Travelling in the Memoirs
of Ibu S.K.Abdulrachman
In 1965, at the age of 80, Ibu S.K. Abdulrachman related a story that began in 1860 about her native, aristocrat family ('priyayi'). It is the story of her grandfather, a Dutch protégé who, during the turbulent years between 1870 and 1900, occupied posts as assistant district chief ('assisten wedana') in West Java. But it is also the story of a sheltered young girl who grew up with a close relationship to her grandparents
* By LISBETH LITTRUP
She wrote that the family originated from Aceh, North Sumatra (on her father's side) and Rembang on the North Coast of Java (on her mother's side). She explained to her children and grandchildren that she wrote her autobiography to give them a sense of direction in life and to ensure that they become civilized people, because 'civilized people know who their ancestors are'. In other words, in order to travel into the future, one must travel into the past, and her autobiography is indeed full of travelling.
The autobiography called Kenang2an: Tiada Pernah Padam, (Memories Never Fade Away) oleh: Ibu S.K. Abdulrachman was one of the many autobiographies that I found during my research stay in Leiden. It is preserved on microfilm at the library of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology (KITLV) in Leiden, the Netherlands, and it appears to be what we might call a 'family autobiography'. It's in the form of an forty-six page long, unpublished paper that was typed out by her niece in 1965.
Ibu S.K.Abdulrachman, or Siti Kartijah, spent some time in the house of relatives near Bogor, West Java, and because it was constantly raining she used her time to write. The autobiography consists of a foreword (p.1), followed by twenty-six parts (pp.2-27) in which she lays out the story of her grandparents' and parents' career movements in the native civil service (Pangreh Praja). A number appendixes to these pages contain letters. They were written between 1865 and 1874 in Indonesian by the Dutch Resident L. van Capellen to her grandfather, Amat Prawirodirdjo (Achmad), and they illustrate the warm relationship between Amat and Van Capellen (pp. 28-32). Siti Kartijah's own life story focuses on the period around her marriage (pp. 34-44) and, lastly, she describes the genealogy of her immediate family (45-46).
Through her testimony of the feminine experience, Siti Kartijah revealed herself to be an intelligent person who formed her own opinions. In a very personal autobiography, she expressed 'the feminine experience' of a priyayi family, but not through any rebellious spirit or from a direct feminist standpoint. To a certain degree, her autobiography exemplifies that 'the significant experiences for women are not events, but the encounters and developing relationships with others' as Watson (Watson 2000:193) comments in an analysis of the Indonesian woman writer Nh Dini's memoirs. First and foremost, it is her ability to interpret and influence personal relationships that will shape her life and not events, since she cannot initiate events important to her own life.
Her marriage is a fine example of this. In 1904, at the age of nineteen, she was presented with a list of prospective husbands and was asked to make a choice. But she asked herself how she could do that from among the unknown people on the list. She remembered how old people always said that marriage was like a lottery. If a girl was lucky, she would win first prize. Of this, she wrote, 'I just surrendered to my fate'. Before she ventured the information that she had actually won the first prize in that said marriage lottery, she embarked on a lengthy description of her 1905 journey to the marriage. He was a student at the Agricultural School in Bogor and a descendant of the Regent of Karawang, and she had never met him before. The journey began in Garawangi in Cirebon, where she lodged with her grandparents, and proceeded to Dawuan, close to Cikampek where her parents lived at the time she wrote her memoirs.
Siti Kartijah made mention that she had forgotten most of the unpleasant experiences during her many travels. But she did describe one event in particular that happened during that journey undertaken by her grandmother, mother, sister, a young brother and herself. It was in the pitch dark of night and in the midst of roaring thunder and rain that they left her grandfather's home in Buniseuri to go to the station in Ciamis. Despite the bad weather, they set out in their palaquins carried by bearers from the nearby village. Suddenly, 'It was as if lightening hit the people who carried our palaquins so they ran off to seek shelter and we were left in the middle of the pitch dark road. In that distress we placed our fate in Allah's hands. It was not until after the rain calmed down that the bearers came back and we continued the journey to the station in Ciamis.'
Why did Siti Kartijah describe this and other journeys in such great detail, in contrast to the descriptions of her wedding and marriage? One reason might have been an adherence to the Javanese custom by which one did not discuss such intimate matters. Her emphasis upon travel is, however, interesting. On the journey described above, the dangerous and frightening experiences en route had to be dealt with without real adult male protection. Siti Kartijah, sheltered and protected as she undoubtedly was, learned important things about herself when face to face with fear. Raised in the Javanese aristocracy where the concept of female gender was closely connected with restriction and subordination to men, these travels would have given her a feeling of liberation from routines of daily life and from her restricted role based on her gender. While seated in the house near Bogor in 1965 recalling details of this important journey, the differences noted between travel conditions in 1905 and in 1965 highlighted the journey through time she had embarked upon. She watched the Islamic Asia-Africa conference in Jakarta and Bandung on television and expressed happiness for the high public profile of Indonesian women taking political and religious roles that were present at the event (p. 35).
She looked back to her childhood, when at twelve years old she completed her studies of the Koran she passed a test at a ceremony where many guests attended. Her happy and proud grandmother said at that occasion, 'When I was still small I wanted very much to learn to read the Koran, but my parents always said that it was not necessary for women... What was most important for women was to serve her husband with a sweet face and be patient...' (p. 36). Siti Kartijah ended her autobiography emphasizing a journey towards more freedom for women. Of all her travels, apparently it was that one in particular that seemed, to her, to have been the most significant because there was a transgression of the combined boundaries of time, space, and gender roles.
References
Abdulrachman, Ibu S.K., Kenang2an: Tiada Pernah Padam, Langensari (1965).
Sutherland, Heather, The Making of a Bureaucratic Elite, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Books (1979).
Watson, C.W., Of Self and Nation: Autobiography and the representation of modern Indonesia, University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu (2000).
Dr Lisbeth Littrup has worked as a lecturer at the Department of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen and written a number of articles on Malaysian literature. She visited the IIAS in February 2000.
E-mail: stenlis@worldonline.dk