Martin Brouwer, the outgoing Dutch ambassador to Kenya, has left the building and may have left the country as well. I packed a 40-year career into a set of suitcases and boarded a midnight plane home. Of his forty years in diplomacy, four were spent in Kenya; The rest worked in Khartoum (Sudan), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), and Bamako (Mali). Even when he was not working in Africa, when he was based at the headquarters in The Hague, he always seemed to be working for Africa.
An economics student (Free University, Amsterdam), he joined the world of diplomacy in 1988 when he started his first job at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He saw Africa at its weakest – drought, wars, political turmoil, poverty – but also at its best when it was bright and hopeful, and it seemed like everything was going to be okay.
Sadness is not the emotion that describes the end of this period. Completed, perhaps. Grateful, perhaps. Definitely happy. He looks forward to “freedom” and not waking up so early, reading books in a café without looking at his watch, and not always doing what he is told for a change.
Did you learn anything interesting about Africa?
One thing I've been thinking about recently is Ubuntu, which is a real African value: I am because you are. This strong call for collective action is changing, in the same way it has changed in Europe and many African countries. Things change over generations. You see the change in rural areas and urban centres. You see changes in relationships between men and women, young and old. I think life stresses are more in urban centres.
What are you most afraid of for Africans and the continent?
Losing this togetherness. Look around Africa. There are more conflicts now than there were 40 years ago when I started. The aggressiveness in those conflicts was also remarkable. Look at what happened in Ethiopia, what is happening in Sudan, what is happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the western part of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and that region. There is cruelty and disrespect for human life. But this also applies to the war in Ukraine, which was organized by Russia, and conflicts in other countries, say Haiti. I am a little afraid that these cracks in societies could be exploited by different forces. Africa must defend itself.
After doing this for so long, how has it changed you?
You see problems as situations that must have a solution. I have also learned to accept the fact that solutions will always present themselves, and that they must come from within; It cannot be enforced. You also learn to be patient and stay engaged in conversations. Diplomacy has taught me that there are no quick solutions.
Has diplomacy given you any unique insights into human nature? What do humans want? Is this desire limited to a specific group of people or do most people want the same things?
(Pause) Very difficult question. (Long pause) Everyone wants to belong to a group. The level of their imagination and the size of this group often changes. So, if you live here in Nairobi, you want to be part of a much larger change group. You want to be part of a business community, a governance structure, or an academic group, but it needs to be a larger group. If you're in a rural community, your extended family is often already the group, and you're not thinking about the next level. So this is where the changes are. But the desire to belong to others is very important. When groups exclude people, they return to survival mode. What the government wants no longer matters at this point, and the use of violence is often possible.
What kind of kids you?
(laughs) What kind of kid were you? interesting. (Stops). I was an active boy and loved to play. I wasn't often in the most popular group at school, but I didn't fall behind either. I spent the first five years of my life in the northern part of the Netherlands, in the rural region of Friesland. Then my parents moved to Amsterdam, where I spent my school time: big city life. I always wanted to do something in the development world, and after university, there was a program for young people to get involved in this field at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So I applied for it, but they said I was too old for it, so I said, well, then how do I become a diplomat? So I applied several times until I was accepted.
I'm sure you've met many people. But who is the most interesting person you have met? Top of mind.
Wow, this is a very difficult question. (Pause) I forgot his name, but he was an Indian scientist. He was on a program at the World Bank, and I had a long discussion with him. He was director of the poverty department. We had a great discussion on development in India.
Outgoing Ambassador of the Netherlands to Kenya Martin Brouwer during an interview on May 15, 2024 at the embassy in Nairobi.
Image credit: Billy Ogada Nation Media Group
Did you have time in your busy schedule to have children?
(Chuckles) Oh yeah, fortunately. I have three children, a daughter and two sons. They've grown up, and they all have children now. My daughter has two children, and then the middle son has twins, girls. My youngest son also has twins, so we now have six young grandchildren. And I've always been with my wife.
Did you enjoy being a family man?
Yes, of course. We have always given priority to children. Of course, there are times when you have to work hard, work life is competitive, and you have to make choices out there. I always paid for their studies, no matter what it took. This is my core value, something my father taught me. It doesn't matter how much money we have, but you will achieve the highest possible level of education for yourself because it will give you the best chance in life, they tell me. All my children have finished their studies, and I am proud of that.
how old are you?
I'm 66 now, but by the end of the month I'll be 67, which is the retirement age in the Netherlands.
Is there something else you've always wanted to do and now you have the freedom to pursue it?
Well, what I look forward to most is freedom. I do things not because I need to or because someone wants me to do them, but because I want to do them. I'm looking forward to finding things to do for myself, but it's a new stage in my life, so I just wanted to figure out some of what it takes. Every stage in life takes something different, and now I'm facing this new stage, which I need to think about a little. I intend to do a lot of reading in the meantime. Get out more. With my experience, I also hope that I can get into a new job, a short-term job that doesn't require me to wake up at 6:30 a.m. every morning.
Which African country did you enjoy the most? It's okay not to say Kenya; We won't feel pain about it.
(Laughs) Well, I'll give you an answer that may feel diplomatic but it's not. This is how I really feel. Each country I have lived in corresponds to a period of my life.
So, when I was in Tanzania, we were a young family, and we had young children. We enjoyed being there at that time. It has been a very difficult period for Tanzania economically. The country was beautiful. You can travel. Everything is so great. The Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, is ten times as large as it is east of Tsavo. So it's all big, big, but beautiful. We enjoyed going on safaris and living near the ocean.
Sudan was different; There was a war going on. It's a desert, and that's where I started to love the desert. You might think, how strange is that? But the desert is not just a big pile of sand. There are sand dunes and a constant change of light during the day. So, this silence is beautiful. Our children were of school age. The international community was small, and you couldn't get out into the country very often, so it was a good time to spend quality time with family.
Despite the great suffering in Mali, I still feel connected to this country. I felt like a fisherman in the ocean.
We loved the accessibility of Kenya and the ability for families to fly in to visit. The climate is perfect, the best compared to other countries. I enjoyed each country, each with its own charm, but I was most drawn to East Africa.
What did your wife do during all these posts? How did she achieve her ambitions?
This is an excellent question. My wife is a teacher. She taught mathematics at a university in the Netherlands. I got a job at the University of Dar es Salaam while we were in Tanzania. In Sudan, she taught at an American school. After returning to the Netherlands, she resumed her old job again. In Mali the same thing. When we came to Kenya it was during the Covid-19 pandemic. She was teaching courses online. I have continued to teach virtually for the past three years.