How postcolonial power relations are played out in Indonesian-Dutch translation Elke Boogert ...

166 Pages·2012·10.9 MB·English

Whose Earth Is It?

How postcolonial power relations are played out in Indonesian-Dutch translation

Elke Boogert
0208809
Utrecht University Master's Thesis
August 2011

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Abstract

Colonialism works by perceiving the native as less than human, a sentiment which is hard to
shake off once the colony reaches a state of independence. This postcolonial relationship
makes the translation of literary text from the colonial language to the empirical language in a
traditional sense impossible. The power relations are too uneven, and the notion of what is
'foreign' and what is 'domestic' entirely unclear. This research targets literary translations from
Bahasa Indonesia to Dutch, as an example of how great an influence colonialism and
postcolonialism has on the relationship between two cultures and translations between them.
In this thesis the Dutch and English translations of the novel Bumi Manusia by Indonesian
author Pramoedya Ananta Toer are investigated for colonial and postcolonial traces in formality,
rhythm, observation, tone, borrowings and cultural specific items. The conclusion is
confrontational for Dutch translators of literary works from Bahasa Indonesia. Because it is
exactly this focus on the colonial past in terms of for example content or word choice that
make traditional Indonesian culture secondary, perpetuating the post-colonial relationship.

Keywords: Translation, History, Postcolonial, Colonial, Dutch, the Netherlands, Pramoedya
Ananta Toer, Indonesia, East Indies, Bahasa Indonesia, Power relations, Orality, Oral literature,
Rhythm, Formalism, Tone, Suppression.

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With great thanks to Gerard & José Boogert, Ton Naaijkens, Fanny Janse, Ina de Gaay
Fortman, Fransisca Wijanarko, Jeanne and Ruud de Leeuw, B98 Country Radio, Hans Vos and
last but certainly not least, Dennis List.

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Table of contents

Introduction 6
Indonesia and the East Indies 8
Historically speaking 8

Terms and framework 11
What is postcoloniality? 11
Colonialism' shadow 12
Where is this postcolonial area? 12
When is the postcolonial? 13
What are post-colonial texts? 14
Who writes postcolonial texts? 16
Similarities with migrant literature 16
What is a postcolonial translation? 18

Power relations 20
Postcolonial translation power relations 20
Techniques 21
Untranslatable? 21
Indonesian/Dutch power relations 23
Bahasa Indonesia 25
Nationalism 26
Bahasa Indonesia and Toer 27
Indonesian literature 30
Oral traditions 31
Writing and translating oral traditions 33

Author and novel 35
Pramoedya Ananta Toer 35
Bumi Manusia 37
Publication and supression 37
Storyline 39
Characters 40
Minke 40
Annelies 41
Nyai Ontosoroh 41

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Translations 43
Dutch translation of Bumi Manusia: 1981 43
Dutch translation of Bumi Manusia: 1983 46
English translation of Bumi Manusia 48
Textual analysis of Bumi Manusia translations 49
Untranslated words 81
Dutch borrowings and borrowings in Dutch 83
Oral traces 85
Rhythm 85
Observation 86
Formalism 87
Tone 87
Other traces of colonialism 89
Embedding 92

Conclusion 95
Bibliography 98
Appendices 104

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Introduction

There is no doubt that the connection between two countries or languages leaves a trace. That
may be in the arts of those two countries, in the way people consider eachother, the way two
countries interact politically or the way two cultures interact. This interaction can be a result of
trade, sharing a border, previous conflicts, marriage between its royal houses, the possibilities
are endless. But a colonial or post-colonial relationship is a special type of interaction. For
more than three hundred years, the Dutch government and people enjoyed the riches of what
is now called the country of Indonesia, shipping to the European continent spoils of war, gold,
precious artifacts, spices, coffee and other expensive items. By colonizing the region, the
Dutch colonized the native population, as a colonial relationship leaves no room for equality.

The very term translation is defined by the relationship between a notion of the foreign and a
notion of the domestic (Cheyfitz xi). It is this delicate balance in a relationship between two
countries that is, to put it mildly, disturbed by the introduction of colonialism. Since the
colonized region becomes a part of the empire, who can say what foreign and domestic
actually mean? The colonized region, its people and its original culture, is 'translated' to
become something similar to that of the so-called mother country by the Dutch settlers, the
industry and the agriculture. The two cultures bleed together. The colony becomes a kind of
border culture, and as Robinson puts it, 'the mixing of cultures and languages in migrant and
border cultures makes translation in the traditional sense impossible' (Robinson 27).

It is my hypothesis that this postcolonial relationship makes traditional literary
translation impossible, and that it will continue to leave traces in translations of
literary texts from Bahasa Indonesia to Dutch in the years to come.

I believe this is the case because of the way the Dutch perceived Indonesians in the past and
the way they do today, because of the close connection between Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch,
and the (lack of) respect for, and knowledge of, traditional Indonesian (oral) literary culture.

In order to discover these traces, one has to look at translations from Bahasa Indonesia into
Dutch. There have not been that many, considering the abundance of texts from English,
Spanish, French and German that have been translated into Dutch the past one hundred years
or so. Worth noting is that much of the Indonesian literature that is critically acclaimed and
reasonably well-read in the Netherlands concerns topics of colonialism. For the purposes of this
thesis, I have selected a novel critically acclaimed and translated into Dutch in the 1980's. It is
the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, one of the few Indonesian novelists that
have had their works translated to a large audience. Toer was politically active and
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knowledgeable, succesful in his home country, and incredibly outspoken. Toer himself noted to
Dutch journalists in 1981 that 'Holland's historical connection to Indonesia, in whatever way
you look at it, means it has a moral responsibility towards Indonesia1' (Kalpana and Elburg 38-
40). I will compare the Dutch translation to the the source text and, acting as a control, the
English translation2 of the novel.

My research starts by shortly exploring the history of the Indonesian archipelago, its culture
and describing its physique. Next I formulate several terms and a postcolonial framework to
give insight into discussions regarding postcoloniality and post-colonial texts.
Then I describe what postcolonial translation entails, and several theories surrounding the
translation of colonial and postcolonial texts. Some reflections regarding the power relations
between the Netherlands and Indonesia, the popularity of Indonesian fiction and the peculiarity
of the source language of Bahasa Indonesia will be discussed. Why Toer decided to write his
novel in Bahasa Indonesia – as opposed to his native tongue of Javanese – is explored here.
This is followed with a discussion of Indonesian traditional literature, a description of the life
and career of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and the tale of the publication and subsequent
suppression of the novel. The storyline and main characters of the novel are also distinguished.

The actual comparison of both translations will be discussed in much detail. Any conclusions
regarding this textual analysis can be found in the succeeding chapters. This thesis will be
concluded by several final remarks that combine theoretical elements with conclusions from
the textual analysis.

1 Original Dutch: 'Nederland heeft gezien de binding met Indonesie in het verleden, hoe
dan ook een morele verantwoordelijkheid ten opzichte van Indonesie.'
2 We can of course argue that English, like Dutch, is the language of a colonial nation.
The empire of Britain was famously called one where the sun never sets, because it
covered huge areas of the known world. But the English translation was not written by a
Brit: instead, it was produced by an Australian diplomat and translator. Australia was a
British colony. The relationship between Indonesia and Australia is not a neutral one, as
it never is. But that relationship is inherently different than the relationship between the
Netherlands and Indonesia.
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Indonesia and the East Indies

For the purposes of this thesis, basic knowledge regarding the subject matter described in
Bumi Manusia would be an asset. This mainly concerns the country of Indonesia and its
history, as well as some colonial aspects. The republic of Indonesia is an Asian country,
comprising of around 17,000 islands and with a population of around 230 million people. The
country was colonized by the Dutch for around 350 years and secured its independence
following the Second World War. During the time of Dutch colonization, the term ‘Indonesia’
was not used. Instead ‘Maleische Archipel’, ‘Nederlands Oost Indië’ (shortened to ‘Indië’), ‘de
Oost’ and even ‘Insulinde’ were used to refer to the Dutch colony. For this thesis, I will refer to
Indonesia as the East Indies when discussing the region as the Dutch colony, and refer to
Indonesia as the republic that it has been since 1947.

In terms of diversity, the Indonesian people are actually thousands of distinct ethnic, linguistic
and religious groups. But the Javanese people are the largest group in Indonesia, and the
country is mainly Islamic. In fact, Indonesia’s national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which
literally translates to 'many, yet one' (or more poetically, 'Unity in Diversity'), articulates what
the region and its inhabitants have struggled with for thousands of years. Due to their remote
location some areas resisted European colonialism for centuries and continue to resist current
rule from the capital of Jakarta in Java. Indonesia is home to more than 400 languages and a
whole range of values, religions and beliefs. Next to their native dialect, most people speak
some Bahasa Indonesia, the national language which resembles Malay and has been used for
trading for centuries3. The country is rich in natural resources and supports the word’s second
highest level of biodiversity. Unfortunately poverty still cripples the country and natural
disasters, separatism and corruption are daily occurrences.

Historically speaking
The first Europeans arrived in the archipelago in 1512, and they were not Dutch, but
Portuguese. The travellers were drawn to the region by the trade in nutmeg, cloves and cubeb
peppers, spices that grew nowhere else in the world. Both Dutch and British traders followed.
These ships had traversed the entirety of the Atlantic, crossed the vast Indian Ocean, passed
through the Muslim-dominated seas of the East Indies, before finally dropping anchor in
several tiny bays (Hellwig and Tagliacozzo 7).

The Dutch managed to evict all other Europeans and created a monopoly over several tiny
islands in the East of the archipelago. At one point the Dutch traded one of the small remaining

3 See Chapter 'Bahasa Indonesia' on page 25.
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English islands for an island of their own – New Amsterdam, now known as Manhattan. In
1602 Dutch dominance was established over the East Indies by the start of the Dutch East
India Company (known as the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC). In that year,
Dutch parliament awarded the trading company a monopoly on trade and colonial activities in
the region, although at the time it did not control any part of Java. In 1619, the company
conquered the city of Jayakarta in West Java, and founded the city of Batavia, now known as
Jakarta. It was little more than a trading post. In fact, it was not until the early seventeenth
century that isolated voyages gave way to a united effort for trade, contact and exploration.
Trading company VOC fought numerous wars with local leaders in Java4.

Following the bankruptcy and dissolution of the VOC in 1800, the Netherlands officially
pronounced the Dutch East Indies its colony. For most of the colonial period, Dutch control of
the East Indies centralized around the coast. Not until more than a century later did Dutch
dominance turn inland as well. In truth Dutch influence would not have its greatest impact on
the region until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At this time, Dutch trading posts
sprung up at numerous islands in the East Indies. Most local rulers were engaged in contracts
in order to set up these posts. Although starting as simple trade agreements, most islands or
regions became colonized territories as time went on, and local rulers realized that they could
not fight off the Dutch forces. Javanese royalty tried its best to remove the Dutch from their
land after signs of hostility. The Java war (1825-1830) was the last hope for Java of ridding
itself from imperial rule. The war lasted five years and cost many lives. 'The war broke the
Javanese aristocracy to Dutch bidding, and it broke the Javanese landscape as well, furthering
the new policy of the cultuurstelsel (cultivation system), which eventually turned the island
into an export-crop plantation under Holland's rule' (Ibid. 106). This system of cultuurstelsel is
what brought enormous wealth to the European home country in the nineteenth and twentieth
century. Peasants were tied to their land and forced to work in government-owned plantations
for 60 days of the year. 'The intensified administration and exploitation of natural resources
and the labour force meant huge profits for the Netherlands and a pauperization of the
indigenous peoples. The latter were ethnically divided and therefore in no position to oppose
colonialism' (Ibid. 8)
During the high colonial period, roughly from 1850 to 1950, the Dutch became the driving
force of life in the East Indies. Settlers tightened their grip on the archipelago and the
colonized peoples, both in terms of breadth and depth. The Dutch took care of vaccinations,
built schools and rail roads, and brought a certain level of peace to the region. In the early
1900's the Dutch concentrated on expanding their colonial state. Since most paths had been
cleared by Christian missionaries, the enormous islands of Sumatra and Sulawesi were brought
under limited control.

4 These including conflicts with Mataram and Bantam.
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Dutch rule was only abolished by the invasion of the Japanese and subsequent occupation
during World War II. Japanese propaganda portrayed themselves as Asian liberators, meaning
that many native Indonesians cheered on the Japanese military as they entered the country.
This enthusiasm soon waned, when it became clear how Japan was to use the East Indies: to
plunder its rich resources, for providing labour and growing rice. They imposed food
requisitioning, with the result that the native population suffered from famine. And that in a
land of plenty.
The occupation lasted three and a half years. Working closely with what would eventually be
revolutionary leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, the Japanese formed semi-military
organizations. Two days after Japan capitulated, Sukarno announced independence and was
appointed president. (Dutch) attemps to restore colonialism by outmanoeuvring the
Indonesian Republican cabinet ultimately failed. Two seperate Dutch military offensives were
organized, from 5 July to 5 August 1947 and from 19 December 1948 to 5 January 1949
(called 'politionele acties' in Dutch5). The first offensive allowed the Dutch army to occupy
West- and East-Java and neighbouring island Madura, leading to a cease fire after intervention
from the United Nations and negotations between the two governments. But the troops
occupying Java fell short against the guerilla warfare of Indonesian nationalists and the
negotations failed. The second offensive was meant to fully shut down the Indonesian
Republican government, by taking Sumatra and Mid-Java, including the Republican capital of
Yogyakarta. Indonesian leaders Sukarna and Hatta were imprisoned. Though the offensive was
succesful, the Dutch soon discovered that the combination of the threat of UN-sanctions, the
guerilla tactics of the Indonesian national army, and the instability of local governments due to
the elimination of Dutch-friendly Indonesians by the Indonesian nationalist movement, meant
rule of Indonesia was impossible.
Under pressure from the United Nations Security Council and the United States of America the
Dutch agreed to a round table conference to discuss the formation of the Republic of the
United States of Indonesia (Ibid. 293). On December 27, 1949 the Dutch government
recognized Indonesian independence. The relationship between the two countries remained
strained. It was not until 2005 that the Netherlands formally acknowledged the independence
of Indonesia as being on August 17, 1945. Not 1949.

5 The military actions against the new Republic of Indonesia were not considered a war,
but a suppression of colonial rebellion. But considering over 100,000 Dutch soldiers
fought in both offensives, this was obviously not the case. The majority of the Dutch
population (62% percent) approved of the second military intervention. Source:
Wikipedia.
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