Jongejans — J. J. Jongejans — was the Resident of Atjèh who preceded J. Pauw in the post, and the author of Land en volk van Atjèh vroeger en nu (1939) — one of the principal works on Atjèh cited by Piekaar in the Bibliography of Atjèh and the War with Japan alongside the works of Dr. Snouck Hurgronje, Damsté, Kreemer, and Zentgraaff. Piekaar’s work refers readers to “the works of Dr. Snouck Hurgronje, Damsté, Kreemer, Jongejans, and Zentgraaff listed in the ‘Bibliography’” for further detail on the local circumstances described in Chapters III and V.
The residency and the agricultural action
Jongejans’s residency was, in Piekaar’s account, the period in which the action to expand Atjèh’s rice production — begun by the agricultural extension service — was continued with ever-increasing success. “Under Residents Jongejans and Pauw this action was continued with ever-increasing success. Projects for extensive irrigation works were developed.” The continuity of policy between Jongejans and Pauw reflected, in Piekaar’s reading, the shared recognition that the time had arrived to bring Atjèh “to development at a rapid pace through joint effort.”
The handover to Pauw
Jongejans was succeeded by Pauw on 30 September 1938. The handover marked the transition from one connoisseur of Atjèh to another: Piekaar characterises both men as belonging to “the excellent connoisseurs of Aceh’s land and people.” The continuity of the residency — the unbroken line of connoisseurs — was, in Piekaar’s account, one of the factors that gave the Dutch administration its pre-war strength, even as the political-religious movements of the late 1930s were building beneath the surface.
The work on Atjèh
Jongejans’s Land en volk van Atjèh vroeger en nu — “Land and People of Atjèh, Past and Present” — was, in Piekaar’s reading, one of the principal scholarly resources on Atjèh available to the colonial administrator. The work, alongside those of Snouck Hurgronje, Damsté, Kreemer, and Zentgraaff, formed the canon of Atjèh scholarship on which Piekaar himself drew in the preparation of Atjèh and the War with Japan. The footnote to Piekaar’s discussion of the F-organisatie, for example, refers the reader to “J. Jongejans, ‘Land en volk van Atjèh, vr’” — a reference to the relevant section of Jongejans’s work.
Additional account from Literatuur-Overzicht (1940) — the 1939 publications
Jongejans was, in 1939, one of the principal Atjeh-focused authors of the year. His publications, as recorded by Van Meurs in the Literatuur-Overzicht over het jaar 1939 (The Hague, 1940), include:
- No. 571 — Land en volk van Atjeh vroeger en nu (“Land and people of Atjeh, past and present”), published at Baarn in 1939 with maps and illustrations (Met krt. en ills.). The book is the principal published work by Jongejans recorded in Van Meurs’s survey, and it is the basis of his citation in the Piekaar canon.
- No. 571a — Taboet- of Hasji-Hosseinfeest (“Taboet or Hasji-Hossein festival”), an illustrated article in Onze Aarde (Our Earth), 1939, p. 326 e.v., on the Taboet or Hasji-Hossein festival — the Shi’ite-derived commemoration of the martyrdom of Hussein observed on Sumatra’s Westkust.
- No. 572 — Het heiligdom te Oelakan (“The sanctuary at Oelakan”), an illustrated article in Onze Aarde, 1939, p. 305 e.v., on the sanctuary at Oelakan, a place of pilgrimage on the west coast of Atjeh.
The three pieces together — the book and the two Onze Aarde articles — mark Jongejans as one of the principal Atjeh-focused authors of 1939, and the book as the central statement of his survey of Atjehnese land and people. The companion pieces — on the Taboet festival and on the Oelakan sanctuary — extend the survey into the religious and pilgrimage life of Atjeh.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Jongejans is significant as the former Resident of Atjèh whose 1939 survey Land en volk van Atjeh vroeger en nu is one of the principal works on Atjèh in the Piekaar canon, and whose 1939 publications — the book and the two Onze Aarde articles — make him one of the principal Atjeh-focused authors of the year recorded in Van Meurs’s survey. His place in the canon — alongside Snouck Hurgronje, Damsté, Kreemer, and Zentgraaff — establishes the continuity of the Dutch scholarly-administrative tradition on Atjèh from the late-colonial period into the post-war historiography.
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)
Jongejans’s book supplied du Croo with the figures for estate concessions in Atjeh to the end of 1937 — sixty-nine agricultural concessions covering 71,069 hectares, seventy-four leasehold parcels covering 67,287 hectares and thirteen option parcels covering 287,000 hectares — and with the account, written in 1938, of the later development of volksonderwijs: 328 village schools, more than 600 teachers, more than 36,000 pupils, and a literacy rate at the census of 1930 of only 1.1 per cent against 5.5 per cent on Java. He also recorded the dependence of village schools, and especially girls’ schools, on the support of the oelèëbalang.
See Also
- Pauw
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- H. T. Damsté
- J. Kreemer
- Dr. A. J. Piekaar
- Resident of Atjèh
- Land en volk van Atjeh vroeger en nu (Jongejans, 1939)
- Taboet- of Hasji-Hosseinfeest (Jongejans, 1939)
- Oelakan
- Literatuur-Overzicht over het jaar 1939 (Van Meurs, 1940)
- H. van Meurs
- 30 September
- 1938
- 1939
- 1940
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Author of the book. Arrived in Aceh in 1930 as assistant-resident, stayed (with brief interlude in Menado) until time of writing. Wrote the book at request of Hollandia Drukkerij N.V. BaarnAuthor of the book. He is a colonial administrator writing an ethnographic/administrative description of Aceh. First-person voice throughout (e.g., ‘moge ik niet nalaten te verklaren’).Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu’. Conducted the 1933 atjeh-moord investigation as afdeelingschef. Had earlier service in Borneo (mentions seeing insane in rotan bindings).
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 1, 5, 9, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 141, 178, 197, 383, 386.
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Foreword, Chapter I, and footnotes.
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), Nos. 571, 571a, 572. Citing: J. J. Jongejans, Land en volk van Atjeh vroeger en nu. Met krt. en ills. (Baarn, 1939); and J. J. Jongejans, “Taboet- of Hasji-Hosseinfeest. Met ills.,” Onze Aarde (1939), p. 326 e.v.; and J. J. Jongejans, “Het heiligdom te Oelakan. Met ills.,” Onze Aarde (1939), p. 305 e.v.
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter XIII, XVII.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 1, 5, 9, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 141, 178, 197, 383, 386.