American
30 OCTOBER 1962
le JAARGANG No. 6
e pluribus oWUfl
THE ONLY INDEPENDENT DUTCH-INDONESIAN MAGAZINE IN AMERICA
SPOTLIGHT ON DUTCH-INDONESIAN HISTORY (1)
1
oARI/VC
ONlS^
There is a very remarkable thing about
the Dutch-Indonesian immigrants in the
United States. Nine out of ten have immedi-
iately a very peculiar feeling of being at
home.
Still, when you look around to find out
what exactly makes us feel so, we are sur
prised to see nearly nothing what reminds us
of Holland. No mills or coconuttrees, no
sarongs or wooden shoes, no betja's and no
bikes. The language is neither Dutch or
Indonesian as it was ever before, but Eng
lish. In the indeed enormous variety of
foods we miss such typical' Dutch dishes as
kail with sausage (boerekool met worst),
thick peasoup with bone (snert met kluif)
or the raw herring with onions in the street.
And of the thousands and thousands de
licious Indonesian dishes we find practically
nothing at all. Our own Dutch-Indonesian
rijsttafel is found nowhere.
In fact we can pile up easily so many
differences between America on one side and
Holland or Indonesia on the other side, that
we might wonder whether this home-feeling
isn't just imagination at all!
But nevertheless it is there, strong and
solid and undeniable- Where did it come
from? Where do the Americans come from?
Where do we come from? Suddenly we find
a key: both the Americans and Dutch-Indo
nesians are descendants from several Europ
ean nationalities. Though we both have only
one language, respectively English and
Dutch, we are no descendants from either
English or Dutch only, but we are of very
varied stock as I may say.
When you make up any list of Dutch-
Indonesian names, you may find such names
as Jansen or Steevensz (Dutch) Waas or
Flamang (Belgian), de Thouars or Lapré
(French), Robinson or Townsend (English)
or even Scottish and Irish names like Mac
kenzie and Obrien, Müller or Igel (Ger
man), Bodmer or Baniseth (Swiss) Catalani
or Fiorani (Italian), Cohen (Jewish). Niels
(Swedish), Dias, da Cunha, de Rosario, de
Lima. Piso (Spanish and Portuguese), not
to speak of names as Ongkiehong (Chinese),
Boadilla (Arabian), Oliveiro (Filipino),
Hacobian (Armenian), and so forth, and so
forth. The same names you find all over
America with "true Americans.
There are of course also big differences,
and every historian can easily find out why.
The European emigrants to America came
into a country with a nearly extinct people
and civilization- So there were no mixed
In this column, to be continued in
several next issues, the editors are trying
to write an outline of the history of the
Dutch Indonesian peopleSuch a history
alas, has never been written. Historical
facts about the Dutch-Indonesian people
up to now only exist as scattered frag
ments in the history of Holland, the his
tory of the Dutch Administration in the
Netherlands Indies, and in the history of
Indonesia.
Very much about the specific history
of the Dutch-Indonesians was considered
"unimportant" to the above mentioned
forms of historical study. That might be
true. But those facts are important to
US anyway. Furthermore we are con
vinced that we will find many facts of
great importance for a better under
standing of other historical studies in this
field and for opening new views on better
understanding in internationalinter
racial, and intercontinental relations.
We know that we will make many mis
takes. We also know that up to now we
have no clear idea along which lines we
should work. We are no historians. But
we have some very good friends in Amer
ican universities and professors of history.
With their help and with the help of so
many strong willed readers we will get
far-
This is the start. Let us go on new
discoveries.
marriages (though Indian blood in American
veins is considered a proudful distinction).
The Europeans in Indonesia found indeed
a civilization in decline, but a people and
culture very much alive and at least con
scious of great traditions. In times when
Christianity in Europe was slowly coming
up and northern barbarians were still living
in bearskins and drinking beer out of the
skulls of killed enemies (more or less on the
same level as Papoeans are living now in
New Gunea). there were in Indonesia very
high and internationally famous civilizations
like Dhoho, Modjopahit. Sriwidjaja. There
were cities as great as ancient Athens and
Rome- There was refined art, a high stand
ard of agriculture, and rich industry, busi
ness and architecture. Javanese armies chal
lenged even China, merchant and navy fleets
roamed two oceans far and wide. Even till
deep in the 17th century European explor
ers and merchant ships hired Indonesian and
Japanese navigators and pilots to find their
way in the Pacific. The first man traveling
around the world was an Indonesian. He
was indeed just a common sailor, hired by
Portuguese shippers, who traveled to Lisbon.
And when Magelaen set out from Lisbon
to sail around the world and came in north
ern Indonesia (he was just halfway then),
this Indonesian sailor had rounded the world
as the first human being in history. We may
not belittle this fact by saying: "pooh, just
a common sailor." He must have bad extra
ordinary qualities as a strong man and an
excellent navigator. Think of that wonderful
tattooed Queequeg in the story of Moby
Dick.
I will return to this later on.
But let me go on with tracing the Dutch-
Indonesian heritage first. As I told you:
Indonesia had several high developed civil
izations, but at the time the first European
discoverers came to Java, the last civiliza
tion was in decline. Series of bitter civil
wars impoverished the country and the peo
ple. And there came the new conquistadores
with a new and astonishing weapon: the
thundering canon. Conquest was easy. In
fact, there was no war or conquest at all.
The Indonesians accepted the strange blond
people as new living partners. An old proph
ecy of a prince Djojobojo (parallel to Nos
tradamus in Europe) became a reality: a
foreign people would reign as masters for a
long time.
In those days traveling was a very danger
ous thing. Only the strongest and luckiest
survived. 40 percent of the sailors never
came back. Of course no woman came to
the East in these days. And intermarriage
between conquerors and conquered became
a common thing. Ah, here we, so called
Dutch-Indonesians, are coming into the pic
ture! In fact, long before Cornelis Houtman
as the first Dutchman dropped anchor at
Bantam in the year 1598, tbere was already
a pretty large community of Portuguese and
their descendents in Indonesia. These de-
scendents were often only in-officially recog
nized as Masters, bus masters they were un
doubtedly even though their mother was
often unknown. They were called Fidalgo's,
that is Fil d'algo. that is son of a somebody.
Some of the greatest conquistadores of all
history were fidalgo's. Let me name one:
D'Albuquerque, a fantastic warrior and a
brilliant governor. We must bear that fact
in mind when we probe further in history
and find that the Dutch-Indonesians pro
duced an astonishing amount of brilliant
soldiers and governors in the later Dutch
government.
(To be continued)
