Someone once told me that she couldn’t make out what I do exactly, because I appear to do so much.

I do a lot yes, but 1. I only do things that I enjoy (and I do a lot of that so I enjoy myself a lot) and 2. it all has to do with either journalism or education; with changing the narrative about People of African descent.

If you’re in the minority in a room, you represent the majority that’s not in the room

A LIFE IN SERVICE

I have been in service from the get-go.

I was born in the disadvantaged neighbourhood of Ramgoelam in Suriname. Growing up with close to nothing made me understand and loath from early on the systems that have kept neighbourhoods like this disadvantaged.

I started off in journalism back in 1992, as a freelance writer for De West newspaper in Suriname. First as court reporter, but I quickly branched out to reports on the last events surrounding the stupid war, tourism and some police and development writing.

That took me to reporting on and consulting for the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which led to me relocating to the English-speaking Caribbean, where it turned out I was the only journalist from Suriname who worked for local, regional and international media.

Among them The Daily Herald and the Today newspapers of St. Maarten, Associated Press, Reuters, some hurricane reporting for Dutch news agency Radio Nederland and other international publications.

I travelled the region extensively on tourism reporting assignments, earning five regional awards, among which for tourism reporting.

My Caribbean work earned five regional journalism awards:

3rd Prize SHTA tourism reporting award, Maarten July 2006
Media Award, Issued by The Caribbean Hotel Association/American Express, Puerto Rico Jan 2004
Award for Excellence in Health Journalism/Children’s Rights, Issued by Unicef/PAHO, Barbados Jan 2004
Certificate of Merit for Reporting on HIV/AIDS, Issued by PAHO, Barbados Jan 2004
The Award for Journalism Excellence, Issued by Caribbean Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), Jamaica Jan 2003

Memorable were my international assignments, among which to Shanghai and Idaho to cover Special Olympics.

I served as communications consultant for The Princess Juliana International Airport of St. Maarten from 2004 to 2011, supporting management as the new terminal building was being constructed.

In 2012 I relocated to the Netherlands, where I transitioned somewhat to education while I maintained my foothold in journalism.

Afro Magazine

I started Afro Magazine, an online platform that regularly produces printed publications. AfroMagazine.nl stands as the only platform that tells the underreported stories of people of African descent in the Netherlands. www.afromagazine.eu (in English), is dedicated to the stories of People of African descent in Europe.

And I became the Project Manager of Weekend College and StudieMAX, educational support initiatives in Amsterdam Zuidoost. One of The Most Rewarding things I ever did!

If you believe you’re the smartest person in the room, enlighten the rest of the room

This experience -combined with my international journalism expertise and my activist nature- made me understand how the educational system here does not take the identities of children of colour into consideration.

I have written countless articles and spoken numerous times about how this restrains children, adults and whole communities from reaching their full potential.

I have written a lot about racism and decolonization.

My articles have mostly appeared on Afro Magazine, and on occasion in other publications, among which the legal Magazine on Restorative Justice and The Journalist, Amsterdam daily newspaper Parool and the magazine of the (British) National Union of Journalists (NUJ) where I served on the Black Members’ Council (BMC).

In 2020, amidst the worldwide George Floyd demonstrations, I spearheaded a BMC motion that called on journalists in Europe to not serve platforms for racists who express anti-Black sentiments.

Read the motion here

BROOS

I also launched The Broos Institute, which endeavours to eventually launch the first Afrocentric educational campuses in the Netherlands. Broos Institute strives for more involvement of People of African Descent in the scientific discourse about People of African descent.

The institute is named after Suriname’s venerated Maroon leader Broos, the only slavery resistance fighter from Suriname of whom a photograph exists. Broos was my great-great-great grandfather. In 2021 I was honored to mount his photograph at the Asen Manso museum in Ghana;

in May 2024 I will be returning to Asen Manso to replace the black-and-white photograph with a colorized version.

In March 2024 Broos Institute launched the Africana Development Studies program, which is the first university level course in the Netherlands that puts people of African descent centerstage. We are running this program in collaboration with the University of Suriname and the Kwame Nkruma University of Science and Technology in Ghana.

More educational projects, courses and collaborations are underway.

Bigi Bon

To carry out social projects in the journalism and educational fields, that are geared toward marginalized communities I also started, I also started the Foundation Bigi Bon. Bigi Bon, which means Big Tree in Sranan Tongo, is the plantation my ancestors had been enslaved on in Suriname; my great-great grandmother Catharina bought this place in 1914 and it still remains in our possession today.

Read here why I named my foundation Bigi Bon.

Among the many projects Foundation Bigi Bon has carried out, is project Memre, in which -together with Surinamese people of African descent- we scoured the slavery archives, researching these people’s past. We found countless beautiful stories that were published by Afro Magazine. In 2023/2024 we are carrying out a similar project in St. Eustatius.

In April 2024 I will be traveling to St. Eustatius to provide a training to participants on writing the stories they trace, with specific attention to writing these stories in a decolonized manner.

We are also carrying out a two-year Government funded project OZOZONE, that aims to prepare secondary school students for their careers at tertiary level. Many children from disadvantaged communities are not prepared properly, which leads to them lagging behind and oftentimes even dropping out. This maintains a never-ending cycle of mediocrity in these communities.

Future projects are dreams.

The educational system is too Eurocentric, which discourages many young people from excelling. My focus remains on breaking that cycle with Broos Institute and not just in the Netherlands but in former colonies as well. In June 2024 I intend to travel to St. Maarten to help advise students there that are intending to pursue tertiary level education in the Netherlands. Meanwhile I am launching my new foundation UsForUS (U4U) in Suriname, that will also strive to bring change through education.

If your dreams don’t scare you, you’re not dreaming the right dreams

Ok, yes indeed, I do a lot.

But a day has 86,400 seconds.

What are you doing with yours?

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IN DE PERS

Welternaehrung

I was approached to write an article for the online journal Welternaehrung in Germany, that dealt with migration and I slipped in some of my views on how Governments should take responsibility.
And I took advantage of the opportunity to express how proud I still am with Amsterdam Zuidoost where adults banned together so the -mostly migrant- young people from the neighborhood, did not participate in violent and ignorant conspiracy driven anti-COVID-measure riots that shook the Netherlands a few weeks ago.
The Germans then translated my views to German.

Ich bin stolz darauf, dass ich dazu aufgefordert wurde

Voice of African Migrants

Two weeks ago I spoke briefly at a GFMD webinar on migration and racism. I spoke about my work with AFRO Magazine and Weekend College. Next thing you know, a journalist in Nigeria tells me he wants to interview me for the Voice of African Migrants. Honored to be featured by them.

“How did the developed world become the developed world?”

OneWORLD

Op 1 juli vieren we dat de kolonisator zich bewust werd van de menselijkheid van zwarte mensen, stelt Marvin Hokstam. “Ik heb niks met Keti Koti.”

OneWORLD

Het maakt niet uit of Ron Jans een ‘goeie vent’ is, zijn gedrag moet worden veroordeeld, schrijft Marvin Hokstam. ‘Het is best mogelijk om stil te worden tijdens je bezoek aan Robbeneiland én een blinde vlek te hebben voor racistisch taalgebruik.’

NUJ

Marvin comments in the upcoming issue of the union’s magazine:

“This is about journalists being aware that the way they approach a subject is how it is perceived by their communities. The fact that there is still debate about this in 2019 is concerning, especially when journalists and newspapers appear to take sides in favour of those supporting black Piet.

NLTimes

The motion passed by the British journalists’ union originated from the NUJ Black Members Council, on the initiative of Marivn Hokstam, Founder and Managing Editor of the Dutch publication Afro Magazine. Hokstam is a member of the Dutch branch of the NUJ.

Zwarte Piet is Racisme.nl

Journalisten die verslag doen van het zwarte Pietendebat dienen zich te houden aan de journalistieke regel dat “van journalisten geen materiaal dient te komen dat discriminatie op basis van ras en kleur bevordert”. Dit staat in een motie die vandaag werd aangenomen door de National Executive Council (NEC) van de Britse Unie van Journalisten NUJ in London. De motie was aangezwengeld door Marvin Hokstam, uitgever van AFRO Magazine, in reactie op wat hij onethische verslaggeving over de zwarte piet demonstranten door Nederlandse journalisten noemde.

Guava

Marvin Speaks – A conversation with Marvin Hokstam

ParBode

Marvin Hokstam, opgegroeid “in een klein dorp in Suriname, op de rand van het oerwoud”, zoals hij het zelf lyrisch uitdrukt, is journalist, schrijver, publicist en communicatieconsultant. Hij begon als student journalistiek aan de AHKCO in Suriname, en behaalde in Engeland een postgraduate degree in mediastudies. Tegenwoordig is hij in Nederland actief als schrijver en uitgever van het online platform AFRO Magazine, en als projectleider van het onderwijsondersteuningsproject Weekend College van Amsterdam-Zuidoost.

721-News election to NUJ/BMC

Former The Daily Herald journalist Marvin Hokstam has been elected to the Black Members Council of the British National Union of Journalists. After he shared news of this on his Facebook page last week, we asked him about it.

Interview door Socialisme.nu

Marvin Hokstam is redacteur van het Afro Magazine. Al vijfentwintig jaar is hij een journalist die schrijft over onderwerpen die de internationale Afrogemeenschap aangaan. Hij sprak met Mark Kilian over de nasleep van de Caribische orkanen, koloniaal racisme en climate justice.

Opiniestuk in Parool

Een museum over zwarte geschiedenis moet geschiedenis, emoties en nuances vertellen vanuit een zwart perspectief, schrijft Marvin Hokstam.

Someone once told me that she couldn’t make out what I do exactly, because I appear to do so much.

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