^The American
15 JANUARY 1963
1 e JAARGANG No. 11
T H E O N L Y I N D E P E N D E N T D U T C H - IN D O N ESI AN MAGAZINE IN AMERICA
BIRTH (AND DEATH) OF KRONTJONG
"TELEFOON TONG-TONG"
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OARINc
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Spotlight on Dutch-Indonesian History (VI)
In the preceding article (TATT No. 10) we wrote about nightlife in Batavia in the
17th century, and that in the music on the barges and canoes in the canals the first
authentic voice of the ''Dutch-Indonesians" could be heard: the krontjong (pronounce:
cron-chong)
There is a reason why we put the name "Dutch-Indonesians" between quotation
marks. As the Dutch were by then only a quarter of a century or so in Indonesia, they
couldn't have offspring out of marriage with Indonesian women by that time. The first
"Indo-Europeans" in Indonesia were Portuguese "blijvers" and descendants of Portuguese
and Indonesian mothers. In Batavia they were called "Malaccans" and there were so many
of them that the main street in their district was called Roa Malacca (or Malacca Road)
for years and years to come. This street bears this nameRoea Malakaup to this day.
SCHRIJF NAAR P.O. BOX 137
ALLE post voor The American Tong-
Tong sturen naar P.O. Box 137, Whit-
tier, Cal., zulks in verband met op han
den zijnde verhuizingen.
ALLE postwissels en money-orders
adressen aan The American Tong-Tong
(dus niet op naam stellen van redac
teuren of manager), zulks om het in
casseren te vereenvoudigen.
Why then weren't they called Portuguese?
Because just like there is nowadays a dis
tinct difference between Dutch and Dutch-
Indonesians, there was a big difference in
the 1 7th century between the Portuguese who
went back to Portugal and the Portuguese
"blijvers" who stayed on in the East, mar
ried Indonesian women and made a new
homeland of the Malayan archipelego.
When the Portuguese were driven out of
Asia and returned to Europe, or died on the
ramparts of their last fortresses, the last
link between Europe and the East was de
stroyed, large communities of Portuguese
civilians were left behind unprotected, at
the mercy of new masters and old enemies.
And mercy was very scarce those days. In
fact the communities in Malacca and the
spice islands (Banda, Ternate) were at
tacked and ravaged so many times by alter
nately the English, the Dutch, the Spaniards.
Indonesian sultans, adventurers and pirates,
that at last all these Portuguese colonies
left for good and settled in the free city
of Batavia, where they were named after
the country most of them came from:
Malaccans.
In a certain sense they were all exiles with
a lost fatherland, poor descendants of a
mighty glorious past. Indeed no other people
in history achieved so much in world con
quest as did the Portuguese in the 16th cen
tury. In daring conquests their seafarers and
conquistadores came where never before an
European had been.
About the same time the Portuguese ban
ner was planted in San Diego and Pt. Con-
cepcion in California, other Conquistadores
navigated the coasts of North China and
discovered Japan. Small Portuguese fleets
attacked and destroyed far bigger Chinese.
Japanese, Javanese or Malayan fleets. Small
armies defeated the biggest Asian armies.
They dared to go where no European ever
ventured to go. The Portuguese considered
themselves (and were considered by many
other people) undefeatable, the darings! peo
ple in the world. Justifiably the famous
Portuguese poet Camoens could sing: "We
do not fear any danger And sail to all
discovered coasts!"
No wonder also their descendants, the
Malaccans, considered themselves superior
to any other people, even to their new mas
ters, the English or the Dutch. Many were
(or claimed to be) fidalgoes ("sons of some
bodies") as they were bearers of names like
Da Cunha, Bobadella, Carvalho, d'Abreu,
etc., names very respected by many Indo
nesian peoples. As they were linked by mar
riage with these peoples and spoke their
languages, they were indispensable as inter
mediaries for the Dutch in all mercenary
and political exploits. That's the reason
why the Portuguese language was spoken
by the Dutch for more than a century to
come.
The Malaccans lived in a special style,
far more adequate to living in the tropics
than the Dutch did. They didn't live in
imported narrow closed houses with step-
gables, but in wide open houses. They ate
what the Indonesians ate. They were not
dressed in heavy and hot European dresses,
but adopted light closing. Malaccan women
were dressed in sarong and kebaja. Many
of these customs were gradually taken over
by the Dutch.
But all the time these Malaccans were
living in proud isolation, they knew very
well that the Portuguese world-empire was
lost and that the original fatherland was
lost behind the horizon for good. So their
thoughts and songs were filled to the brim
with that peculiar form of nostalgia of Por
tugal called Salidade"And in krontjong
(continued on page 2)
Wij wonen in een erg groot land. Met grote afstanden, dus langdurige en dure ver
bindingen. Ook kosten van inter-communale telefoongesprekken kunnen erg oplopen als
w'j voor welk doel ook veel mensen in andere area's moeten bereiken.
Eén onzer lezeressen kwam nu met het volgende idee:
Als in elk area een persoon met veel contacten zich beschikbaar stelt als contactper
soon, dan hoeven wij voor belangrijke boodshappen alleen maar hem (of haar) op te
bellen en dan wordt verder gezorgd voor "doorgave" van het bericht aan zoveel mogelijk
personen in die area.
Op deze manier blijven telefoonkosten beperkt en wordt toch een direct contact
onderhouden op brede schaal over verre afstand. Ook vormen wij zo een hechter gemeen
schap voor hulp in nood en voor steun in ondernemingen. Wat méér zegt: dit is een
bliksemdienst, die snel succes garandeert.
Tong-Tong komt nu eenmaal langzaam, omdat ook de post langzaam gaat. Ook lopen
kosten van (altijd langzamer!) correspondentie te veel op. Dit systeem is werkelijk een
voortreffelijk systeem. Want de contactpersoon (in b.v. Pasadena, Inglewood, Long Beach,
Pomona) hoeft niet zelf alle mensen op te bellen, maar "doorgeven" en volgens het
"sneeuwbalsysteem' kan in minder dan één uur een hele gemeenschap worden ingelicht.
Het oude en beproefde tongtong-systeem, nu gemoderniseerd
Doe mee! Geef ons op: Naam, Adres, Telefoonnummer en geschikte "opbel-uren",
AM en PM. Dan nemen wij verder contact met U op. U weet nooit hoe dringend nodig
het eens kan zijn! U beseft heel goed hoe U hierme prachtig opbouwend werk kunt doen.
Haal duizendmaal meer uit de dollars die U maandelijks voor Uw telefoon betaalt door
in te schrijven voor het Contactsysteem Telefoon Tong-Tont;. Het kost niets méér het
geeft véél oentoeng!
Schrijf naar: The American Tong-Tong, P.O. Box 137, Whittier, Calif.
