Essay

WHAT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE CHILD OF ALL NATIONS (ANAK SEMUA BANGSA)

Child of All Nations is the second book in a four book series telling the fictionalized life story of Tirto Adhi Suryo, one of the pioneers of Indonesian nationalism.

In the first book of the series, Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), the main character, Minke, who is based on Tirto Adhi Suryo, benefits from the fact that his father is an influential Javanese priyayi (Government official). Minke is one of the first natives allowed to attend Dutch school in the port city, Surabaya, in East Java. As a result of his western education Minke is often at odds with his parents, especially, his father, who expects Minke to follow in his footsteps. Minke’s mother is also disappointed and wonders if her son is “no longer Javanese,” but continues to display her love for Minke nonetheless.

Invited by a Eurasian friend to visit a mysterious Nyai’s (a concubine of a Dutchman) manorial home in the Surabaya suburb of Wonokromo, Minke falls in love with the Nyai’s daughter, Annelies Mellema, a love she gradually appears to reciprocate. This development is much to the chagrin of his friend, Robert Suurhof, who himself was enamored of the young woman, Annelies, and who secretly hoped Minke, as a native,, would be humiliated by an uninterested Eurasian girl like Annelies Mellema.

Minke’s and Annelies’ relationship begins to blossom under the watchful eye of her native mother, Nyai Ontosoroh. Nyai turns out to be a remarkable personality who runs the family business with amazing skill. Minke has a hard time understanding this since he has never met such a capable, independent-minded native woman. But Minke soon discovers that all is not well in the Mellema household. Annelies’ Dutch father, Herman Mellema is rarely to be seen and apparently spends much of his time in a brothel run by a local Chinese businessman. Annelies’ brother, Rob Mellema, also mixed-race, despises natives like Minke and tries to threaten and intimidate Minke. Annelies, for all her beauty and skill in helping her mother managing their farming business, seems to have some psychological problems and becomes childishly dependent, even ill, when put in emotionally difficult situations.

When Herman Mellema is suddenly found dead, poisoned, in the Chinese brohel, the entire family is dragged into the court of the colonial justice system and experience the inequality between European colonials and natives while being subject to vicious gossip about their private lives and morals. Minke, who has moved in with them, is expelled from his school. Minke and Annelies decide, at Nyai’s urging, to marry, and the wedding takes place according to Islamic custom and with the blessing of Minke’s mother. But fate is not on their side, it would seem, for soon after their union, a young Dutch naval engineer appears to lay claim to the Mellma estate. He is Herman Mellema’s son by the latter’s marriage to a Dutch woman whom he abandoned when he came to the Dutch Indies. Not only does the colonial court grant Mellema’s Dutch son control of the business Nyai has so successfully built, but which is listed as Herman Mellma’s property, but he is also authorized to take guardianship of Annnelies as Mellma’s other (underage) heir. The novel ends as the Dutch, ignoring local custom and Islamic law, take Annelies away from Minke and Nyai who have used every means at their disposal, all unsuccessfully, to keep her with them.