Belanda Hitam

Last updated
A Black KNIL soldier during the 19th century. Afrikaanse soldaat, KITLV 36B187.tiff
A Black KNIL soldier during the 19th century.
Two KNIL soldiers in 1885. The soldier of the left is Indonesian, while the one on the right is Black. Inlandse -en Afrikaanse troepen.jpg
Two KNIL soldiers in 1885. The soldier of the left is Indonesian, while the one on the right is Black.

Belanda Hitam (Indonesian; "Black Dutchmen") was an Indonesian language term used to refer to Black soldiers recruited by the Dutch colonial empire for service in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), the colonial army of the Dutch East Indies. The recruitment of Black soldiers into the KNIL resulted from a combination of factors, including the heavy losses suffered by Dutch forces in the Java War and concerns over the reliability of indigenous KNIL troops. Between 1831 and 1872, over 3,000 West Africans, mostly Akan people, were recruited from the Dutch Gold Coast for KNIL service in the East Indies. [1]

Contents

History

Following the independence of Belgium in 1830, the Netherlands’ population was considerably diminished, making colonial combat losses more difficult to replace. Furthermore, the Dutch wanted the number of locally recruited soldiers in the East Indies Army to be limited to roughly half the total strength, to ensure the loyalty of native forces. It was also hoped that Akan soldiers would be more resistant to the tropical climate and tropical diseases of the Dutch East Indies than Dutch soldiers.

The soldiers from the Gold Coast were first recruited in Elmina. Of the 150 that were enlisted, 44 were descendants of Euro-African families in Elmina. They were deployed in 1832 in southern Sumatra. The West Africans proved less resistant to the climate than had been hoped, but their physique and general appearance as soldiers impressed the Sumatran population. In 1836 a further group of 88 Akan soldiers arrived in the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch government then decided to recruit from the Ashanti people.

In the autumn of 1836 Major General Jan Verveer undertook a mission to the King of Ashanti. On November 1, 1836, after he had arrived in Elmina, General Verveer departed with a retinue of about 900 people (the majority porters carrying provisions and gifts) to the capital of the Ashanti Empire, Comassie (Kumasi). After lengthy negotiations, an agreement was concluded with King Kwaku Dua. In Kumasi, a recruiting branch office was established by Jacob Huydecoper, a Dutch government official from Elmina of mixed Dutch-African descent. Kwaku Dua also sent two princes, Kwasi Boachi and Kwame Poku Boachi, to Verveer in the Netherlands for training. Their subsequent careers are described by Arthur Japin in his novel The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi (1997).

Because the British had abolished slavery, a somewhat cautious approach to recruitment was taken. The Ashanti king offered slaves and prisoners of war from the surrounding regions, for Dutch colonial service. However they nominally put themselves forward as voluntary recruits. As Dutch military service personnel they were entitled to receive pay. However British objections in 1842 led to discontinuation of this relatively successful recruitment. In 1855 enrollment resumed due to the positive experiences of West African soldiers in the Dutch East Indies. This renewed recruitment was now on a strictly voluntary basis.

End of African recruitment

A total of several thousand Malay Immigrants in the Negro Cavalier "with a Dutch name", were shipped to the Dutch East Indies. The Treaty of Sumatra in 1871 gave the Netherlands possessions on the Gold Coast to the British. This terminated the recruitment of Africans for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. On April 20, 1872, the last ship with African recruits left for Java. There were however two further attempts to recruit black volunteers for the Colonial Army. Between 1876 and 1879 thirty American Negroes recruits were hired for the KNIL. In 1890 there was an attempt to obtain recruits from Liberia. A total of 189 Liberians went to Java, but this group became almost entirely dissatisfied with failed promises and returned to Liberia in 1892. Even without the recruitment of Malay soldiers, the KNIL still had soldiers of Malay origin in its army long after the 1890s. These Malay and Indo-Afrikaan soldiers were the offspring of the Welanders that the Dutch shipped from the Dutch Gold Coast between 1830 and 1872. [2]

See also

Sources

  1. Blakely, Allison (2001). Blacks in the Dutch World: The Evolution of Racial Imagery in a Modern Society. Indiana University Press. p. 244. ISBN   978-0-253-21433-1.
  2. Kessel, Ineke van (Amsterdam 2005). Zwarte Hollanders; Afrikaanse soldaten in Nederlands-Indië. KIT Publishers. p. 213. ISBN   90-6832-498-5

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Netherlands East Indies Army</span> Military force maintained by the Netherlands in its colony of the Netherlands East Indies

The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army was the military force maintained by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, in areas that are now part of Indonesia. The KNIL's air arm was the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force. Elements of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Government Navy were also stationed in the Netherlands East Indies.

Kwaku Dua Panin was the eighth Asantehene of the Ashanti Empire from 25 August 1834 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch Gold Coast</span> Dutch possession in Western Africa between 1598-1872

The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch, beginning in 1612. The Dutch began trading in the area around 1598, joining the Portuguese which had a trading post there since the late 1400s. Eventually, the Dutch Gold Coast became the most important Dutch colony in West Africa after Fort Elmina was captured from the Portuguese in 1637, but fell into disarray after the abolition of the slave trade in the early 19th century. On 6 April 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast was, in accordance with the Anglo-Dutch Treaties of 1870–71, ceded to the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch East Indies</span> Dutch colony in Southeast Asia and Oceania (1800–1949)

The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies, was a Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which declared independence on 17 August 1945. Following the Indonesian War of Independence, Indonesia and the Netherlands made peace in 1949. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch ceded the governorate of Dutch Malacca to Britain, leading to its eventual incorporation into Malacca (state) of modern Malaysia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indos in colonial history</span> Eurasian people of mixed Indonesian and European descent

Indos are a Eurasian people of mixed Indonesian and European descent. The earliest evidence of Eurasian communities in the East Indies coincides with the arrival of Portuguese traders in the 16th century. Eurasian communities, often with distinct, specific names, also appeared following the arrival of Dutch (VOC) traders in the 17th and 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwasi Boachi</span> Prince of Ashanti Empire

Kwasi Boakye or Kwasi Boachi was a Prince of the Ashanti Empire who was sent to the Netherlands together with his cousin, Kwame Poku, in 1837, by his father, King Kwaku Dua Panin, to receive education as part of larger negotiations between the Ashanti and the Dutch about the recruitment of Ashanti soldiers for the Dutch East Indies Army.

<i>The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi</i>

The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi is the 1997 debut novel by Dutch author Arthur Japin. The novel tells the story of two Ashanti princes, Kwame Poku and Kwasi Boachi, who were taken from what is today Ghana and given to the Dutch king William II in 1837 as a surety in a business transaction between the Dutch and Ashanti Empire. The two boys are raised and educated in the Netherlands, after which Kwame returns to Africa while Kwasi continues his education in Weimar Germany and then takes a position in the Dutch East Indies. The novel is a postcolonial depiction of the Dutch colonial past. It quickly became a bestseller and was translated worldwide, and is now considered a classic of Dutch modern literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelis Nagtglas</span> Dutch politician

Cornelis Johannes Marius Nagtglas was a Dutch politician and civil servant, who made a career in the administration on the Dutch Gold Coast. After originally beginning his career at the advanced age of 36, he was promoted through the ranks to eventually become Governor of the Dutch Gold Coast in 1858. He retired to the Netherlands in 1862, but returned to the Gold Coast as governor in 1869, to restore order in the embattled colony. In 1871, he left the Gold Coast again, one year before the transfer of the colony to the United Kingdom.

Jacob Peter Huydecoper was an early 19th-century Elmina Euro-African civil servant and diplomat on the Dutch Gold Coast.

The Dutch–Ahanta War was a conflict between the Netherlands and the Ahanta between 1837 and 1839. Beginning with a mere economic dispute between the Ahanta and the Dutch, who were based at the Dutch Gold Coast, the conflict ended with the hanging of Ahanta king Badu Bonsu II and the reorganization of the Ahanta state, establishing a Dutch protectorate over the Ahanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elmina Java Museum</span> Museum in Ghana

The Elmina Java Museum is a museum in Elmina, Ghana, dedicated to the history of the so-called Belanda Hitam; soldiers recruited in the 19th century in the Dutch Gold Coast to serve in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. The museum is funded by the Edward A. Ulzen Memorial Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willem George Frederik Derx</span> Dutch civil servant

Willem George Frederik Derx was a Dutch civil servant, who made a career in the administration on the Dutch Gold Coast.

Jan Verveer was a major general of the Royal Netherlands Army.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands has an embassy in the Republic of Ghana. It has a role in promoting trade between the countries.

Pieter Simon Hamel was a Dutch diplomat who served as Consul General at Elmina, Bangkok and Amoy.

Hendrik Severinus Pel was a Dutch zoologist and colonial administrator on the Dutch Gold Coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Kooi</span> Military officer from Ghana

Jan Kooi was a Dutch KNIL military officer from Ghana.

<i>Portrait of a Wounded KNIL Soldier</i> Painting by Isaac Israëls

Portrait of a Wounded KNIL Soldier is an Amsterdam impressionist portrait painting by Isaac Israëls, signed and dated to 1882. It has been in the Rijksmuseum since 2000.

Friedrich Franz Ludwich Ulrich Last was a colonial administrator on the Gold Coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Elmina</span> History of the district capital

The documented history of Elmina begins in 1482 with an agreement between the Portuguese navigator Diogo de Azambuja and the ruler of Elmina, called Caramansa by the Portuguese. In it, the Portuguese were allowed to build the first European fortress in sub-Saharan Africa. For the next 150 years until the conquest by the Dutch in 1637, Elmina was the capital of the Portuguese bases on the Gold Coast, then for about 250 years the capital of the Dutch Empire in West Africa. Since the capture of the lease for the two fortresses of Elmina by the Ashanti in 1701, the city was also important to the Ashanti Empire. Until the 19th century, Elmina was one of the most populous cities in the Gold Coast, surpassing Accra and Kumasi. The trade in gold, slaves and palm oil brought the city into direct contact with Europe, North America, Brazil and, through the recruitment of soldiers, also with Southeast Asia. It was not until the takeover and destruction of the city by the British in 1873 that Elmina lost its prominent position in the Gold Coast.