Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. — “Uncle Ambon of the K.N.I.L.” — is a Dutch-language book by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (Major of Infantry, K.N.I.L., retired), published in ‘s-Gravenhage (The Hague) in 1954 by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. The book is the single richest Dutch-language portrait of the Ambonese professional soldier of the colonial army, and the principal printed source for the daily life, patrols, songs and ethos of the Marechaussee corps in Aceh in the last decades of colonial rule. It is the source of every entry in this AcehWiki corpus that draws on Dames.
Genre and method
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is part memoir, part regimental history, part ethnographic portrait of “Oom Ambon” — the archetypal Ambonese soldier of the colonial army. Dames writes in the first person throughout, identifying himself as a captain in the K.N.I.L. who served on the Westkust of Atjeh in the 1930s and saw action against Indonesian revolutionary forces around Brastagi in 1947. The book is not a chronological autobiography but a series of thematic chapters — Bij ons…, Van recruut tot pensioen, Moeilijkheden op den weg, Tangsi en Tante, De buitenpost, Ooms leger, Oom en de Bintang, Dominee Thenu, Thijs, De patrouille, Jappentijd, Onder Brits bewind, Onzekerheid, Tegen de rood-witten, Tamaela — held together by the figure of Oom Ambon.
Dames explicitly distances himself from the tall-story tradition of the colonial officer corps. The book’s prologue opens with the famous Hotel de Boer anecdote and uses the story to mark out the boundary between legend and waarheid. “Wij willen naar waarheid vertellen van Oom Ambon,” he writes; the book will not “de methode van bovengenoemde kapitein volgen” or “trachten te zien hoever men met fantasieën kan gaan.”
Sources and the Nawoord
In the Nawoord Dames acknowledges the printed sources he drew on for episodes he could not have witnessed himself, especially the chapters on the older Aceh War and the decorations history. He names in particular the works of van Kijffler and Booms, as well as Hotz (whose account of the colonne Schmidt he used for the Tiriō campaign), Schmidt himself (whose report on 1910-1911 was published), du Croo, Zentgraaf and General Swart. The book is therefore not pure memoir but a synthesis of personal recollection and these older printed authorities, with Dames’s own commentary threaded throughout.
Contents
The book’s chapters are:
- Bij ons… — the prologue, on the Hotel de Boer anecdote and the boundary between legend and waarheid.
- Van recruut tot pensioen — the career of the archetypal Ambonese soldier Patty, from recruit to pension.
- Moeilijkheden op den weg — the difficulties of the colonial soldier’s life, including the Magelang menage protest.
- Tangsi en Tante — the tangsi (barracks) and the Tante (the Oom’s wife).
- De buitenpost — the bivak (field camp) in the buitengewesten.
- Ooms leger — the colonial army’s history, including the Aceh War.
- Oom en de Bintang — the decorations of the colonial army.
- Leve het Zesde Bataljon! — the Verovering van Tondok en Kadoe on Celebes.
- De colonne Schmidt — the colonne Schmidt of 1910-1911.
- Dominee Thenu — the Soldaten-Dominee of Aceh.
- Thijs — the sergeant Thijs de Fretes of Bakongan.
- De patrouille — the daily life of the patrouille.
- Jappentijd — the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945.
- Onder Brits bewind — the British interregnum of 1945-1946.
- Onzekerheid — the uncertainty of 1946-1949.
- Tegen de rood-witten — the war against the Indonesian republicans of 1946-1949.
- Tamaela — the korporaal Tamaela of the transfer of sovereignty.
- Nawoord — the afterword with sources and acknowledgments.
Significance
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is the single richest Dutch-language portrait of the Ambonese professional soldier of the colonial army. Because it was written in 1954 — late enough to look back on the whole arc of the K.N.I.L. from the Aceh War to the transfer of sovereignty, early enough to be informed by living memory — it functions both as a primary source on the last generation of Oom Ambon and as a retrospective interpretation of what that figure meant. Its affectionate but clear-eyed portrait of the Ambonese soldier, of the tangsi culture that shaped him, and of the colonial regime he served, has been drawn on by every later historian of the K.N.I.L. and of the Marechaussee in particular.
Sources
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), prologue “Bij ons…” and chapter “Van recruut tot pensioen.”
See Also
- G. W. T. Dames
- Oom Ambon
- K.N.I.L.
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Dominee Thenu
- Nussy
- Thijs de Fretes
- Schmidt
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Hotel de Boer
- 1954
- Tante
- Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L.
- Tanamal
- Salawono
- Tamaela
- Tangsi
- Spandri
- Soldaat sadja
- 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). The book itself is the source.