Tanawaqt was a locality in the Pedir country of Atjeh named by the Minister of Colonies J. T. Cremer in the Tweede Kamer on 16 November 1897 as one of the two places where the Delama-bands had gathered before the Segli expedition.
Cremer’s words were that at Segli the same condition prevailed roughly as in the Pedir country: “de vorsten aan de kust zijn ons niet vijandig gezind, maar zij zijn niet krachtig genoeg om de in de Tanawaqt of in de VII Moekims samengestroomde Delama-benden te verjagen, en daarom heeft de expeditie naar Segli plaats gehad.” — the princes on the coast are not hostile to us, but they are not strong enough to drive out the Delama bands that have streamed together in the Tanawaqt or in the VII Moekims, and for that reason the expedition to Segli took place.
The place-name appears in the source only in this single passage and in this spelling, without further topographical detail. It served in Cremer’s argument as one of the gathering-grounds from which armed bands descended on districts whose own chiefs were friendly to the Dutch but militarily powerless — the condition that in his account justified the Dutch practice of clearing a district and then withdrawing, rather than occupying it.
See Also
- Delama-benden
- Sigli expedition (August 1897)
- Segli
- Pedir
- VII Moekims
- Pakan Baroe
- Pokan Soth
- J. T. Cremer
- 1897
Source
Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898, uitgave van de Sociaaldemokratische Arbeiderspartij in Nederland (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br P95-178, p. 55.
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898 (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.