I called after her. Annelies didn’t answer, nor look back.
“I’ll be following soon,” I shouted.
No answer, no look back.
“I too, Ann; have courage, Ann!” called out Mama, her voice hoarse, almost unable to escape from her throat.
Again no answer, no look back.
The gate was opened. A government carriage was waiting, hemmed in on either side by mounted Marechaussee. Mama and I weren’t allowed past the door.
For a moment we could still see Annelies being helped into the carriage. She still didn’t look this way, didn’t make a sound.
The door was closed from outside.
The sound of the carriage wheels grinding over the gravel could be faintly heard fading away into the distance, finally disappearing. Annelies was setting sail for where Queen Wilhelmina sat on the throne. Behind the door, we bowed our heads.
“We’ve been defeated, Mama,” I whispered.
“We fought back, child, Nyo, as well and honorably as possible.”
Buru Island Prison Camp
Spoken, 1973
Written, 1975
AFTERWORD
During the first six or seven years on Buru Island, prisoners were not allowed reading material, except for a few religious texts. To be found with illicitly obtained material could result in severe punishment. One prisoner, while out working in the fields, came across a piece of torn newspaper. It had been used to wrap nails in and was full of holes. When the prison guards found the newspaper on him, they took him away to the cell block. Three days later his body was found floating in a nearby river, his hands bound behind his back.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s commitment to literature has clearly survived this hostility to the printed word. Of Javanese descent, he has been writing since the armed struggle for Indonesian independence, which broke out in 1945. Many of his early works were written while languishing in a Dutch prison. He was captured by the Dutch Colonial Army during its attack on Jakarta in 1947, two years after the Revolutionary War started, and was released in 1949. After Indonesia’s independence, Pramoedya began an active life in the literary world, producing several novels and many short stories. In the late fifties, he began his serious study of history and lectured in history and journalism at universities and academies in Jakarta. In the sixties, he entered the fierce polemics on the role of literature in society and attacked works that he felt ignored social problems and the political crisis the country was facing. He was a leading member of the People’s Cultural Institute, many of whose members were close to the Indonesian Communist party. Pramoedya himself was not a member and did not write in the party’s daily newspaper, but rather became the cultural editor for another independent newspaper, Bintang Timur (the Eastern Star), which reprinted many early writings of the pioneers of Indonesian fiction and journalism.
Pramoedya’s interest in history continued to flourish and the Eastern Star published many of his articles about the period of Indonesia’s national awakening. A part of this historical work included carrying out the research and contemplating the framework for a series of historical novels about the birth of national consciousness in Indonesia. The period to be covered was the turn of the century, 1890 to 1920. With the help of many of his students, a great deal of work was done and material collected.
Then, in September 1965, a coup attempt took place in Indonesia. Disorder and confusion occurred in Jakarta and throughout the country. The coup attempt was blamed on the Indonesian Communist party. The Indonesian army took control to restore order, but in the process almost all center, left-wing, and progressive political groups suffered persecution. It has been estimated that as many as 500,000 or more people were killed in this nationwide purge. Along with thousands of others, Pramoedya was arrested (though even after fourteen years in jail, he was never tried). His library, including all his notes and the results of his research, was burned on the spot. In 1960 the Sukarno government banned his history of the role of the Chinese in Indonesia; in 1966, with the rise of Indonesian McCarthyism, a blanket ban was placed on all his earlier books—a ban that never has been revoked.
It was only eight years later that Pramoedya was able to begin to put down on paper what had been lost in 1965. He had already, each day before roll call, presented an oral version of the novels—to ensure, he says, that the story would not be lost if the chance to produce a manuscript never arrived. In 1975, after two years of writing from memory, he finished his series of novels.
This Earth of Mankind was published in Jakarta as Bumi Manusia a year after Pramoedya’s release from Buru Island concentration camp in 1979. Soon after, its sequel Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations) was published. Both novels became best sellers in Indonesia, as reviewers hailed Pramoedya’s return to the nation’s literary life. However, in May 1981, both books were banned in Indonesia. The government accused the books of surreptitiously spreading Marxism-Leninism—surreptitious because, they claimed, the author’s great literary dexterity made it impossible to identify actual examples of this Marxism-Leninism. Both the third and fourth volumes of the tetralogy have also now been banned in Indonesia.
In its letter to the prosecutor general calling for a revocation of the ban on This Earth of Mankind, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute reminded the authorities that it was no longer rational to try to isolate Indonesia from so-called foreign ideologies. This was because free exchanges of ideas came automatically with the social intercourse between nations, the international coming and going of reading materials, the progress in communications technology, and the coming together of persons in the world’s cultural centers. Such exchanges keep the world dynamic, generating pressures for change and demands for debate everywhere. They did so to no less an extent one hundred years ago in the colonies of all the European imperial powers.
Max Lane
1991
GLOSSARY
assistant resident For each regency there was a Dutch assistant resident in whose hands power over local affairs ultimately resided.
Babah A term of address referring to Chinese shopowners, this also has connotations of “boss.”
Betawi The Malay name of Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, now Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia
blangkon A traditional Javanese headdress made from batik and worn mainly by the nobility or those with pretensions to an elite status
bupati This is the title of the Native Javanese official appointed by the Dutch to administer a region. Most bupatis could lay some claim to noble blood.
destar An East Javanese headdress; a kind of headband
Gus A term of affection used by parents toward their male children among the families of the Javanese aristocratic elite
kabaya A Javanese woman’s traditional blouse, used always in combination with a sarong
kain This traditional dress worn by Javanese women is a kind of sarong wrapped tightly around the waist and legs.
keris A traditional Javanese dagger
Marechausee The elite troops of the colonial army in the Netherlands Indies
Mas This Javanese term of address literally means “older brother.” Used by a young woman toward a man, it indicates an especially close, respectful affection. It can also be used between men to indicate respectful friendship, by a sister to her older brother, and also by a wife to her husband.
Ndoro An honorific used by a lower-class person when speaking to someone in the feudal class or one of similar status
Noni, Non Miss
Nyai The Native concubine of a Dutch or European man in the Indies
Nyo The abbreviated form of sinyo, used by the Javanese to address young Dutch boys
patih The chief executive assistant and secretary of a bupati
peci A small black velvet cap, originally a sign of Islam
priyayi A member of the Javanese aristocracy, many of whom became the salaried administrators of the Dutch
Raden Ayu The title for aristocratic Javanese wome
n, especially the first wife of a bupati
Raden Mas Raden and mas are titles held by the mass of the middle-ranking members of the Javanese aristocracy; raden mas is the highest.
regency Generally made up of more than five districts, a regency was an area under native administration. The head of the regency was the bupati. His supervisor was a Dutch assistant resident. Above the assistant resident was the resident, who had responsibility for many regencies.
sanggul This bun at the back of the head is a traditional Javanese hairstyle.
sarong A wrap garment worn by both men and women
Sinkeh A term used to refer to a new Chinese immigrant
Sinyo The Javanese form of address for young Dutch and Eurasian men or Europeanized Native young men, from the Portuguese word senhor
tayub This is a folk dance in which the male partner is normally chosen from among the audience by the professional female dancer. Most tayub dancers were from the lower social strata.
tuan A Malay word meaning master or sir
Tuan Besar Kuasa Great powerful master, a term used for a Dutch administrator or other powerful official
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind
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