Multatuli

Multatuli

Eduard Douwes Dekker, also known as Multatuli
Born Eduard Douwes Dekker
(1820-03-02)2 March 1820
Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
Died 19 February 1887(1887-02-19) (aged 66)
Nieder Ingelheim, Rhine, Germany
Occupation Writer

Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tuli, "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel Max Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia).

Biography

Youth and apprenticeship

Eduard Douwes Dekker was born in the Korsjespoortsteeg of Amsterdam[1] as the fourth child of five children of a Baptist family: the other children were Catharina (1809-1849), Pieter Engel (1812-1861), Jan (1816-1864), and Willem (1823-1840). His father, Engel Douwes Dekker, was a Sea captain from the Zaan-area.[2] Engel's parents were Pieter Douwesz and Engeltje Dekker. Engel Douwes used both family names[3] The official family name should however have been Dekker; at the wedding licence of Eduard Douwes Dekker and Mimi Hamminck Schepel (1875) was the family name of the bridegroom mentioned as "Dekker, who himself names and writes as Douwes Dekker".[4] His mother Sietske Eeltjes Klein (sometimes also "Klijn") was a housewife, born at Ameland.

He visited the Latin school at the Singel, a precursor of the present Barlaeus Gymnasium.[4] As the third son he was predestined to become a baptist reverend according to his father. After three years he left the school without any certificate. [4] He worked some time as youngest clerk at a textile merchant firm.[5] In 1838 his father sailed with his ship to Batavia in the Dutch Indies, took his son with him as sailer. As a failed son he was taken to the colony. In 1839 they arrived in the capital Batavia. Eduard was dropped there, and eventually he was employed as a civil servant by the Dutch governmental Court of audit. In the following years he was promoted as administrative officer, although he disliked the financial work.

He led a merry and varied life in Batavia - but he more and more disliked the social life in Batavia, because the Dutch, small bourgeois environmental atmosphere. On top of this he had made severe debts in the casino. Therefore he applied for a job in the outer regions of the colony by the Governor-General.

Administrative Officer in Dutch East Indies

Douwes Dekker was appointed on 12 October 1842 to controller of the troubled district of Natal, North Sumatra. After some time it prooved that his book-keeping failed: he had too little money in cash. He got a serious rebuke of the Governor of Sumatra's West Coast, General Andreas Victor Michiels. It earned him the label "unmanly, without honor", Douwes Dekker felt particularly grieved personally. He was also suspended temporarily, because of the deficit in Natal by Michiels, and he suffered even hunger. In those days he wrote - as a kind of revenge - the play De Oneerbare/The dishonarable, later published under the name: De bruid daarboven/The bride up there, a play in five acts.

It is not certain that Dekker was fully responsible for the deficit in Natal. His interventions in the local conflicts, left him ample time to keep up with the finances. The deficit dated from before his days, and according to the Max Havelaar in which this episode is described, it was due to unsufficient administration of shipments of Interior troops movements. But Douwes Dekker had his head clearly not with the administration and reacted in addition, stubborn and piqued as he was addressed on errors.

Regional Secretary Van de Ven, who took over the administration of the suspended Douwes Dekker, wrote to the Governor that Dekker was behind with all the documents, errors had been made, rules were neglected, and on complaints no respons was given.

To the annoyance of his colleagues wore at that Douwes Dekker, in addition to his inaccuracies and his apology that he possessed 'less' suitability for the administration, he also not applied to the unwritten rules of the local civil service. This held, among other things, that the "koelie" or carriers certificates for salt-and money transports only for four guilders were administered. The carriers, however, never did it for less than eight. Habit was to administrate a few more carriers on the list than there had actually been. But in this kind of business remained Douwes Dekker opposed in principle to 'messing', and he administered stubborn eight guilders per carrier. By its administrative backlogs and the shortage became his suspension in Natal now final; the hardened General Michiels, who had successfully knocked down many rebellions on the west coast of Sumatra, was unsuccessful at the General Court in Batavia. But Douwes Dekker had entered the fight as a young civil servant with him, and could not win. After Dekker had completed the deficit from his own resources, he was on retaining and returned to the ile of Java.

First marriage, career and furlough

Back on Java Douwes Dekker married on april 10, 1846 with Tine van Wijnbergen (actually Everdina Huberta Baroness van Wijnbergen). From this marriage two children were born: son Edu in 1854 and daughter Nonni in 1857. The relation with both children remained difficult during his whole life. In addition to his wife, the fact, that he also liked other women, was a tough challenge for Tine, especially after their return to Netherlands and the beginning of his literary career.

After several functions in the country's service at Nanjing and Purworedjo, where he worked in subordinate positions, Douwes Dekker in 1848 was appointed Secretary of the residence Manado on the island of Indonesia, with which he enjoyed full recovery of his official career. His strong sense of Justice for the indigenous population took place here appreciation among resident Reinier Scherius, which on his departure in 1851 spoke in favor of Douwes Dekker as his successor. The Government choose not; Dekker had again made private debts and during his later furlough in the Netherlands it turned out that also here his administration had left a deficit behind. The exact circumstances were never cleared up. From his time in Manado is a speech to the homegrown heads surrendered, that has a strong resemblance to the famous speech from Lebak in the Bantam residency of Java (now Banten province), which the author Douwes Dekker used later in his Max Havelaar.

At the end of 1851 Douwes Dekker was promoted again on the administrative ladder at Ambon as Assistant-resident, but for health reasons, after a few months he was already allowed leave to Netherlands for another furlough. From 1852 to may 1855 he was in Holland. He made many plans to publish boks, but only little was accomplished. In the mean time he made many debts, it seems, in the vain assumption that money from the family of his wife would flow to him. Despite his later success as a writer, he was pretty much his entire life pursued by creditors. On top of that, Dekker tried many fruitless attempts in the casino on the roulette. Dekker reports on this in his book Millions Studies".

During the period between 1848 and 1851 Douwes Dekker eventually rose to serve as assistant resident in various regencies in the Indonesian archipelago including, Manado in Sulawesi and Ambon in the Moluccas.[6]

Further career

In 1857 he was transferred to Lebak, in the Bantam residency of Java (now Banten province). By this time, however, all the secrets of Dutch administration were known to him, and he had begun to openly protest about the abuses of the colonial system. Consequently, he was threatened with dismissal from his office for his openness of speech. Douwes Dekker resigned his appointment and returned to the Netherlands.

Statue of Multatuli on a square over the Singel canal in Amsterdam.

He was determined to expose in detail the scandals he had witnessed, and he began to do so in newspaper articles and pamphlets. Little notice, however, was taken of his protestations until, in 1860, he published his novel Max Havelaar under the pseudonym of Multatuli. Douwes Dekker's new pseudonym, which is derived from Latin, means, "I have suffered much", or, more literally "I have borne much" referring to himself, as well as, it is thought, to the victims of the injustices he saw. An attempt was made to suppress the inflammatory book, but in vain; it was read all over Europe. Apologists for colonialism accused Douwes Dekker's horrific depictions of being exaggerated. Multatuli now began his literary career, and published Love Letters (1861), which, in spite of their mild title, were mordant, unsparing satires.

Although Multatuli's work was widely criticized as lacking literary merit, he received an unexpected and most valuable ally in Carel Vosmaer who published a book (The Sower 1874) praising him.[7] He continued to write prolifically and to publish his miscellanies in uniform volumes called Ideas, of which seven appeared between 1862 and 1877 (his novel Woutertje Pieterse (Little Walter Pieterse) was also first printed in Ideas).

Douwes Dekker left the Netherlands, and went to live in Ingelheim am Rhein near Mainz, where he made several attempts to write for the stage.

One of his pieces, The School for Princes (published in 1872 in the fourth volume of Ideas), expresses his non-conformist views on politics, society and religion. This volume start with the play. It took much attention, and the edition was soon completely sold. A new edition needed. It took three years before it was brought into the theatre. Because of the fear of offending the Dutch king. But the premiere was a great success and the subsequent tour with the theatre company was one of the highlights in Dekker's career as a writer. Night after night he was applauded ans celebrated, and this for a man, who often complained that he was ignored in everything he touched on in his work.

He moved his residence to Nieder Ingelheim, on the Rhine, where he died in 1887.

Douwes Dekker was one of Sigmund Freud's favorite writers. He heads the list of 'ten good books' which Freud drew up in 1907.[8]

In June 2002, the Dutch Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Society of Dutch Literature) proclaimed Multatuli the most important Dutch writer of all time.[9]

Multatuli's brother, Jan Douwes Dekker, was the grandfather of Ernest Douwes Dekker (also known as Danudirja Setiabudi, a National Hero of Indonesia).

Douwes is commonly thought, wrongly, to be his middle name. Douwes Dekker is the combined form of both of his grandparents' last names, chosen after they couldn't decide which of their names they should give him.

Bibliography (selection)

Works which appeared during Multatuli's lifetime

Published after his death

Anthologies

(Multatuli, collected works, first edition ranked to time order by his widow)

Letters and other publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ Geboorteakte van Eduard Douwes Dekker
  2. ↑ Dik van der Meulen (2002): Multatuli. Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker. Nijmegen, Sun, ISBN 9789058750549, pp. 34-36.
  3. ↑ Multatuli, Jeugd, biographic data at the website of the Multatuli Museum
  4. 1 2 3 De raadselachtige Multatuli, W.F. Hermans; pagina 17
  5. ↑ Stuiveling (1985), p. 401
  6. ↑ "MULTATULI (EDUARD DOUWES DEKKER) (Western Colonialism)".
  7. ↑ Een Zaaier: studiën over Multatuli's werken Carel Vosmaer, Amsterdam : G.L. Funke, 1874
  8. ↑ Freud, S. (1907). Contribution to a Questionnaire on Reading. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume IX (1906–1908), 245–247.
  9. ↑ accessed on 30 November 2005

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