The Atjèh Instituut — founded in 1914 with the approval of the Dutch Crown (Koninklijk besluit van 31 Juli 1914 N°. 61) — was the scholarly association that commissioned J. Kreemer’s encyclopaedic survey Atjèh (1922–1923), the work that is the principal source of this wiki’s Kreemer entries. Its purpose, as recorded in its statutes and quoted by Kreemer in his preface, was “om, in samenwerking met het Koloniaal Instituut, zoo volledig mogelijke gegevens te verzamelen betreffende de bevolking van Atjèh en Onderhoorigheden en deze gegevens beschikbaar te stellen ten behoeve van het welzijn en van de stoffelijke en de geestelijke ontwikkeling van die bevolking en van onze betrekkingen met haar” — “to collect, in collaboration with the Koloniaal Instituut, the most complete possible data concerning the population of Atjèh and Onderhoorigheden, and to make these data available for the welfare and for the material and spiritual development of that population and of our relations with it.”
Foundation and directorium
The Atjèh Instituut was founded in 1914, its statutes approved by Koninklijk besluit van 31 Juli 1914 N°. 61 and published as a supplement to the Nederlandsche Staatscourant of 18 September 1914 N°. 219. The founding directorium, as recorded by Kreemer, consisted of:
- Prof. Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje — chairman (voorzitter), serving until 1920.
- C. J. Hasselman — treasurer (penningmeester).
- F. A. Liefrinck — member.
- Dr. C. W. Janssen — member.
- Prof. J. C. van Eerde — secretary (secretaris).
The address of the association was: de Afdeeling Volkenkunde van het Koloniaal Instituut te Amsterdam — the Ethnology Department of the Koloniaal Instituut in Amsterdam.
The commission of Kreemer’s Atjèh
The Instituut’s “naaste plan” — immediate plan — was “de samenstelling van een samenvattend boek over het gewest Atjèh en Onderhoorigheden, een beeld gevende van den actueelen toestand van land en volk in uitgebreiden zin” — “the composition of a summarising book about the residency of Atjèh and Onderhoorigheden, giving a picture of the actual condition of land and people in the broad sense.” Kreemer was appointed archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut with effect from 1 August 1914, and was charged with the composition of the work. He departed for Atjèh on New Year’s Day 1916, arriving on 18 February 1916 and remaining until 23 October 1917.
Financial support
The Instituut’s work was supported financially by the Departement van Koloniën, the Koloniaal Instituut, the Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, and the Maatschappij ter bevordering van het natuurkundig onderzoek der Nederlandsche Koloniën. The publisher was N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill of Leiden.
Significance
The Atjèh Instituut is, in Kreemer’s narrative, the institutional context out of which the principal twentieth-century encyclopaedic survey of Atjèh emerged. Its foundation in 1914 — coinciding with the close of the Atjèh-oorlog and the beginning of the civil-government period — marks the moment at which Dutch colonial scholarship on Atjèh shifted from the military-administrative accounts of Kielstra and Snouck Hurgronje to the comprehensive ethnographic and geographical survey that Kreemer’s work represents.
Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
The Atjeh-Instituut — the Atjeh Institute — was an institute founded to promote the economic development of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden and to act as a broker between the colonial government, the Atjehnese oeléebalangs and the Sumatran East-Coast planter interest. Its principal publication in its earliest period was the pamphlet De rijkdom van Atjeh of 1923, which located the future wealth of the gewest in the development of its rice-cultivation.
The Programme of De rijkdom van Atjeh
The pamphlet proposes a three-part programme: first, the identification of geschikte padisoorten — rice varieties suited to local conditions; second, the opening of facilities for ontbolstering (husking); third, the creation of an organisation capable of selling the product at any moment at the market price. The pamphlet further insists that the oeléebalangs are the indispensable collaborators in any such programme.
Broersma’s Criticism
Broersma welcomes the pamphlet as a ‘toekomstbeeld’ — a picture of the future — but presses the Institut to go further and to point out how it thinks the great work of improving the rice-cultivation is to be begun, and to nominate a bemiddelaar (mediator) between the Atjehnese producer and the Sumatran East-Coast consumer. Broersma’s own proposal, set out in Verkenningen in Atjeh, is the appointment of a real expert on rice-cultivation to act in continuous consultation with a college van kundige hoofden. The Atjeh-Instituut, he suggests, might also promote the development of cattle-breeding in Atjeh for the supply of slaughter-cattle to Java, and might bring the interested parties together for that purpose.
Significance
The Atjeh-Instituut is the principal institutional sponsor of the economic development of the gewest in the early civilian period, and its De rijkdom van Atjeh is the principal printed programme of that development. The Institut’s ambition to act as a broker between the government, the oeléebalangs and the East-Coast planters is the type-case of the new role that the colonial government hoped private bodies would play in the post-pacification period.
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapters XVII, XVIII, XIX, ‘De verbetering van het rijstland’, ‘Veeteelt als bron van welvaart’ and ‘Handelaar en arbeider’, pp. 119–127.
Account from Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf (1925)
Atjeh Instituut was research institute interest economic development Atjeh, author of treatise De rijkdom van Atjeh.
Broersma account
Small treatise published from Atjeh-Instituut titled De rijkdom van Atjeh. That richness sees writing in rice cultivation gewest if develops Forms future image offers bestuur gewest states also Oostkust van Sumatra not indifferent economic happening Atjeh and wishes help Must consider treatise preparation later other communications follow.
Broersma asks: Would Atjeh-Instituut not person as mediator want can indicate between Atjeh and East Sumatra interests? What there recommended good: 1 suitable padi sorts indicate; 2 opportunities open dehulling; 3 organization create product each moment against market price sell.
Believe Atjeh-Instituut still must indicate how thinks big work improvement padi cultivation to begin maybe consider whether way indicated leads goal: appointment truly expert padi cultivation with college capable heads survey state overview what each region needed; next indicate how simplest quick improvements apply to further build; instruction planters via suitable countrymen cooperation heads.
Connection cattle
Atjeh-Instituut could task promote cattle possession country benefit also Java and Atjeh itself second wealth.
See Also
- 1914
- 1916
- 1922
- 1923
- Acheh
- Atjeh als rijstland
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- De rijkdom van Atjeh
- Dr. R. Broersma
- E. J. Brill
- J. Kreemer
- Koloniaal Instituut
- Kreemer’s Atjèh (1922-1923)
- Oeléebalang
- Oostkust van Sumatra
- Veeteelt in Atjeh
- Verbetering van het rijstland in Atjeh
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
- Paditeelt
- Pidie
- Koeta Radja
Source
Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Eerste Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1922. “Een woord vooraf,” blz. V–VI, met noot 1. Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim; Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon (1932), for the Koloniaal Instituut and Handelsmuseum. Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf, by Dr. R. Broersma, Gebrs. Cohen, Utrecht, 1925, pp. 108-115, 113-114.