The Medaille voor Moed en Trouw — the Medal for Courage and Loyalty — was a Dutch colonial military decoration, worn with pride in the negorij or kampong of the Ambonese and Menadonese soldiers. The decoration was, in the colonial army’s decoration economy, the standard recognition of indigenous courage before the M.W.O. was extended to indigenous soldiers in 1865.
The decoration
The Medaille voor Moed en Trouw was the Medal for Courage and Loyalty — the standard recognition of courage in the field for indigenous soldiers before the M.W.O. was extended to them. The book notes that “de Ambonese le luitenant Joseph Rakarias” was awarded the Medaille voor Moed en Trouw in 1850 — and that it was vervangen (replaced) by the M.W.O. 4e klas in 1865, when the M.W.O. was extended to indigenous soldiers. The replacement was a recognition that the earlier medal had been inadequate to the act it recognised.
The decoration economy
The Medaille voor Moed en Trouw was, in the colonial army’s decoration economy, the recognition that came before the M.W.O. and alongside the Eervolle Vermelding. The book’s example is Salawono, who at the Marechaussee korps had “een Eervolle Vermelding en de Moed en Trouw verdiend” — an Honorable Mention and the Medal for Courage and Loyalty — before earning his M.W.O. 4e klas at the storming of Limboer.
The trots of the negorij
“Ridders M.W.O., dragers van de Medaille voor Moed en Trouw en van het Kroontje (de Eervolle Vermelding), waren de trots van hun kampong of negorij.” The Medaille voor Moed en Trouw — like the M.W.O. and the Eervolle Vermelding — was the pride of the soldier’s home community.
Significance
The Medaille voor Moed en Trouw is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the standard recognition of indigenous courage before the M.W.O. was extended to indigenous soldiers. The book’s argument is that the replacement of the Medaille voor Moed en Trouw by the M.W.O. 4e klas in 1865 was the colonial army’s recognition that the indigenous soldaat’s courage deserved the same decoration as the European soldaat’s. The Medaille voor Moed en Trouw is therefore the book’s marker of the colonial army’s decoration economy before the M.W.O. was opened to indigenous soldiers.
See Also
- Militaire Willemsorde (M.W.O.)
- Eervolle Vermelding
- Kroontje (Eervolle Vermelding)
- Joseph Rakarias
- Salawono
- Negorij
- kamponggemeenschap
- 1850
- 1865
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” and chapter “Oom en de Bintang.”