^Fhe American ,e jaargang n°- ,3
15 FEBRUARY 1963
B R I D G E
BETWEEN
EAST
AND
WEST
Aspects of Life in the 17th Century
E PLUR/lJJiySiLM
OARINc
ONISV
Spotlight on Dutch-Indonesian History (VII)
As we told before, there was a very strong influence from the group of Dutch-
Indonesians (we might better say: Indo-Portuguese) on the Dutch and even the whole
Batavian community during the 17th Century. The Dutch of course were very much
aware of it. and thought this situation undesirable, particularly the dominating Portuguese
language. Everybody spoke this language, even the Dutch.
In a letter from Governor-General Maet-
suycker to the Directors in Holland 1676)
we read: "Undoubtedly the general use of
the Dutch instead of the Portuguese lan
guage would help strengthen the founda
tions of our state here, but there seems to
be little chance to realize this change,
for the Portuguese have firmly established
themselves here and are too well liked by
our own people. We will not neglect to use
all suitable means to change this undesir
able state of affairs, as recommended by
you." The change was established indeed,
but only after more than a century!
There were in fact more reasons for the
Dutch to be afraid of foreign influences
than this Portuguese language alone. When
we consider that even at the end of the
former century there were only 470 Euro
pean women on every 1000 men in the
"white community" in Indonesië, and fur
thermore that of these 470 women a great
many were only "European" by marriage,
Wie kan het kraken en piepen, het on
regelmatige gesteun van de grobak in In-
die vergetenEen onvergetelijk geluid, een
herinnering die blijftmaar ook een herin
nering die zichtbaar wordt in het prachtige
fotoboek etTanah Aer kita
I'oor slechts $8,25 in het Engels verkrijg
baar bij The American Tong-Tong, P.O.
Box 137, Whittier.
but in fact Indonesian or Chinese, we can
easily understand that the much smaller
group of Dutch women in the 17th century
played no role at all in the social develop
ment of the Batavian community. In fact
just to survive and to live pleasantly with
the majority of Asian women, they were
compelled to take over as many customs and
habits of other women as possible.
They even lost their influence on their
own children, as following the common use
those days, children were left to the care of
their Indonesian nannies and grew up speak
ing other languages and eating Indonesian
foods. As no regular import of European
dresses was possible and moreover these
dresses were absolutely unpractical and ra
ther dull in outlook compared with the col
ourful and becoming Indonesian costumes,
white women usually went dressed in sarong
and kebaja. The native habit of chewing
betel was a normal habit of European wo
men too and they all had reddish white
teeth and dark lips. Everywhere they went,
slave girls came along with betel box, spit
toon and pajong (umbrella as status sym
bol). This was a common sight in Batavia
those days. Governor-General Van Riebeeck
topped them all and lived like an Eastern
Rajah. When he drove out to his country
house ouside the city, he was always accom
panied by an escort of beautifully dressed
slave girls on donkeys.
Living very closely with these slaves
particularly of a people with an old and
high civilization like the Indonesiansre
sulted automatically in taking over by the
masters of a great many habits and customs
from the slaves. The Brazilian author Gil-
berto Freyre wrote a masterful study about
this matter in his famous book: "The Mas
ters and the Slaves". The original title of
this book is "Casa Grande y Senzala", which
means "Head Building" (living quarters of
the masters) and "Side Buildings" (living
quarters of the slaves). In Dutch: "Hoofd
en Bijgebouwen".
In Indonesia (like in South-America) the
home of every Master was in fact a little
village or community with seperate quarters
for masters and slaves, but on one property.
This very close living together promoted an
exchange of many values between masters
and slaves. And it is easy to see that the
more numerous the slaves, the more habits
were taken over. In fact the total "Java-
nization" of the Dutch in Indonesia was
very much feared by the Dutch those days,
particularly by the Directors of the East
Indian Company (V.O.C.) in Holland, be
cause in the end all ties with Holland might
be broken off definitely (and a source of
income should be lost).
So the Dutch fought the Javanization
and the Indo-Portuguese influence stubborn
ly. And in the end successfully because new
Dutch citizens kept on pouring in all the
time and Portuguese influences deminished
slowly but positively, as no new contacts
were made with Portugal. Even so the fear
for not only being "out-Dutched" but even
attaqued and wiped out by other and far
numerous groups in Batavia, often caused
strong nervous tensions in the Dutch com
munity. About one of the outbreaks of this
tension we told before: the Great Chinese
Massacre. And another time the trying and
executing of the Dutch-Indonesian citizen
Pie ter Erberfelt.
Such outbreaks however were very scarce.
In general the Dutch carried on with all
Asian groups very well. Moreover Batavia
was a very busy city and there was not
much time for quarreling. On the other
hand not very much was done to strengthen
the Dutch cultural influences, mostly be
cause there was never enough money for it.
Schooling for instance was (and remained
for a long time) far below every standard.
There were a few Latin schools with only
boys as pupils the girls stayed at home and
spoke a Malayan language or Portuguese).
The boys of the higher classes did not need
education or Latin as they got a good
position after school anyway or could afford
to go to Holland for better education. So
many of the pupils of these Latin schools
were Mardijkers; there was always a great
shortage in teachers and often the schools
were closed down after a very short time.
When we furthermore consider that teachers
of these schools were mostly former boat
swains, carpenters or soldiers, we can easily
understand that the quality of education
couldn't possibly be high.
(To be continued)
Wij zouden graag van onze lezers willen
horen of er prijs gesteld wordt op voort
zetting van deze rubriek. Wanneer immers
de belangstelling ervoor te klein blijkt te
zijn, zullen wij overstappen op een andere
vulling van onze kolommen.
REDACTIE
