Manisee — also Manisé, Marsosé — was the name by which the soldiers of the Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen knew themselves and were known by the Acehnese: the Manisee was the Ambonese Marechaussee in Aceh. In Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. the Manisee is the name that resounds in the Marechausseelied — “Manisee-Manisee! ‘t Is terlaloe Manisee!” — and the name that gives the corps its own identification, distinct from both the European soldiers and the Acehnese bevolking.
The name and the refrein
The refrein of the Marechausseelied — “Manisee-Manisee! ‘t Is terlaloe Manisee! / Hari-hari naik goenoeng, ‘t Is terlaloe Manisee!” — gave the corps its Manisee name. The word terlaloe — glossed in the book as verschrikkelijk (terrible/excessive) — was the soldiers’ own affectionate exaggeration: the Marechaussee was “terlaloe Manisee” — terribly/excessively Manisee. The name was therefore both self-identification and affectionate self-mockery: the soldiers who sang “terlaloe Manisee” were laughing at themselves even as they named themselves.
The korpslied
The more formal korpslied used the variant Marsosé: “Hai marsosé, hai marsosé… memboeroeh moesoeh, memboeroeh moesoeh th’ tjapé-é, / naik-toeroen goenoeng, / masoek-kaloear rimba, / memtjari bekas dani anak marsosé!” (Hunting the enemy relentlessly, mountain up and down, in and out of the bush, seeking traces of the marechaussee-son!) The Marsosé of the korpslied is the same name as the Manisee of the Marechausseelied: both are the soldiers’ own name for themselves.
The Manisee and the Acehnese
The Acehnese bevolking also knew the Marechaussee as Manisee. The name was therefore the bridge between the colonial army’s own identification and the Acehnese identification of the colonial soldier: the Manisee was the Ambonese Marechaussee in Aceh, known by that name to himself, to his officers, and to the bevolking.
Significance
Manisee is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the name by which the soldiers of the Marechaussee knew themselves. The book’s argument is that the Manisee — the Ambonese Marechaussee in Aceh — was a type distinct from both the European soldiers and the Acehnese bevolking, and that the name Manisee was the soldiers’ own identification of that type. The refrein of the Marechausseelied — “Manisee-Manisee! ‘t Is terlaloe Manisee!” — is the book’s identification of the corps by its own idiom: the corps was what its soldiers sang.
See Also
- Marechausseelied
- Korpslied van de Marechaussee
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Oom Ambon
- Dardanellen
- Bekas
- Bivak
- Atjehmensen
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “Van recruut tot pensioen” (where the Marechausseelied is quoted).