A tale of an amateur's work on Tugu history<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Writing the history of ethnic groups is not only
\nthe domain of academicians.<\/p>\n
Amateurs can also do the work, just as housewife Frieda
\nManusama-Moniaga has proven with her work on the old Tugu "Black
\nPortuguese" community here.<\/p>\n
Frieda is not a university or even a high school graduate but
\nthe way she collected data and wrote the history of the unique
\nethnic group of Tugu in North Jakarta is similar to the way the
\nexperts go about it.<\/p>\n
Frieda never got further than junior high school of the Meer
\nUitgebreide Lagere Onderwijs (MULO) in 1951.<\/p>\n
"But I graduated without having to sit for the examination
\nbecause I always got high grades of seven to eight.<\/p>\n
"Students automatically graduated if they had good grades,"
\nsaid the woman, who speaks Dutch and English, in a recent
\ninterview.<\/p>\n
Being an amateur, the result of her toil has not been
\ndocumented in book form or in papers for a seminar, but in a
\nmanuscript that it was typed on a manual typewriter.<\/p>\n
"I don't have a computer. I also don't know how to use one,"
\nsaid the 70-year-old woman, who started the work seriously in
\n1976.<\/p>\n
With her simple equipment she produced eight works on the Tugu
\ncommunity, like the history of their ancestors, their way of
\nlife, their clothes and the famous Keroncong music.<\/p>\n
People of Tugu were called Mardijker, or the liberated ones,
\nduring the Dutch colonial era. They were initially prisoners of
\nthe Dutch who conquered the Portuguese in the East, like in India
\nand Malaya, and made slaves in Batavia (old Jakarta).<\/p>\n
They were freed from slavery after converting to Protestantism
\nfrom Catholicism.<\/p>\n
In the past, their customs were apparent in their way of life,
\nlike wearing western clothes, but the only remnant of their
\ntraditions is their Keroncong music.<\/p>\n
Born in 1930 in the Tugu area, Frieda learned the special
\ncharacteristics of her ancestors at her mother's side.<\/p>\n
"That's why, although I have a Manadonese family name and have
\nlost the Portuguese name of Abrahams from my mother's side, I
\nchose to write about the Tugu community due to its uniqueness,"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
She is concerned that younger generations of Tugu community
\nmembers will no longer care about their history, while at the
\nsame time their identity is disappearing through intermarriage.<\/p>\n
For that reason, Frieda also pioneered the establishment of
\nthe Society of the Tugu Extended Family (IKBT) on May 2, 1976
\nwith two other people.<\/p>\n
The society met once a month to consolidate.<\/p>\n
"I did not do the writing for wide publication. It is just for
\nTugu community members and IKBT so that they will have complete
\ndata on their history.<\/p>\n
"I had no training in research so I just learned to find my
\nway when writing the history," said the mother of eight.<\/p>\n
Although her work was done for a small number of people,
\nFrieda was very serious about the work, which she did at her
\nfamily's ancestral home in Pejambon subdistrict, Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The widow, who has 25 grandchildren and three great
\ngrandchildren, regularly visits places like the National Archives
\nand the National Library in Central Jakarta to search for new
\ndata. She has also contacted Tugu community members in the
\nNetherlands to collect more data from the country.<\/p>\n
Her research was more intensive after her children grew up, "I
\ndid not need to think about cooking or other things like the
\nperiods when my children still needed special attention," said
\nFrieda, who was also active within her local community and
\nsubdistrict office.<\/p>\n
Frieda first became interested in writing in the early years
\nof her childhood.<\/p>\n
"I prepared paper and pencils every time I chatted with senior
\nTugu community members. I didn't care what the people thought
\nabout it."<\/p>\n
Senior Tugu community members often questioned her affinity
\nfor writing, "What do you do all this for?" she recalled them
\ncriticizing.<\/p>\n
She always made use of any gathering to ask about the history
\nand the ancestors of the community and then she took notes, which
\nshe still has to this day.<\/p>\n
In this way she managed to gather a relatively complete
\nhistory of the Tugu community.<\/p>\n
"But I can't trace back to when the first family arrived at
\nTugu. I have a collection of data for the periods after the 18th
\ncentury," she said.<\/p>\n
Through the years she also recorded several interviews by
\njournalists and researchers from the Netherlands, Portugal and
\nJapan regarding the Tugu people. (ind)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-tale-of-an-amateurs-work-on-tugu-history-1447893297",
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