J. L. M. van den Brandhof was the author of the 1939 article Kleiland-aanwinning op Atjeh’s Westkust in 1902 (“Land reclamation on Atjeh’s West Coast in 1902”), published in De Indische Gids, No. 61, p. 866 e.v., etc., recording an episode of land reclamation on Atjeh’s Westkust in the year 1902. The article is recorded as No. 557 in Van Meurs’s Literatuur-Overzicht over het jaar 1939 (The Hague, 1940), in the Sumatra chapter.
The 1939 article
Van den Brandhof’s article, published in De Indische Gids (The Indies Guide) — one of the principal monthly review journals of the Netherlands Indies — recorded an episode of kleiland-aanwinning (the gaining of new cultivable clay-soil land) on Atjeh’s Westkust in 1902, the middle phase of the Atjeh-oorlog. The choice of venue — De Indische Gids, read by colonial officials, planters, merchants, and the interested Dutch public — signals that the article was addressed to the practical colonial readership interested in the land-management and geographical aspects of the colonial engagement with the Atjeh west coast. The pagination “p. 866 e.v., etc.” indicates that the article ran from p. 866 onward and was continued in subsequent issues.
Significance
For AcehWiki, J. L. M. van den Brandhof is significant as the author of the 1939 retrospective on the 1902 land reclamation on Atjeh’s Westkust — a reminder that the colonial engagement with Atjeh was not solely military but also involved the practical work of land-management and the extension of cultivable area. The article furnishes an independent source for the geographical and administrative history of the Atjeh west coast in the middle phase of the Atjeh-oorlog.
See Also
- Kleiland-aanwinning op Atjeh’s Westkust in 1902 (Brandhof, 1939)
- Literatuur-Overzicht over het jaar 1939 (Van Meurs, 1940)
- H. van Meurs
- atjeh’s-westkust
- westkust-van-sumatra
- Aceh War
- Acheh
- 1902
- 1939
- 1940
Source
Literatuur-Overzicht over het jaar 1939 van de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde en Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië, door H. van Meurs (‘s-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1940), Hoofdstuk III (Sumatra en naburig gebied), No. 557. Citing: J. L. M. van den Brandhof, “Kleiland-aanwinning op Atjeh’s Westkust in 1902,” De Indische Gids, No. 61 (1939), p. 866 e.v., etc.