islands afterwards, she did manage to get positive responses from everyone. Especially Paolo de Mas who had been to Iligh in company of Paul Pascon proved to be of great help. Aicha Aboudmiaa was coming to Europe to visit her sisters in Paris. Bert convinced her to come to Amsterdam too to meet the men who had an interest in her heritage. She landed on November 22th. Bert had set up a meeting in the library/hall of the University in Leyden on the 24th. Aicha wanted to give a presentation. That had to be prepared beforehand on Bertje's Apple laptop that Aicha also had to learn to use. It were a hectic and intense few days of preparation.