The Keumala Incident — the attack on the last elephant transport at Keumala — is the set-piece of the chapter Atjeh’s Transport-Olifanten in Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947): the armed Acehnese man who attacked the marechaussée brigade that escorted the elephants during the last transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, and who — immediately struck down and heavily wounded, crawling — still managed to deliver a parang-blow to the patrol commander, sergeant Vogelensang, in his leg.
The attack
“I remember, from the last transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, a remarkable incident. An armed Acehnese man attacked the marechaussée brigade that escorted the elephants. This happened in the valley of Keumala, the classic battleground, on the same spot where the elephant transport had been attacked by a small band of djahats three years before.” The narrator remembers, from the last transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, a remarkable incident. An armed Acehnese man attacked the marechaussée brigade that escorted the elephants. This happened in the valley of Keumala, the classic battleground, on the same spot where the elephant transport had been attacked by a small band of djahats three years before.
The parang-blow
“The Acehnese man — who was immediately struck down — proved so fanatical that, heavily wounded and crawling, he managed to deliver a parang-blow to the patrol commander, Sergeant Vogelensang, in his leg!” The Acehnese man — who was immediately struck down — proved so fanatical that, heavily wounded and crawling, he managed to deliver a parang-blow to the patrol commander, sergeant Vogelensang, in his leg. The parang-blow — delivered while heavily wounded and crawling — is the book’s marker of the djahat’s fanaticism: the man who, even when struck down and heavily wounded, still delivered a parang-blow.
The book’s interpretation: ordinary motives were absent
“The striking thing was that, in this attack, so far as the fight could be reconstructed, the ordinary motives were absent.” The striking thing was that, in this attack, so far as the fight could be reconstructed, the ordinary motives were absent. “The attacker had already paid the demanded amount of f 2.40 in taxes. He was exempt from performing corvée road-services, so apparently an older person. He did not belong to the so-called djahat party. Of violent emotion, of domestic misery, of distress over loss of goods through gambling, nothing was known. Nor of weariness of life, or a feverish maloe — shame — feeling, condition.” The attacker had already paid the demanded amount of f 2.40 in taxes. He was exempt from corvée road-services, so apparently an older person. He did not belong to the so-called djahat party. Of violent emotion, of domestic misery, of distress over loss of goods through gambling, nothing was known. Nor of weariness of life, or a feverish maloe (shame) feeling, condition.
The djahat of the paradise-death
The Keumala attacker — who had paid his taxes, who was exempt from corvée road-services, who did not belong to the djahat party — was the djahat of the paradise-death: the man who sought death without the ordinary motives of the djahat party. The book’s — and the narrator’s — argument is that the Keumala attacker was the djahat who sought the paradise-death regardless of the ordinary motives: the man who, fanatical, attacked the elephant transport and delivered a parang-blow to the patrol commander even when heavily wounded and crawling.
Significance
The Keumala Incident is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the set-piece of the chapter Atjeh’s Transport-Olifanten — the attack on the last elephant transport at Keumala. The book’s argument — that the Keumala attacker was the djahat of the paradise-death who sought death without the ordinary motives — is the book’s marker of the djahat’s fanaticism: the man who, even when struck down and heavily wounded, still delivered a parang-blow. The Keumala Incident is therefore the book’s marker of the djahat’s paradise-death and of the fanaticism that the colonial army could not understand.
See Also
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Transport-olifanten (Aceh)
- Keumala
- Vogelensang
- Geumpang
- Tangsé
- Djahat
- Paradijs-dood
- Paranghouw
- Rodidiensten
- Atjeh-oorlog
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), chapter Atjeh’s Transport-Olifanten.