Stories from Deli

In the nick of time, in the first week of August 94, the Delian leave member managed to get on board in Amsterdam and was thus able to fulfill the order of his tobacco company to return immediately to Deli in connection with the now World war broke out. No one could predict how this trip would go, inexperienced as one was after more than a century of peace in the Netherlands. Shortly after leaving IJmuiden the first sensation came from the order to stop, given by a British warship, after which very important British navy men investigated cargo and passengers, with the result that a few German subjects were taken captive. That scene was repeated a few more times until Malta was reached where a thorough investigation of the entire ship was initiated, but then the journey could be continued unhindered, so that after about five weeks our tobacconist was back in the bush in his wooden assistant’s house on a company in Boven Deli. 

As much as he had enjoyed the rich European life after those many years of uninterrupted work, it was now a daily pleasure to be alone with himself again in that lonely little house by the jungle, after the buzz of the last months. For, although in the company of his fellow planters at the club or the club he was able to help his party very well, there was still an ever-growing urge in him to reflect on the more spiritual values ​​of life. Those values ​​were noted far below par in the Delian planting world, and he was careful with them, to bring up a topic in that area when he was with his fellows at the bitter table, on the bowling alley, or playing poker. But in the very many lonely evenings, lying in his long rattan chair on the porch under the warm light of a large kerosene lamp by the round marble table, when there were only the many indefinable sounds of the tropical night around him, he surrendered to his urge for knowledge, for understanding of the world of the mind, in which he worked only with difficulty a path. 

In his youth, Multatuli’s Ideas, Büchner’s Kraft und Stoff, were hailed as The Truth and without any religious affiliation he had gone to Sumatra’s East Coast at the age of twenty, where he found himself in the midst of groups of Eastern peoples, unburdened by Christian doctrines and unbiased towards their expressions in the religious and spiritual realms. During his six-month leave in the Netherlands, he had endeavored to gain a better understanding and appreciation of Christian teachings by attending church services repeatedly. He could not bear that what meant complete salvation to millions of people meant nothing to him. But the sermons went over him; it was as if he did not understand the language spoken there and the heavy organ sounds and the obscure singing of the congregation directly disagreed him. He couldn’t be impressed by those repeated admonitions and got the impression, that holding on to certain statements and dogmas was a matter of self-preservation for most of the so-called believers. 

That Christian ethic couldn’t be his; he saw a reconciliation with the world and life, by ignoring that world and disregarding earthly life; she is not educating for this life but for heaven, he thought. He had turned his full love, instead of to heaven, to earth and his task lay here and he could not let himself be diminished by the Christian ethics of humility, nor by any ecclesiastical authority. This Christian sense of sinfulness could not be his, and he felt strongly the disharmony between this spiritual attitude and the demands of daily life, and especially the life he, as one of the pioneers, lived in a tropical country. The great value, yes, Recognizing to the masses the indispensability of Christian principles on which European society is based, at least in theory, the constant cry and prayer for the preservation of his own, apparently so important soul, was an annoyance to him. And so he had slammed the doors of the churches in disappointment and went his own way again. He could not speak to anyone from his environment about his problems, the most important of which was the relationship between Faith and Thought, for thinking, thinking rationally he wanted to come to understanding and to acceptance. 

Likewise, he was lying in his silent house that night, reading and pondering when an unusual noise outside made him wonder. Who could be there? The answer to that unspoken question was not long in coming, for a very unusual figure came up the stairs to the furrow and asked if it was permissible to enter.-gallery and it was a tall figure, dressed in a kind of cassock; a light brown beard adorned his face and he could be nothing but a missionary from the Batak lands, who for some reason had ended up here. That turned out to be the case when he introduced himself as Father so and so and told how he had suffered damage to his carriage on the way up ‘; one of the two wheels was broken and De Batakker had gone out with the horse to find another cart. 

He had learned from a coincidentally passing Chinese coolie that there was an assistant’s house here, and now he had only been brazen enough to go here to await the return of his driver. The tobacconist did not need many words to say that he loved this visit, and soon he was in a busy conversation with his strange guest, eagerly gripping this opportunity to hear something different from what his colleagues kept telling. The missionary, quite at ease behind a large glass of cold beer and a good cigar, spoke with zeal of his work among the pagan Bataks; schools were founded and hospitals were set up, so that those people were taken out of their horrible ignorance and the barbaric healing methods were counteracted. But the main thing remained the preaching of Christianity and the salvation of the souls of those Gentiles by the means of grace of the Holy Church. Christ’s doctrine of love was to be spread among those barbarians, and their society had to be based on the moral and religious basis of Christianity. 

Then they came from the Dark to the Light… The planter listened attentively to his visitor, who seemed to have come from another world. These were sounds from his early childhood; old melodies, which he had long forgotten, and he needed some time to adjust to them. Christian love doctrine? From the Dark to the Light? Salvation of souls? That was a language he no longer understood. He had been such a realist all those years, and he saw life in all its usually gruesome harshness, so that he thought he had to make some opposition. Did that soft-eyed missionary then know nothing of the society in the Christian world, which he presented as an ideal to the Gentiles? ‘Look, Father, ‘he said empty a few new bottles of beer’ we don’t know each other, but I think that I can talk to you without giving up, as man to man and without taking your spiritual office into account. 

I am not a Catholic and not even a member of any church and so in a sense a heathen like the Bataks to be converted by you. May I tell you my opinion? Well, in this year 1914 another war has broken out among the Christian nations there in Europe where after decades of preaching the Christian love doctrine, the nations are once again trying to destroy each other. It seems to me we cannot stand on our toes and lift ourselves up above the multitude of Gentiles, crying out, “Look at us! See how we, followers of Christ, manage to live together! You live and root in the Darkness, but we will show you the Light. For you are heathen barbarians and we the civilized, and we will tell you what is right and wrong! ”… It seems to me, the priests and the ministers must feel a strong urge in them to extinguish their torch and stop it. What tremendous value in money, in knowledge, and in intellect has not been spent in the efforts to make people aware of their higher calling and of their moral obligations to one another, and what is the result? Often no more than an attempt to be personally so-called ‘saved’, but in the grand scheme of things, deceive and lie, fight and destroy each other just as fiercely as in prehistoric times, when humanity was still in animal skins. dwelt in caves, and knew neither of God nor commandment. ‘ 

Unmoved, his visitor had heard this outburst; he didn’t know what to make of this tough guy. Perhaps it was better to move on to another subject, but his calling as a missionary spoke aloud in him: here was also a lost man who could be converted, and he answered calmly, ‘I admit to you that in that sense the seeming result of the preaching of Christianity is distressing, but that is no reason, as you say, to quit. Jesus commanded his followers to go to the Gentiles and preach His doctrine, and we should not be discouraged by the results that we could expect better. And it is certainly not our fault that those results are so minimal, as this war shows again. Imagine a complicated instrument, in which there are great explosion risks if used carelessly. With such an instrument, detailed instructions are given by the manufacturer: to be read before use. Because if you don’t do that and you turn the wrong tap and keep it a flame, then you have the chance that the whole thing will fly into the air – causing fire, poverty and misery. So it is now with the human world. That too is a complicated system and when God had created the earth and people, He thought: that could sometimes go wrong there because of Sin and then God also gave a manual, among other things, in the form of the Ten Commandments: to be read before the use. And now we do nothing more than present the people with those instructions and point out to them that if they do not adhere to it, things will go wrong. 

But that’s one ear in and the other out; they don’t care mess with the wrong tap, keep a match and then when things fly in the air, they say that we have failed, and that is not fair anyway. ‘ The tabaker laughed at this presentation, but was impatient to post his reply. He was a man he could talk to, and as he got up from his reclining position, he exclaimed: “Wonderful, that’s good for you for now. But what about those pitiable so-called Gentiles, for whom you make so much effort and sacrifice? And with the Mohammedans, the Chinese or the Klingales here in this country? They generally have no instructions for use, because almost none of them can read the Koran or any other holy book. They are not visited by their ministers or priests, who constantly remind them how to live among themselves; they never go to church to hear sermons or exhortations, and yet their society is much quieter than that of the Christians. 

The crime, the number of thefts, murders, scams is low here. I have lived among them for nearly twelve years now, and believe that their inner civilization is much greater than in corresponding social circles in Christian society. Blasphemous curses do not even exist in their languages, and one of the most violent reproaches they make against each other is “koerang adjar,” “badly educated.” Compare the language in the Christian world with that! Now I am not saying that it is your fault and your colleagues’ fault that the great multitudes in the Christian states live together as they do, but I still want to say that the influence of the Church, as such, on the behavior of people seems to be very minimal. Then let me rather live among the so-called pagans or Mohammedans or Chinese, even if it is also so dark there, as you say. It remains incomprehensible to me what you want to teach those Batakkers there. “All this does not alter the fact that we have to share the Gospel with all nations,” said the missionary, “the ways of the Lord are unfathomable and we have to follow the Way which He has shown us.” “But how do you know that the Way which you point out and follow is the will of God, and that all the Orientals here are on a wrong path from which they must be diverted?” “That was revealed to us after all …” but the tobacconist cut him off violently and did not let his guest finish. Revealed? 

Are not the religious concepts of the non-Christians revealed to them as well, in the sense you mean? You personally have the assurance of the correctness of your faith, but my logical thinking cannot accept that on that basis you label the religious beliefs of others as incorrect, as not being revealed. ‘ “That is,” replied the father quietly, “because you and many others also want to approach the things of faith with thinking. For us, the human mind is absolutely subject to divine revelation, and that has resolved this issue for us. ” ‘Now my lump is breaking! I beg your pardon for saying it so crudely, but we have such a special language here, you must think. But I just want to point it out to you, that you do use that contemptuous and submissive thinking to judge the faith of others and then label that belief as unrevealed, that is, false, while that thinking is put under the wool if it concerns your own faith. That’s not right, dear sir! Surely you need your thinking to determine whether or not your own faith is also a divine revelation? And it is that thinking that then says yes or no. ‘ Unmoved, the Father looked at his impetuous host, who now strode up and down the front porch. It did not make much sense to continue this conversation, he thought, the difference of opinion between the two was too great, but on the other hand he thought it would be nice to let this effervescent natural person speak. ‘If one has the assurance of faith,’ he remarked, ‘then believe me, then one has no need to think carefully about whether or not that belief is correct. It has been accepted as a revelation and that is enough. Then one does not ask anymore. And that is not a matter of thinking, but of believing. ‘ The planter caught fire! This was once a conversation he had missed for so long. Here, as a free nature person, he faced a man who had lived in a completely different world and whose, in his opinion, illogical self-assurance excited him. 

How could he convince that man that he thought it was nonsense to separate thinking from faith? ‘You have accepted it as a revelation, and that is enough, you say,’ he continued, ‘but do not forget that there are innumerable others who also have a certain revelation and a belief, as a grace of God, and that you do judge such a revelation, and, I say it again, surely judge thinking. Take Eddy Baker, the founder of Christian Science. She claims, and I think with as much or as little right as anyone else, that her teachings have been revealed to her, and if you read Science and Health the Scientists’ “bible” you will come across it repeatedly. There we read, for example, All Science is divine and also: Science is an emanation of divine Spirit and is alone able to interprete God alright! When you read this, what are you doing now? Then you think about it and reject it. Take Swedenborg for example! 

Who claimed that Christ had shown himself to him in the flesh and had given him the command to write down everything that Christ would give him. The result is noted in a so-called. Third Testament of eight thick parts. Yet this revelation will also be judged by you as unacceptable. If we want to come to an understanding, this can only be done through thinking. ‘ ‘That may be true for you,’ remarked the missionary, ‘but that does not apply to the mass of believers. If they started to think about whether or not their faith was correct, then it was probably very soon questioned by very many and the doubts arose, without any other certainty being taken in its place. For the faithful, the inviolability of religious dogma follows from the authority of the Church. And they must not weigh or weigh up an ecclesiastical dogma – it is in harmony with their thinking. Because then we got into chaos, in which no one would be happier. Individuals, individualists like you may claim for themselves the right to test the statements of the Church as well as those of the State against their thinking and reject those dogmas if they do not satisfy them, for the masses it is right that human thought must be subdued. are to divine revelation as interpreted by the Church. ” 

They sat silently facing each other for some time, and between them lay the centuries of struggle of free thought against the authority of Church and State. Two sensible men, brought together by fate for a moment in this little house on the edge of the tropical jungle. The one bound by doctrines inculcated in him from his earliest childhood, and which were continually strengthened by his training to the priestly ministry, the other an unbound in man, who, living in and with free nature, had identified himself with the reigning freedom there. One shackled within the walls of the old dogmas, beyond which he did not want to take a step, the other wandering like a spiritual vagabond, trying to test everything he saw or heard against his reason in order to gain understanding. “Besides, you are forgetting an important factor,” the Father continued. What you call the faith or the religious expressions of the Gentiles has nothing to do with the True Faith, as Christ revealed to us. Just as their screeching on a few strings or the blowing of a bamboo flute cannot be called music, neither can their faith be compared with the faith of the True Church. ” ‘But, forgive me to say it again,’ exclaimed the planter impatiently, ‘You only come to this distinction and this statement by thinking, and it is your thinking that says: this is the true, and that is the false faith. Yet when the question arises whether the content of that so-called true faith is correct, then submission of the mind to priestly authority is demanded! I can not reach it !’ ‘I assume that, but believe me: as it is, it is best for the mass of believers. If the authority of the priest were to be undermined and each would seek the Truth on his own initiative, the community of believers would be watered down. 

The course of events in the Protestant churches, where the authority of the minister in that regard has been reduced to almost zero, is a warning example of this. You and some others may try to come to the understanding of the Truth thinking, but if the storms come into your life and everything threatens to collapse, then you will also stand exposed on the bare plains, without the hold that the IOI Church offers you, but which you have spurned. Not to mention the fate of your soul. Think about that, my dear! ‘ ‘In such times I will indeed have to miss the shelter that the Church offers, but that does not mean that I too have not created a spiritual defense against fate. If we look over the people in this way, we see countless spiritual mansions which they have erected to shelter when the thunders of fate strike them. And most groups think their structure is the best and condemn what others have set up. I am of the opinion that all these spiritual constructions are good and honorable, however different from the outside and the inside, as long as people are found who can hide in it. The one may be more in accordance with my conception of the truth than the other, but I will be careful to declare that there is only one ‘revealed’ and therefore good. ‘ “That is all very well,” remarked the missionary, “although I disagree with you, but I want to point out the word of Christ,” I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. ” Thus all other ways and truths that men have constructed to come to God are condemned. And it is our duty to distract them from those astray and lead them to the true Way. ” “The true way?” interrupted the planter, “Where and why?” “I already said that,” replied the father, “the Way to the Father for the human Soul.” ‘Right, ‘exclaimed the other triumphantly,’ so to safeguard one’s own precious soul, which above all must not be lost. 

So a matter of self-preservation! Immortality, person’s eternal bliss, the puny man desires to attain through his faith! After me the flood, they think, as long as I am ‘saved’ and what is the result of that extreme selfishness? Where did the society of white race mankind end up on that Way? What has it done that nearly two thousand years of work on the spiritual building up of that Way? That selfishness is increasingly rampant, in spite of the sermons of the benevolent pastors, like you and yours, to show the people that they are their brother’s keeper. “Receive me, O Father” pray the believers, but there is no trace of concern about the fate of the neighbor. And so it is in the whole of society, in which ‘The Way’ has been preached throughout all those centuries. The schoolmasters have taken a closer look! They take practice from the beginning of all languages ​​into account when they teach the children that I, the first person is singular, then You come and only then He. And if there are several, then I must also be the first in: We, and so on. And our entire society is based on that! Our society, which must be restrained by the penal code, otherwise no lightning will come off at all. And the words of Christ, which are spread by you and yours, ring like nightingales’ song in the midst of a horrible battle, in which the most horrible wolf morality reigns. 

Will that battle ever end…? ‘ He had become very excited and now stopped in front of his visitor, who had let the stream of words pass over him unmoved. When he was silent, he turned outside and stared into the dark night as if from there expecting an answer to his burning question. But out there the crickets shrieked unchanged their monotonous song to the accompaniment of the soft rustling of the trees. Far in the distance came the call of monkeys from the jungle, but otherwise there was the deepest silence on the earth, above which the night sky arched, dotted with twinkling stars. Then he heard the deep, quiet voice behind him say, “Now you see what desperate questions you come to when you let go of the Faith and seek the Truth yourself …” He turned with a jerk: As if questions do not arise among those whom you call believers! And I am aware that when answers are given to these and other questions, that those solutions of the questions are even ‘invented’, with or without faith. For I am now once again convinced that for many to cling to the sacred books and to the dogmas is simply a matter of self-preservation. For it does indeed take courage to run the risks that can result from letting go of them, to get to the fatal question mark that may be behind a belief or world view that you have determined yourself. Dare to step out of the fold and be able and willing to bear the independence of loneliness… ”There was a long silence… both were silent and thought their own thoughts. Antipodes, not understanding each other, gazing into the tropical night, far away at the foot of the Batak plateau …

Two honest men, two Dutchmen, who each worked on his own ground on the development of that part of the Kingdom and that there, in that night, were brought together and could not approach each other, strangers remained for each other. The father followed his host as he walked back and forth with eyes expressing compassion. Have mercy for this undoubtedly good person, but wandering seeker, who thought he could approach the Truth, the Way and the Life outside of Jesus Christ and who rejected the means of grace of the Church. This emotional man of nature, who could not understand that others, besides himself, believed that they could proclaim The Truth, whatever statement should be binding for him, and against which all his being opposed. One could bind him in the process of work, one could bind him in his social function, but his Spirit remained free and unbound and he resisted being engaged in the herd spirit of church and dogma. He was about to give further vent to his overcrowded mood when he heard the soft voice of his guest behind him: “I will pray for you …” With difficulty restraining his emotion, he whispered: … never mind … Out there the first gleam of a new day, a day of labor and anxiety, and turning with a jerk, said the tobacconist: ‘What do you think, should you not spend the night here, if there is still a night? 

That Batakker will not return until pray daylight and in less than an hour I have to go back into the fields. It’s just a primitive room I can offer you. Good ? Then I thank you very much for coming and for the way in which you have heard my outpourings and for the lesson that I have received from you. You can rest and see you later at breakfast. With a warm handshake, these two men, who came from two completely different worlds, parted. The guest was soon in a peaceful sleep, but the other lay awake until dawn after this unusual spiritual bath. He was far from finished talking and kept coming up with new propositions, which he wanted to present to his guest. 105 But when he came home for breakfast after his first round of work in the morning, he had already left, and on the table was a note with the words: “Creed, quia absurdum! and thanks for the hospitality. He slowly shredded the note, shaking his head. Believe even the absurd? Never, he cried aloud, and, strengthened in his self-assurance, he resumed his work among his pagan Chinese, Javanese, and other Orientals, under the high heavens, on this rich, good earth. –

Tabakkers by H Gorter

These sketches from the planters life on the East coast of Sumatra, can be seen as a sequel to the collection, which was published under the title DELIANEN in 1941 and of which now a reprint is being issued. That booklet ended with the sketch: LEAVE, this bundle connects with that with: RETURN. As is also explicitly stated in DELIANEN’s introduction mentioned, these sketches also deal with life in the planting world of Deli at the beginning of this century, so now forty / fifty years ago. At that time, the precise tobacco culture had to be practiced with labor extreme rigor, often accompanied by crackdowns, could be brought to a decent work performance. Thus the words were Delian and Tabakkers, become concepts for strong, rough, out-of-fashion men, who deviated greatly from the normal norms, but those have developed the land DELI and have flourished brought. Just as industrial relations here in the country have improved considerably since the beginning of this century, so have the conditions on the Delian companies gradually totally changed. That old Deli well belongs to history and the ranks of those old Delian and Tabakkers already very diluted, but those who have experienced that life, keep a memory of it which they would not like to miss. May this collection also sketch that memory vividly