West Africans in the Dutch colonial army Kessel, W.M.J. van

Citation Kessel, W. M. J. van. (2005). West Africans in the Dutch colonial army. Ghana Studies Council Newsletter, (17/18), 2-3. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/4762

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Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). WEST AFRICANS IN THE DUTCH COLONIAL ARMY By Ineke van Kessel, African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

~W~ "TTolland's African Army is the t m English title of an exhibition on -A. JL the little-known history of the West Africans who served in the Dutch East Indies Army, and their Indo- African descendents. Recruitment took place in Elmina and Kumasi between 1831 and 1872, when the Dutch handed their Possessions on the Coast of Guinea to the British. Most of the 3,080 recruits were men from the area of present-day Ghana and Burkina Faso. The modest-scale exhibition opened on 12 May in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, with an unexpected flurry of publicity in the Dutch media, includ- ing a substantial item in the evening TV news and stories in all major newspa- pers. On display are nineteenth-century paintings and lithographs of African soldiers in the East Indies, and a selection of photographs depicting Indo- African family life on Java. The paintings and lithographs are on loan from various Dutch museums, while the Left to right: Richard Hulskamp, Mary Land, Daan Cordus, Eef Cordus-Klink, Joyce photographs come from private family Cordus and Grace Comijs on a visit to St. George d'Elmina, from where their collections and from the Indo-Afrikaans forefathers began the longjourney to Java. The Indo-African delegation travelled to Kontakt, the organization of Indo- Ghana in 2003 to take part in the opening ceremony of the Elmina-Java Museum, where Af ricans living in the Netherlands. Also the story of the African soldiers is on display. on display is an early twentieth Century wayang golek, a figure in the Javanese From 1831, the Dutch used their campaigns in southern and western puppet theatre, depicting an awesome tiny footholds on the Gold Coast to Sumatra were highly favorable. African soldier in army uniform with solve the manpower problem of the In view of the longstanding cordial sharp teeth. East Indies army, or KNIL (Koninklijk relations with Ashanti, the Dutch The exhibition will be on display in Nederlands Indisch Leger). African government subsequently decided to the Tropenmuseum till 4 September, recruits were counted as part of the send an envoy to Kumasi. In 1837, a after which it will move to Museum European contingent, and were entitled treaty was concluded between the Bronbeek, the colonial army museum in to European status in terms of army Asantehene Kwaku Dua and General Arnhem. From early 2006, the exhibition pay, uniforms (including shoes) and Jan Verveer, on behalf of the Dutch will be shown in the Indisch Huis in The most other conditions of service. In King Willem I. The Asantehene would Hague. Texts are in Dutch (Dutch title is: spite of numerous infringements on the deliver 1,000 men within a year, in Zwart in dienst van Oranje) and in promise of equal treatment, the African exchange for 6,000 guns with powder. English. The exhibition came about as a soldiers were certainly better paid and In addition, the Dutch obtained permis- byproduct of my book on the Africans better treated than native Indonesian sion to open a recruitment bureau in and Indo-Africans in the Dutch East soldiers. However, volunteers proved 1 Kumasi, which was staffed by a Indies. In contacts and interviews with very scarce. Three ships, meant to Eurafrican official from Elmina, Jacob Indo-African descendents, an unexpect- transport an experimental "Negro Huydecooper. Initially, Verveer had edly rieh treasure of photographs was Company" of 150 men, sailed to hoped to recruit Ashanti men, reputed as unearthed, some dating from the early Batavia with only 44 volunteers. Army a "warrior race." When this proved twentieth Century. reports on their performance in impossible, hè settled for the slaves of The third phase in the saga the Ashanti, "Donkos," who of the Black Dutchmen, or subsequently acquired the Belanda Hitam as the soldiers reputation of a "warrior and their offspring were race," even though their called in Java, is the journey ethnic origins were very to the Netherlands. An army diverse. The Asantehene career had become family never met his obligations, tradition in many house- sending only a trickle of holds, with the sons and recruits to Elmina. grandsons of the African Huydecooper, however, soldiers serving as profes- managed to acquire consider- sional soldiers in World War able numbers of men from II against Japan, and private Kumasi citizens. The subsequently in the Dutch recruits were given an war against Indonesian advance on their army pay to nationalists. Since most Indo- purchase their liberty and were Africans identified strongly issued with an Act of Manumis- with their Dutch citizenship, sion and Emancipation. Mean- after Indonesian independence, while, recruitment also continued along the coast. they opted to settle in the Nether- lands. In this section of the exhibi- The Operation ended in 1842, after tion, we see large passenger ships a series of mutinies in the African followed by the first snowball fights in companies on Java and Sumatra caused the Dutch winter. The story ends with the army command to doubt the wisdom the rediscovery of Africa: dozens of of the African recruitment scheme. Joseph Nelk was the Indo-African son of Indo-Africans have by now made a Recruitment was resumed in 1855: African soldier Willem Nelk and his roots trip to Ghana. Daan Cordus and another 800 young African men made Javanese wife Sarina. Willem Nelk returned Eef Cordus-Klink, for many decades the the voyage to Batavia before Elmina to Africa in 1881, but Joseph stayed behind driving force behind Indo-African was handed to the British in 1872. to join the Dutch East Indies army at the reunions, are photographed in the Recruitment in Africa can only be age of 15. He served till 1910 and courtyard of St. George d'Elmina, illustrated by archival documents, but afterwards made a career in music. His together with Thad Ulzen, the great- the African experience in the East Indies grandchildren now live in the Netherlands grandson of Corporal Manus Ulzen, has been amply portrayed and photo- and the USA. who returned from Batavia to Elmina in graphed. Paintings and drawings made 1836. When in 2000 the Ulzen family in in the nineteenth Century focus on their Ghana first learned about this part of military valor. Corporal Jan Kooi from daughter. Judging from the photographs Elmina, who earned a series of medals of the second generation, quite a few their family history, they decided to use the family plot in Elmina for a museum. in the Aceh war (including the Militaire Indo-Africans succeeded in joining the Willemsorde, the highest distinction in lower echelons of the colonial elite. The Elmina-Java Museum, situated the Dutch army), had his portrait Family pictures show smartly-dressed along the main road from Cape Coast to painted during his stay in the Nether- families in front of comfortable houses, Takoradi, opened in February 2003. lands on the voyage home to Elmina. or wedding pictures in style, with all the Some of the displays now shown in Photographs of the first generation paraphernalia of a European wedding. Dutch museums will have the Elmina- Africans are rare: Corporal J. de Leeuw Most telling are the baboes (house Java Museum as their final destination. is photographed with the Militaire maids) and house boys in the back- Willemsorde, sergeant Piet Klink ground: in two generations, the African 1 Ineke van Kessel, Zwarte Hollanders: figures with his Javanese wife, while recruits had achieved a considerable rise Afrikaanse Soldaten in Nederlands- Jacobus Jol arranged a studio photo- in social status, from ex-slaves to Indie (Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, graph with his Indo-African son and European citizens in colonial society. 2005).