Category: People
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Zijlker, from Tobacco to Oil
Aeilko Jans Zijlker, born May 1830, of rich Groningen farmers’ stock, was one of those who tried their luck in tobacco in Deli. When Sumatra’s East coast was opened up, he moved from his first plantation in Eastern Java to the Lepan river area, where he managed plantations of the East Sumatra Tobacco Company. In…
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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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Girlie man
Deli planters 1920s Emil Helfferich (1878-1974)‘s Südostasiatische Geschichten (Jever/Oldenburg, 1966), is an account of what happened to another German-speaker who made light of girlie-men: He was German, early 30s, and came from a forest ranger’s family in Hannover. If not poverty, then extreme thrift had probably stood at the cradle of him and his numerous siblings. He didn’t…
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Story from the boats
Pickering, 1870-80s Over decades Chinese laborers came by the millions to help make the Dutch dream of record profits a reality. Chinese coolies—poor, illiterate, and usually among the most forlorn of “voiceless” populations—spoke into the official record, usually in the courts. This selection memorialized by the “Protector of Chinese” in Singapore shows these forces at…
Stories from Deli 