Oost-Indisch Journael — published with the subtitle Palaver om de tafel met het gat (“Palaver around the table with the hole”) — is a Dutch-language book by Merac, published in 1947 by De Gulden Pers in Haarlem, in the Toekan-Serie (Toucan Series) edited by G. L. Tichelman (former administrative official). The book is a collection of small histories written in the period between the First and Second World Wars, which the author describes as “tales of the old time, which is always said to be good and to which we look back with a mild smile of melancholy.” The book is a source for the daily life, the colonial society, and the military history of the Dutch East Indies in the inter-war period, with substantial content on Aceh — the Aceh War, the Marechaussee, the Soldaten-Dominee (soldiers’ chaplain) Thenu and the Soldaten-Pastoor (soldiers’ priest) Verbraak, the Meusigit Raja of Koeta-Radja, the Gajoweg, the transport-olifanten (transport elephants) of Aceh, and the old Acehnese hunter Datoek of Blang Rakal.
Genre and method
Oost-Indisch Journael is a collection of stories framed as conversations among a recurring cast of colonial characters — the old Aceh fighter, titular colonel Musket, the fat Meijer, the Resident, the Controleur, the Pastoor, the land-council chairman, the commissioner of the field police, the chaplain, the lieutenant, the planter — who gather around the sociëteit table with the hole for the houseboy and tell stories of “tempo doeloe” — the old time. The book’s method is the palaver: the colonial figures sit around the table, drink tjap koentji beer and pait (a bitter drink), and tell each other stories of the old time.
The author — Merac — distances himself from the tall-story tradition only partially. The book’s prologue (Sloebers) establishes the frame: Musket, the old Aceh fighter, hears the word “sloebers” — the old fighting-cocks’ name for the Acehnese enemy — and begins to tell of “the good old time.” The book that follows is the palaver around the table: the stories of the Atjeh-moorden (Aceh murders), the prang sabil (holy war), the djahat (resistance fighter), the Verzet in Lhong (Resistance in Lhong), the Soldaten-Dominee Thenu, the Meusigit Raja, the Gajoweg, the transport-olifanten of Aceh, and the old hunter Datoek.
Contents
The book’s chapters, with their Aceh-related content, include:
- Sloebers — the prologue, on the Atjeh-moorden, the prang sabil, the djahat, and the Verzet in Lhong.
- (Various chapters on administrative officials, planters, and other colonial topics — see the chapter on transfers, which cites Van Heutsz’s circular against transfers and Snouck Hurgronje’s remark on experienced controllers.)
- (A chapter on the Soldaten-Dominee Thenu and the Soldaten-Pastoor Verbraak, with the marechaussée song quoted in full and the list of the marechaussée commanders: Graafland, Van Daalen, Campioni, Christoffel, Van der Maaten, Scheepens, Watrin, Webb, Colijn, Geertsema Beckering, Darlang and the sergeants Nussy, Salowono, Pongoh.)
- (A chapter on the Meusigit Raja of Koeta-Radja, with the generaal Van Swieten letter of 8 February 1874 and the Snouck Hurgronje judgement.)
- Jagerslatijn (Hunters’ Latin) — the chapter on the lieutenant’s journey through Atjeh, the Gajoweg, Bireuën, Takengeun, Blang Rakal, and the old hunter Datoek.
- Atjeh’s Transport-Olifanten (Aceh’s Transport-Elephants) — the chapter on the transport-olifanten of Aceh: Agam the male, Isah, Sarah and Rimba the female elephants, and the Lam-toeulo-Tangsé-Geumpang transport.
Sources and the Toekan-Serie
The book is volume 2 of the Toekan-Serie (Toucan Series), edited by G. L. Tichelman, former administrative official. The series takes its name from the Toekan — the rhinoceros hornbill — which, as the series’ opening explains, “had for many peoples in the archipelago an extraordinary meaning: he was the culture-bringer, he accompanied the souls of the departed to the Land of the Dead, he had influence on the fertility of the fields and was the bringer of iron.” The series is placed under the protection of this bird “who carries fire in his beak.”
Significance
Oost-Indisch Journael is significant as a source for the inter-war colonial memory of Aceh. The book — written in 1947, after the Japanese occupation and during the 1945-1949 Indonesian revolution — looks back on “tempo doeloe” with “a mild smile of melancholy.” The book’s Aceh content — the Atjeh-moorden, the Soldaten-Dominee Thenu, the Meusigit Raja, the Gajoweg, the transport-olifanten — preserves the inter-war colonial memory of the Aceh War and its aftermath, told by the old Aceh fighter Musket and his circle. The book is therefore both a primary source on the inter-war colonial memory of Aceh and a retrospective interpretation of what the Aceh War had meant to the colonial officers who had fought it.
See Also
- Musket
- Dominee Thenu
- Pastoor Verbraak
- Gouverneur-Generaal Van Heutsz
- Snouck Hurgronje
- Meusigit Raja
- Gajoweg
- Datoek
- Transport-olifanten (Aceh)
- Atjeh-oorlog
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Marechausseelied
- 1947
Source
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947). Koninklijke Bibliotheek.