The broken coloniser

ABSTRACT

Dutch colonial understanding of the Dutch East Indies has rarely taken into consideration the experiences and influences of returnees and of colonialists originating outside the Netherlands’ political centre. In this article we make a case of how Frisian novels from the colonial period might provide a solution to this paucity of original data, as they have rarely been analysed in relation to colonialism. We take, as a case study, the work of the Frisian author Nyckle Haisma (1907–1943), who lived in the Dutch East Indies between 1930–1935 and 1936–1943 and wrote Peke Donia, de koloniaal based upon his unsuccessful, temporary return to Friesland in 1935. Haisma’s novel depicts the former colony as a catalyst that breaks the ability of the main protagonist to reintegrate into his home province. In addition, it constructs a paradox between the provinces of Holland and Friesland and deploys the author’s inability to integrate into Friesland as a result of his imaginary Dutch East Indies that he has created in opposition to his own homeland. Following the award of the highest literary prize of Frisian literature – the Gysbert Japicxpriis – in 1948, Haisma’s writings became embedded into the Frisian literary landscape, yet the colonial discourse apparent in the work was left unquestioned. We argue that the effects of colonialism, as portrayed in Peke Donia, must be considered when studying the Netherlands’ colonial legacies and their interplay with Dutch society in contemporary times.

ABSTRAK

Pemahaman kolonial Belanda terhadap Hindia Belanda jarang mempertimbangkan pengalaman dan pengaruh para migran yang kembali dan kolonialis yang berasal dari luar pusat politik Belanda. Dalam artikel ini kami menjelaskan bagaimana novel-novel Frisia dari masa kolonial dapat memberikan solusi atas kurangnya data asli ini karena novel-novel tersebut jarang dianalisis dalam kaitannya dengan kolonialisme. Sebagai studi kasus, kami mengambil karya Nyckle Haisma (1907–1943), penulis Frisia yang tinggal di Hindia Belanda antara tahun 1930–1935 dan 1936–1943 dan menulis novel Peke Donia, de koloniaal berdasarkan kegagalan hidupnya saat kembali untuk sementara waktu ke Friesland pada 1935. Novel Haisma itu menggambarkan bekas koloni sebagai katalis yang mematahkan kemampuan protagonis utama untuk berintegrasi kembali ke daerah asalnya. Selain itu, ia membangun sebuah paradoks antara wilayah provinsi Holland dan Friesland dan mengungkap ketidakmampuan penulis untuk berintegrasi ke Friesland sebagai akibat dari imajinasinya tentang Hindia Belanda yang bertentangan dengan tanah airnya sendiri. Menyusul penghargaan sastra tertinggi Frisia – Gysbert Japicxpriis – yang diraih Haisma pada 1948, tulisan-tulisannya tertanam dalam lanskap sastra Frisia, tetapi wacana kolonial yang tampak dalam karya tersebut tak lagi dipertanyakan. Kami berpendapat bahwa dampak kolonialisme, seperti yang digambarkan dalam Peke Donia, harus dipertimbangkan ketika mempelajari warisan kolonial Belanda dan interaksinya dengan masyarakat Belanda pada zaman sekarang.

KEYWORDS:

• Friesland
• Netherlands
• Indonesia
• colonialism
• Nyckle Haisma

KATA KUNCI:

• Friesland
• Belanda
• Indonesia
• kolonialisme
• Nyckle Haisma

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the help of Sytske Veltman, a descendant of Nyckle Haisma and someone who has been pivotal in the development of this project at various stages. In addition, we would like to thank Nicolaesz Vlaming for his exchange of ideas and whose forthcoming dissertation will be of value for future research on Frisian culture and exchange in the 19th and 20th century. We would like to express our gratitude for the help during research undertaken at the National Archives of the Netherlands and at Tresoar, the Frisian historical and literature centre, with particular thanks to Sjoerd de Haan and Jelle Krol. Lastly, we would like to thank those who provided invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest statement

No competing interests are identified in the preparation and execution of this research.

Notes

1 The original: ‘Fryslân, de wûndere tsjoen, dy’t der fan de namme alline al útgiet. It libben fan in Eastgonger is brutsen, oeral thús en nearne.’

Translations from Frisian or Dutch are the authors (EP and RVH) unless mentioned otherwise.

2 In the novel, Haisma uses the specific term Yndysk, which like Indisch is the pre-1945 term used by the Dutch to refer to people from the Dutch East Indies.

3 In 1940, with the Netherlands’ capitulation and the Dutch government’s move to London, the Germans disbanded this division of the Dutch army. However, as the Dutch government was still officially functioning and ruling the colonies from London, this division of the army remained until the Dutch capitulation of the Dutch East Indies to the Japanese in 1942.

4 This is exemplified by the fact that only one of his novels have been translated into Dutch and none in any other language. Suderkrús: Yndyske sketsen [Southern cross: Indonesian sketches], was published in Frisian in 1938 and translated into Dutch in 1947.

5 The concept remains important in contemporary Frisian literature, with the most relevant author being Hylke Speerstra. He publishes mostly in Frisian (examples include It Wrede Paradys [Cruel paradise] and Testamint fan de siel [Testament of the soul]). For the Dutch public, he is most famous for his work Op de Klompen door de Dessa [On wooden clogs through the Desa], which concerns Frisian people fighting in the Indonesian Independence War (1945–1949).

6 The admiralty is the predecessor of the Dutch navy. Established in 1597, there were five admiralties located in the three provinces in the western half of the Dutch Republic (1588–1795) characterised as connected to the sea. Together and individually, they organised the maritime defence of their province and the Republic in general, which often meant they worked together with the VOC to supply it with warships. After the formation of the Netherlands as a kingdom in 1815, they merged into the Ministry of Naval Affairs.

7 Oprjocht leauwende Fries refers to Grutte Pier [Big Pier], a mythologised man with the name Pier Donia from the 12th century who fought against the Dutch and is an important name in Frisian nation-building and for the Frisian idea of liberty. His name is almost identical to Peke Donia, the main protagonist of this novel. It is not known why Haisma chose the name Peke to be used in the novel.

8 This son is referred to in the first volume as Mardjo but in the second volume he is renamed Teda.

9 During the 19th century, Frisian nationalist movements focused on language as a core marker of Frisian identity. As discussed above, these movements strove for the usage of Frisian in official settings instead of Dutch, where often Dutch was perceived as a threat. Peke Donia, a novel that springs very much from these movements, also uses this trope to differentiate between the Netherlands and Friesland and to create a ‘unique’ Frisian identity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edwin Pietersma

Edwin Pietersma is a Frisian historian specialising in modern and colonial history. He is an independent researcher working on the legacy of colonialism in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Netherlands. He graduated from the Netherlands with a BA in History (University of Groningen), and an MA in Asian Studies (Leiden University), as well as an MA in Anthropology from the National Taiwan University. He currently lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. Email: [email protected]

Rachel V. Harrison

Rachel V. Harrison is Professor of Thai Cultural Studies at SOAS, University of London. She has published widely on issues of gender, and sexuality, modern literature and cinema in Thailand as well as the comparative literature of South East Asia. She co-edited (with Peter A. Jackson), The ambiguous allure of the West (2010), and is editor of a volume by Thai authors on Western theoretical approaches to Thai literary analysis, entitled Disturbing conventions: decentring Thai literary cultures (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2014). Her current research addresses questions of culture, wellbeing and public health relating to diet and disease in Northeast Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. She is also editor of the quarterly journal South East Asia Research. Email: [email protected]