Stories from Deli

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…
Senembah

Karl Pelzer (1978) Among the many companies operating in East Sumatra after 1870, a few deserve special note for their unique contributions to the development of social features that improved the relationship between planters and their laborers or the conditions under which the latter worked. Perhaps the most important was the Senembah Company, which operated…
Pram on Millions of Deli

Pram and Pelzer on the Millions of Deli (1902) Pramoedya Ananta Tour in Jejak Langkah (Footsteps), 1985 wrote: … I learned in Millions from Deli, a story written by the Dutch lawyer J. van der Brand who had worked in East Sumatra. Brand had exposed the exploitative practices of the tobacco plantations in Sumatra. I…
Children’s souvenirs

Louis Couperus. 1911. Tell me, I say; tell me from Deli … “Oh,” my wife says, and she shudders, her hands covering her face for a moment. Those three years in Deli … I’ll never forget them. I was ten years old, thirteen when we left. I had such a romantic childhood that I really…
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.…
Kongsikang

Kongsikang is a Chinese worker of less significance than the field coolie. Whether because of his unwillingness, unfitness or inexperience, he does not get a field to work, but helps the other coolies (kongsikang = cooperation) and receives a daily wage. All stinkers can only be kongsikang, not all kongsikangs are stinkers. Not long ago…
Report on Deli

Jeremiah Jenks, 1902 EAST SUMATRA (DELI). Agricultural conditions The situation in East Sumatra (more frequently called Deli) as regards Chinese coolies is similar in many respects to that in the Federated Malay States, but the Dutch have followed quite different methods of procedure both in securing immigrants and in controlling them after their arrival, so…
The Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States

Jeremiah Jenks, 1902 The Straits Settlements consist of the island of Singapore, the island of Penang, with the adjoining Province of Wellesley on the mainland, together with the Dindings, and Malacca. These settlements were transferred from the Indian government to that of the secretary of State for the Colonies April 1, 1887. Since that date,…
Soeka Manis

A vast landscape appeared before our eyes. Hilly terrain. Everywhere, as far as we could see, it burned and smoked. Between the thick clouds of smoke we saw Chinese coolies walking, dressed only with a loincloth on their heads and a pointed bamboo hat.A few months ago it was all still wood, said Huug. Are those tree trunks…
DELI PLANTER

INLEIDINGMet dit boek heb ik beoogd een getrouw beeld te geven van het lief en het leed in mijn 15-jarige plantersloopbaan ondervonden.Zooveel mogelijk heb ik getracht geen verkeerde voorstellingen te wekken omtrent het leven in de tropen, daar ten onrechte enkele uitzonderingsgevallen tot generaliseeren zouden kunnen leiden.In het plantersleven is de strijd om het bestaan…