Afrikaanderwijk riots

The events are known in the Netherlands under various names, including Turkenrellen (Turks riot), Pogrommerdam, Afrikaanderwijk unrest or Pension riots. In Turkey the incident is known as 'Rotterdam olayları', "Rotterdam events". == Riots ==

As early as July 1971 a local commission warned about a possible race riot between the Dutch and immigrants; the Dutch in Rotterdam viewed the Turks as a community with a housing advantage compared to them. Dutch natives became increasingly financially able to move to the suburbs, leaving behind disadvantaged lower class households, dissatisfied with the lack of social-cultural homogeneity in the neighbourhood. The growing number of immigrants had increased accommodation prices. According to Marc Schuilenburg, Professor of Digital Surveillance at the Erasmus School of Law, there was a housing crisis in the neighbourhood, the feeling that the municipality neglected the situation and had no interest in the complaints of the residents, combined with racism and xenophobia. According to the Rotterdam Mayor Thomassen the unrest was racially motivated. Things escalated on Thursday, 9 August, when a Dutch woman got into a dispute over her rent arrears and was illegally evicted, without court order, from a building owned by a Turkish guesthouse owner, Several guest houses for migrants were closed and 82 people were arrested, 45 Turks, including 40 workers were expelled and the Dutch government paid compensation to 21 Turks. In the weeks following the incident, the municipality closed more than forty guest houses because they did not meet the requirements of the building and housing supervision. In October 1972, another 200 boarding houses were closed The riots received media attention from the Dutch and Turkish press. They were covered by English-language newspapers such as The Guardian, The Washington post and The New York Times as well. == Aftermath ==

The riots drew national attention to the problem of housing for foreign workers, who between 1968 and 1974 were recruited by the Dutch government to do mostly dirty and unpleasant work. Their employers signed contracts with cheap hostels near the centre of big cities. A decision was made by the Rotterdam municipality according to which people of non-Western origin (Mediterranean, Surinamese, and Antillean people) should not exceed 5% of the population of a given neighbourhood. As the decision had no basis in law, it was declared void by the Council of State in 1974. In 2005, the was adopted, also known as the "Rotterdam Law". The law introduced three housing selection tools to improve the quality of life in Rotterdam's neighbourhoods. These tools excluded home seekers based on income, and prioritized home seekers with certain socio-economic features and exclusion of home seekers that recently caused disturbance or with criminal background. new immigrants were placed in neighbourhoods where less than 16% of the population was of non-Western background. == In culture ==

Cihad Caner, a Dutch-Turkish artist dedicated his work (Re)membering the riots in Afrikaanderwijk in 1972 or guest, host, ghos-ti to the riots. He interviewed several witnesses and victims. According to him:The work revolves around a forgotten event: the 1972 riots directed against guest workers in Afrikaanderwijk, a neighbourhood of Rotterdam. It poses questions such as how we remember, the role of subjectivity in shaping our collective memory, and the transformative potential of re-enactment as a means of reawakening the past. Central to this research is a meticulous focus on memory, as it seeks to unravel the subjective nature of individual recollections, recognising that memory is not a fixed entity but rather a fluid and subjective phenomenon. The aim of the work is to highlight contrasting shades and nuances that exist among various individual remembrances of the Afrikaanderwijk riots, allowing for a diverse range of perspectives to be acknowledged and woven together. Reenactments feature as pivotal elements within the project, which not only allows for the recreation and revisitation of the past, but the process of reenactment itself operates as a potent tool for reclaiming forgotten narratives.Robert de Hartogh, a Dutch photographer, became interested in the Netherlands' Turkish community after the riots. The photographic series Annotations on Afrikaanderwijk (2019) by artist Hannah Dawn Henderson addressed the 1972 clashes, amongst other aspects of Afrikaanderwijk's history. == Gallery ==

File:Veel mensen op publieke tribune tijdens bespreking van rellen in Afrikaanderwijk 1972.jpg|People in the public gallery during the discussion of the riots, 1972 File:Belangstellend publiek kijkt naar reparatie ramen in Wapenstraat na rellen in Afrikaanderwijk 1972.jpg|The public watches repaired windows, 1972. File:Turken in vernielde woningen na rellen in Afrikaanderbuurt te Rotterdam, twee Tu, Bestanddeelnr 925-8095.jpg|Turks and their destroyed property File:Turken in vernielde woningen na rellen in Afrikaanderbuurt te Rotterdam, twee Tu, Bestanddeelnr 925-8094.jpg|Turks in destroyed houses File:Politie te paard houdt orde bij protesten tegen Turkse gastarbeiders in de Afrikaanderwijk rellen 1972.jpg|Police on horseback keep order during the riots, 1972 File:Wijkbewoners gooien spullen van Turkse gastarbeiders op straat bij Afrikaanderwijk rellen 1972.jpg|Residents throw belonging of Turks onto the street. == See also ==