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Orang-kontrak*: De verbeelding van Javaanse contractarbeiders in Suriname en Deli
145-171Views:51This article compares the literary representation of Javanese contract laborers in Suriname and Deli (Sumatra). Novels depicting the life of planters and workers, such as Madelon Székely-Lulofs’s Rubber (1931) or Koelie (1932) on Deli, are not part of the Surinamese literary canon. Instead, I use contemporary books and articles, among which publications by missionaries form an important source, and later stories and novels by authors of Surinamese descent, including Bea Vianen, Cynthia McLeod, and Karin Amatmoekrim, in which Javanese history and culture in Suriname are sketched. In contrast to Deli, in Surinamese prose the indentured labor system was only questioned in the postcolonial period.
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De krokodil en de verdronken dienstmaagd: Székely-Lulofs in Deli en Boedapest
123-132Views:41Between the first own household of Madelon Székely-Lulofs – the well-known writer from the Dutch East Indies – in the arable region of Deli (on the east coast of Sumatra) and her home, later on, in the centre of Budapest one can notice a number of striking parallels. In both places the grinding lack of money, the care for the right food, her contact with the servants and a huge crocodile played a prominent role.
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H.C. Zentgraaff contra het echtpaar Székely-Lulofs: Wie was die man?
133-143Views:37In 1931 and 1932, Madelon Lulofs published her novels Rubber and Koelie; in 1935 Van oerwoud tot plantage appeared, a translation of the novel Őserdőktől az ültetvényekig by her spouse, László Székely, that came out in the same year. The novels give a realistic and revealing look into the harsh life on the plantations of Deli at the East Coast of Sumatra. Although the books were generally well received in the Netherlands and were considered by progressive critics to be accusations against the colonial administration, the Dutch East Indian press responded with indignation: the colony, as they concluded, was put in a bad light, which created a wrong impression amongst the general public abroad. Besides, equally importantly, these novels served as an evidence of colonial oppression for Indian nationalists, they argued. The Székely-Lulofs couple was heavily rebuked for it. The hate campaign against them was led by journalist H.C. Zentgraaff.
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De bedrieglijke verlokking van de tropen: Het vreemde in het dagboek van István Radnai
185-197Views:138István Radnai left his home country in 1914, hoping to achieve a brighter and richer future life. With his cousin, László Székely, he traveled to the then Dutch Indies, to Sumatra in order to become rich as a planter. After five weeks, however, he returned disappointed to Hungary, where he saw the beginning of the First World War. On the basis of his diary it is possible to reconstruct the reasons why he found it necessary to escape from the “self” and why he chose the tempting, unknown world. The binary opposition formed in this way undergoes a change in a different context; it becomes shifted and turned around. The interesting “other” becomes frightful and threatening which makes the “self” more valuable at the same time.
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De tuinman, de geldschieter, de koelie-werver en de mandoer: Vier portretten van László Székely en de Delische Kunstkring
101-117Views:193The Hungarian planter László Székely was active as a painter on Sumatra during the first decennia of the 20th century. In 1923 he painted four portraits of people from the planters’ community: The Mandoer, The Moneylender, The Toekang-kebon and The Koelie recruiter, which appeared in the weekly paper De Zweep. In this article I will give an overview of the cultural life in Deli and place Székely’s work in this context. Furthermore, I will explain the uniqueness of Székely’s portraits, using the theory of the English cultural historian Peter Burke.