Category: 1921-1940
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Reflections
It was what you call “a heavy department,” which the assistant of the Congis six, seven and eight had been placed under his control at the super-company where he was placed after returning from leave. High, dry bokits, very hilly with swampy ravines, so that he had to constantly walk up and down slopes to check…
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Revenge
The busy work in planting had reached its peak. It is true that the Chinese field coolies had planted their fields and the young tobacco plants were standing in the ground on the last pett branch (field), but the entire planting still required a great deal of care and labor. Those young plants still had to be…
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Europeans in Deli
Anthony Reid, Deli in 1920-30 In the eyes of Western capitalism at the end of the nineteenth century, the scattered Malay and Batak indigenous population of East Sumatra might not have existed. The area was a frontier; whose essential image was a European planter and a team of perspiring Chinese coolies clearing a patch of…
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Deli in Novels
Willem Brandt. 1948. De Aarde van Deli. The Hague: van Hoeve Dixon, C. J. 1913. De Assistent in Deli. Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy. Dixon gives advice on how to become an assistant in Deli tobacco plantation. Gorter, Hendrik. 1941. Delianen: schetsen uit het plantersleven op Sumatra’s Oostkust. Amsterdam: L. J. Veen. Gorter, Hendrik. 1953.…
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European Life on a tobacco field
Louis Couperus, 1923 The life of the young assistants at Deli was then largely dominated by excessive partying. I believe I can see that this has changed completely. Let the young people rejoice at the ‘hari-besar’, at the Boer or elsewhere, who will let them not? They work hard, as hard as Westerners only work…
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In Medan
Louis Couperus, 1923 We have been in Medan for a few days now, guests of Mr. Westenenk, governor of Sumatra’s east coast, and his wife. The impressions that I have received, under the guidance and information of my host, are overwhelmingly many. I want to make an attempt to arrange them in my memory and…
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An American in Deli
Stuart Hotchkiss, 1924 The area, about which I am going to speak and from which our experience has been gleaned, comprises 110,000 acres. Of this area, 88,000 acres are in Sumatra and 22,000 acres in the Federated Malay States. There are planted about 50,000 acres in Sumatra and 10,000 acres in the Malay States. In…
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Murder in Parnabolon
Ann Stoler on the 1929 murder In November 1929, the murder of Assistant Landzaat’s wife by the coolie Salim on the Parnabolon estate set loose the few repressive mechanisms that had been held in check up until then. The muted panic of the preceding months crescendoed into an Indies-wide scandal; 167 European women in Deli…
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Riots in Deli
Ann Stoler on Deli in 1930 Sometime ago an old Javanese woman from Deli settled in a village nearby the Soengai Toewan estate. Often she had such a stream of people coming to her house that people thought a wedding procession was approaching. Every Friday afternoon she gathered the villagers around her to discuss religious…
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Restless in Tandem estate
Ann Stoler on Deli in 1929 In the beginning of April 1929, a growing restlessness’ was reported among the coolies of the Tandem estate, located outside the town of Binjei, northwest of Medan. Not less than 37 Chinese workers marched to Medan to protest the arrest of five of their comrades accused the previous year…
Stories from Deli 