Concubines were caught between two worlds<\/p>\n
By Ida Indawati Khouw<\/p>\n
Concubines were tolerated as a necessary social reality in the
\nDutch East Indies for lower-ranking colonists prohibited from
\nbringing their wives from the homeland. But it was not simply a
\nlife of luxury for concubines, who held no legal rights within
\ntheir relationships and were ostracized by their own communities.
\nThis is the 75th article in our series on old Batavia.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): In crude terms, it was a matter of trade, of
\ngiving something and getting something else as payment in return.<\/p>\n
Except in this case the goods were young girls and women.<\/p>\n
\"From his sacks the (Dutch) great lord pulled out an envelope
\nand handed it over to my father ... I knew later that inside the
\nenvelope was 25 Dutch guilders, the handover of myself to him and
\na promise that my father would be promoted to become a
\ncashier ... That's it, Ann, a simple ceremony in which a father
\nsold his own daughter... \"<\/p>\n
This is how Nyai (concubine) Ontosoroh tells her daughter
\nAnnelies about the way she married the latter's father in the
\nonce-banned novel Bumi Manusia (The Abode of Humans) by Pramoedya
\nAnanta Toer.<\/p>\n
In a departure from the flowery novels during the Dutch
\ncolonial era which romanticized the lot of the nyai, Pramoedya
\ndescribes a concubine who is struggling for her rights and those
\nof her children.<\/p>\n
According to Ibnu Wahyudi in his doctoral thesis The Nyai in
\nNjai Dasima, Nyai Ratna and Njai Alimah: A Reflection of
\nIndonesian Women's Lives as Concubines of Europeans in
\nIndonesia's Colonial Period, the nyai phenomenon was indeed a
\ndominant theme in novels produced before the founding of Balai
\nPustaka, the Dutch colonial publishing house, including the
\nfamous Njai Dasima written by Eurasian writer G. Francis.<\/p>\n
But the prevalent fictional treatment of this theme helps
\nillustrate that in colonial society, concubinage was regarded as
\na social reality.<\/p>\n
Ibnu noted that the term nyai not only referred to a concubine
\nof a European or Chinese man in colonial society, but also was
\nused as a respectful term of address for older women.<\/p>\n
The history of concubinage was as old as the arrival of
\nWesterners here in the 16th century with the Dutch East India
\nCompany (VOC).<\/p>\n
The practice of taking concubines began with a regulation
\nbarring some VOC employees, mostly from the lower ranks, from
\nbringing their wives from the Netherlands. As Ibnu wrote,
\nconcubinage became the most appropriate alternative for several
\nreasons, including to meet their sexual needs, but also to
\nreinstate the inferior social position of the indigenous
\npopulation compared to their Western masters.<\/p>\n
Actual marriage between Westerners and local women was almost
\nimpossible, based on an antimiscegenation decree of 1617.<\/p>\n
In such a social setting, concubinage flourished, with women
\nforced by circumstance, or taking the opportunity afforded them,
\nto try to change their status in life.<\/p>\n
Numerous<\/p>\n
Keeping a concubine was not reserved solely for low-ranking
\nofficials. In her article Barracks-Concubinage in the Indies,
\n1887-1920, Hanneke Ming said that nyai were numerous and belonged
\nto all strata of Indo-European society.<\/p>\n
\"Not only the soldiers in the barracks, but also most of the
\ngenerals, field and other officers, governor of territories,
\nresidents, senior and other officials had a nyai if they are not
\nmarried,\" Ming said.<\/p>\n
Yet the life of Ma Sarinah, who lived with a soldier named Jan
\nCamphuys in an army barracks, may have been typical of many
\nconcubines. Ma Sarinah cooked his food, mended his clothes and
\nreceived his blows, Ming wrote.<\/p>\n
When he returned to the Netherlands, she was expecting their
\nfifth child. Jan never came back and the money he had promised
\nnever reached Ma Sarinah, who concluded that Jan had died. She
\ncould claim no pension to support their children.<\/p>\n
Ming said the legal rights of the nyai were virtually
\nnonexistent, even less than the most menial household servant.<\/p>\n
\"The soldier who returned to Europe had three options; simply
\nleave his family, or he could try to turn the family over to some
\nother soldier remaining in the Indies. Finally he could try to
\nplace his children in one of the various charitable institutions.
\nThe mother would then go back to the kampong or try to earn a
\nliving as a babu or seamstress.\"<\/p>\n
By living with a European soldier, the women had lost status
\namong their own people.<\/p>\n
\"If such a woman is expelled from the barracks, owning
\nnothing, and (she is) usually in no position to work to support
\nher children,\" Ming wrote. \"None of the men will be eager to take
\nher as his mate, and in most cases it can be predicted that, in
\ndire need, she will be forced to turn to prostitution for her
\nlivelihood.\"<\/p>\n
There were attempts by the VOC authorities, especially under
\nBatavia founder Governor General J.P. Coen who imposed strict
\nrules on sexual morals, to eradicate concubinage because it
\n\"resulted in abortion, infanticide and sometimes in the poisoning
\nof the master by a jealous concubine.\"<\/p>\n
But concubinage was so rampant that the regulation was
\nunenforceable. Even in the puritanical 19th century, concubinage
\nand casual sexual encounters were the norm for single European
\nand Chinese men involved with local women in the colony,
\nhistorian Susan Abeyasekere said in her book Jakarta A History.<\/p>\n
\"Although the liaison was unmentionable in polite Batavian
\nsociety, unofficially it was recognized since many young European
\nmales (especially those in the army) could not afford to marry a
\nEuropean woman.\"<\/p>\n
If the women were abandoned by their partners, Abeyasekere
\nsaid they sometimes could parlay their higher social status and
\nacquired wealth into opening new businesses.<\/p>\n
Concubinage also gave birth to a social group of the Eurasians
\nor Indo-Europeans.<\/p>\n
In reality Eurasians, often known as \"Indos\", were in a
\nmarginal position. Ibnu said that many of the children of the
\nmixed unions were abandoned by their parents, left to wander from
\nfamily to family in native villages and presenting a burden to
\nsociety.<\/p>\n
\"The life of Eurasians in Indonesia's colonial society was far
\nfrom easy. They had to fight for existence in an unfavorable
\nsituation,\" he said.<\/p>",
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