Isah was one of the three female elephants of the colonial army’s elephant transport in Aceh — with Agam the male and her fellow female elephants Sarah and Rimba. In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), Isah is one of the four elephants — “Agam, the male, and Isah, Sarah, and Rimba, the female elephants” — that were disposed of in the time when the narrator was posted there.
The female elephants and the European zoo
“One of the female elephants was sent to Medan, and it is this sturdy young lady that you see here on this snapshot. I still see the colossus slowly swaying forward along the main road. The future of the two other female elephants was also a European zoo.” One of the female elephants was sent to Medan, and it is this sturdy young lady that the colonel’s snapshot — the photo from the Rotterdam Diergaarde that opens the chapter — shows. “I still see the colossus slowly swaying forward along the main road.” The future of the two other female elephants was also a European zoo — that is, the female elephants were sent to European zoos (including the Rotterdam Diergaarde) when the elephant transport was abolished.
Significance
Isah is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as one of the three female elephants of the elephant transport. The book’s argument — that the female elephants were sent to European zoos when the elephant transport was abolished — is the book’s marker of the end of the former-times elephant transport: the female elephants who had served the colonial army in Aceh ended their days in European zoos, including the Rotterdam Diergaarde.
See Also
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
Isah was one of the three female elephants of the colonial army’s elephant transport in Aceh — with Agam the male and her fellow female elephants Sarah and Rimba. In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), Isah is one of the four elephants — “Agam, the male, and Isah, Sarah, and Rimba, the female elephants” — that were disposed of in the time when the narrator was posted there.
The female elephants and the European zoo
“One of the female elephants was sent to Medan, and it is this sturdy young lady that you see here on this snapshot. I still see the colossus slowly swaying forward along the main road. The future of the two other female elephants was also a European zoo.” One of the female elephants was sent to Medan, and it is this sturdy young lady that the colonel’s snapshot — the photo from the Rotterdam Diergaarde that opens the chapter — shows. “I still see the colossus slowly swaying forward along the main road.” The future of the two other female elephants was also a European zoo — that is, the female elephants were sent to European zoos (including the Rotterdam Diergaarde) when the elephant transport was abolished.
Significance
Isah is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as one of the three female elephants of the elephant transport. The book’s argument — that the female elephants were sent to European zoos when the elephant transport was abolished — is the book’s marker of the end of the former-times elephant transport: the female elephants who had served the colonial army in Aceh ended their days in European zoos, including the Rotterdam Diergaarde.
See Also
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.