If anyone is familiar with the ins and outs of De Nieuwe Poort, it’s Bamba. He’s been here from the start. After a three-month internship, he started working here. First as a dishwasher, but now he does everything in the kitchen and makes sure that ‘the boys’ behave. Bamba is from Liberia, where he lost his family at the age of eight. He was a child soldier and, because he has no birth certificate, doesn’t know exactly how old he is.

Nonetheless, he’s always positive, although he has noticed that forgiving and forgetting is difficult for Europeans. He thinks we should try a bit harder to do so. After all: ‘if you don’t forget, your brain will get tired. If you don’t forgive, your heart will get tired.’