After serving six years at the board of our ZAM-net Foundation, Babah Tarawally will move on and explore new avenues in writing and social commentary.
In March the board of ZAM bade farewell to Babah with drinks, a present - the recently published plea for "courage in literature" by writer Christine Otten, De ander bestaat niet - and warm words. These were spoken by Annelies Verdoolaege, chair of the board and, like Tarawally, a member of the board for the last six years.
"We have done a lot together Babah, we have made very grateful use of your huge network, of your sharp pen, of your very astute mind. We want to thank you as ZAM for your dedication; I know that your heart will always be with ZAM and that we would always be able to call on you. Maybe we will need you in the near future, in our endless search for structural funding, in getting more in touch with the Dutch Afro-Europeans.
But just like ZAM, you are also a storyteller, so we will certainly bump into each other."
Babah's departure as a board member of ZAM does not end his involvement in our platform. "That one is permanent," Tarawally said in a thank you note. "I am already looking forward to all future Nelson Mandela Lectures." In his opinion, the success of the lectures cries out for further expansion, perhaps internationally.
Tarawally is a regular columnist for Dutch daily Trouw and a regular contributor to ZAM. In the coming months he will put the finishing touches to a new book. After The God with the Blue Eyes, The Lost Hand and his high-profile essay Caught in Black and White Thinking, the writer is throwing himself into a new non-fiction title about masculinity. The book is expected in November. Watch this space.
Read one of Babah’s contributions to ZAM here.
