De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (The Abandoned Posts in Great Acheh) was an illustrated Dutch military-historical album written by G. B. Hooijer, retired Lieutenant-Colonel of the Netherlands East Indies Army, and published with twenty-four plates by De Erven F. Bohn at Haarlem and G. Kolff & Co. at Batavia in the closing years of the nineteenth century. The book is a toelichting der platen — an explanatory narrative written to accompany a set of photographic plates — describing the chain of temporary Dutch posts erected outside the geconcentreerde linie in Groot-Atjeh between 1893 and 1896 under the alliance with Toekoe Oemar, and their loss and abandonment after his defection in March 1896.
Purpose and character of the work
Hooijer stated explicitly that the description of the fierce fighting that followed the defection fell buiten het kader van dit tot toelichting der platen geschreven verhaal — “outside the framework of this narrative written to explain the plates.” The book was therefore not conceived as a campaign history but as a commentary on images: each chapter opens from a photographic plate of a post, a benteng (earthwork fort), a mosque, a bridge or a stretch of terrain, and expands outward into the political and military history of that place. In consequence the work preserves an unusually detailed record of garrison life, fortification design, terrain, diet, humour and daily routine that formal campaign histories omitted.
Hooijer’s declared subject was one specific and, in his view, unrepeatable phase of the Atjeh-oorlog: die periode, waarin Hollander en Atjeher samen optrekken tegen den Moslemin, en de Nederlandsche soldaat moet marcheeren op Toekoe Oemar’s gefluit — “that period in which Hollander and Achehnese advance together against the Moslemin, and the Dutch soldier must march to Toekoe Oemar’s whistle.” He described this period as dubbel belangwekkend (“doubly interesting”) and said that he wished in woord en beeld (“in word and image”) to hold it fast.
Contents
The volume opens with a Voorwoord (foreword) lamenting the absence of Dutch literary, pictorial and musical treatment of the Acheh war, followed by a Lijst der Platen (list of plates) enumerating the twenty-four illustrations and their page positions. The main narrative then proceeds post by post: the hills of Tjot Goeë in the IX Moekims; Tjot Goeë itself; Biloel; Lam Koenjit; Toengkoeb; the house of Toekoe Tjoet Toengkoeb; Kroeng Kali; Masdjid Siem; the terrain around Masdjid Siem; Tjot Rang; the terrain around Tjot Rang; Lam Barih; the terrain at Anagaloeng; the bridge at Anagaloeng; Lam Soet; Kroeng Gloempang; the interior of Kroeng Gloempang; and Senelop.
Interpretative stance
Hooijer opened his narrative by quoting Snouck Hurgronje’s celebrated image of the Dutch position: that for years the garrison had sat within the geconcentreerde linie als een aap aan een ketting — “like an ape on a chain” — teased to distraction by a crowd of boys who ran no risk themselves. The alliance with Toekoe Oemar was presented as the attempt to escape that condition by employing an Achehnese chief to clear the ground outside the line.
On the reasons for Oemar’s defection Hooijer preserved an explicit uncertainty: Waarom Toekoe Oemar onze zijde verliet, is nog altijd niet uitgemaakt — “Why Toekoe Oemar left our side has still not been settled.” He offered as a possibility that Oemar foresaw that the conversion of the temporary posts into permanent settlements — with land clearance, bridges, roads, dykes, tramways, policing by the Korps Marechaussée and regular administration by acting controleurs — would end his indispensability, but he explicitly refused to assert it: wie zal het zeggen? (“who shall say?”).
His conclusion was that the work of two years and the lives and money spent upon it would have been wasted als in deze gebeurtenis geen aanleiding ware gevonden eindelijk krachtig op te treden — had the events of 1896 not furnished the occasion to act forcefully at last and to teach the Achehnese dat onze wil zijn wet moet zijn (“that our will must be his law”). He judged that the crisis had at least swept away the scheeve verhoudingen (skewed relations) that had grown up between Dutch power and Oemar’s.
Significance
The book is a principal visual and descriptive source for the buitenposten (outer posts) of Groot-Atjeh in the alliance period, a phase of the Aceh War documented in few other illustrated works. Because Hooijer wrote to explain photographs rather than to justify strategy, the work records material detail — the height of parapets, the composition of garrisons, the names painted over gateways, the price of Japanese port wine at Oleh-leh — that would otherwise have been lost. It is also a document of Dutch colonial self-perception at the end of the nineteenth century, closing with an appeal to the prestige of de groote koloniale Mogendheid, het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (“the great colonial Power, the Kingdom of the Netherlands”).
See Also
- G. B. Hooijer
- Voorwoord of De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh
- Lijst der Platen of De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh
- Geconcentreerde linie
- Teukoe Oemar
- Defection of Teukoe Oemar (1896)
- Groot-Atjeh
- Aceh War
- De Erven F. Bohn
- G. Kolff & Co.
- Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen
Source
De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, title page, Voorwoord, Lijst der Platen, pp. 9-54.