Vogelensang was a sergeant and patrol commander of the Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen in Aceh, the figure who, at the Keumala incident during the last elephant transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, still managed to be struck in the leg by a parang-blow from the heavily wounded crawling Acehnese man who had immediately been struck down. In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), Vogelensang is the patrol commander of the Keumala incident: the sergeant whose leg received the parang-blow of the fanatical Acehnese attacker.
The Keumala Incident
“I remember, from the last transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, a remarkable incident. An armed Acehnese man attacked the Marechaussee brigade that escorted the elephants. This happened in the valley of Keumala, the classic battle-ground, on the same spot where the elephant transport had been attacked by a small gang of resistance fighters three years before. 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 narrator remembers, from the last transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, a remarkable incident. An armed Acehnese man attacked the Marechaussee brigade that escorted the elephants. This happened in the valley of Keumala, the classic battle-ground, on the same place where the elephant transport had been attacked by a small gang of resistance fighters three years before. 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 Book’s Interpretation
“The striking thing was that, at this attack, so far as the fight could be traced, the ordinary motives were absent.” The striking thing was that, at this attack, so far as the fight could be traced, the ordinary motives were absent. The Acehnese man had already paid the demanded amount of f 2.40 in taxes. He was exempt from rendering corvée road-services, so apparently an older person. He belonged, further, also not to the so-called resistance party. “Of violent emotion, of domestic misery, distress over loss of goods through gambling, nothing was known. Nor of weariness of life, or of a feverish ‘malou’ — shame — feeling, condition.”
The Keumala attacker — who had immediately been struck down and who, heavily wounded and crawling, still managed to deliver a parang-blow to Vogelensang — was the resistance fighter of the paradise-death: the man who sought death without the ordinary motives of the resistance party. Vogelensang’s leg — the parang-blow he received — is the book’s marker of the resistance fighter’s fanaticism: the man who, even when struck down and heavily wounded, still delivered a parang-blow.
Significance
Vogelensang is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the patrol commander of the Keumala incident — the sergeant whose leg received the parang-blow of the fanatical Acehnese attacker. The book’s argument — that the Keumala attacker was the resistance fighter of the paradise-death who sought death without the ordinary motives — is the book’s marker of the resistance fighter’s fanaticism. Vogelensang is therefore the book’s — and the colonial army’s — victim of the resistance fighter’s fanaticism: the patrol commander whose leg received the parang-blow of the fanatical Acehnese attacker.
See Also
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Transport-olifanten (Aceh)
- Keumala
- 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
Vogelensang was a sergeant and patrol commander of the Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen in Aceh, the figure who, at the Keumala incident during the last elephant transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, still managed to be struck in the leg by a parang-blow from the heavily wounded crawling Acehnese man who had immediately been struck down. In Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947), Vogelensang is the patrol commander of the Keumala incident: the sergeant whose leg received the parang-blow of the fanatical Acehnese attacker.
The Keumala Incident
“I remember, from the last transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, a remarkable incident. An armed Acehnese man attacked the Marechaussee brigade that escorted the elephants. This happened in the valley of Keumala, the classic battle-ground, on the same spot where the elephant transport had been attacked by a small gang of resistance fighters three years before. 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 narrator remembers, from the last transport from Geumpang to Tangsé, a remarkable incident. An armed Acehnese man attacked the Marechaussee brigade that escorted the elephants. This happened in the valley of Keumala, the classic battle-ground, on the same place where the elephant transport had been attacked by a small gang of resistance fighters three years before. 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 Book’s Interpretation
“The striking thing was that, at this attack, so far as the fight could be traced, the ordinary motives were absent.” The striking thing was that, at this attack, so far as the fight could be traced, the ordinary motives were absent. The Acehnese man had already paid the demanded amount of f 2.40 in taxes. He was exempt from rendering corvée road-services, so apparently an older person. He belonged, further, also not to the so-called resistance party. “Of violent emotion, of domestic misery, distress over loss of goods through gambling, nothing was known. Nor of weariness of life, or of a feverish ‘malou’ — shame — feeling, condition.”
The Keumala attacker — who had immediately been struck down and who, heavily wounded and crawling, still managed to deliver a parang-blow to Vogelensang — was the resistance fighter of the paradise-death: the man who sought death without the ordinary motives of the resistance party. Vogelensang’s leg — the parang-blow he received — is the book’s marker of the resistance fighter’s fanaticism: the man who, even when struck down and heavily wounded, still delivered a parang-blow.
Significance
Vogelensang is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the patrol commander of the Keumala incident — the sergeant whose leg received the parang-blow of the fanatical Acehnese attacker. The book’s argument — that the Keumala attacker was the resistance fighter of the paradise-death who sought death without the ordinary motives — is the book’s marker of the resistance fighter’s fanaticism. Vogelensang is therefore the book’s — and the colonial army’s — victim of the resistance fighter’s fanaticism: the patrol commander whose leg received the parang-blow of the fanatical Acehnese attacker.
See Also
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Transport-olifanten (Aceh)
- Keumala
- 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.