be published in the periodical and the other intended for the board. The editor
of the instruction notices that in the copy for the journal delicate questions
like the attitude of colonial government and Muslim chiefs or deviant opinions
were to be omitted. So not all information was considered to be suitable for the
public. 35 The missionaries of the Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap were asked
by their superiors to write explicitly about daily life and things that seemed to
be unimportant, but in the view of the Dutch board quite interesting.36 When
the missionary]. Wilhelm was sent out to Central Java by the Hervormde church
of Renkum in 1880, he was instructed to write to the church council every
month, unless illness prevented him from doing so. His reports were published
in the journal the Heidenbode (Heathen Journal).37 An agreement between the
Gereformeerde Kerken in the Dutch provinces Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel
and the old-reformed churches (Altreformierte Kirchen) in Germany is interesting.
It dates from 1936 and contains a separate paragraph about the archive and the
correspondence between the sending churches and the missionaries on Sumba.
With regard to the archiving in the Netherlands it was agreed that the church
in charge of keeping the archive had to report annually to the other churches
about the state of the archive.38 The incoming letters from missionaries could
be published 'as much as was desirable'.39 The obligation to write a 'journal' or a
diary was also in use at English missionary organisations.40 Walther Medhurst,
who was sent out by the London Missionary Society in 1816 to Malacca and
sailed later to Batavia, kept a diary full of colourful observations and discussions
he was having with recalcitrant Muslims and calculating Chinese in Batavia.41
Catholic missionaries were requested to write frequent letters to the superior
of the congregation in the Netherlands. The archives of congregations contain
ten thousands of these letters. The duty to report periodically and to keep a
diary was also in force in many congregations. In the archive of the Sociëteit
der Afrikaansche Missiën (Society of African Missions) very worthful diaries
written by missionaries, priests and lay brothers, are still to be found.42 Many
missionaries, returning to the Netherlands because of declining health or old
age wrote their memoirs of an exciting life with a mixture of pride, humour and
melancholy.43 Collaborators of the project KomMissieMemoires (Commission
Mission Memoirs) set up by the Katholiek Documentatie Centrum (Catholic
Documentation Centre) in Nijmegen and some Catholic mission organisations
interviewed more than 900 missionaries, most of them retired, between
1975 and 2005.44
COLONIAL LEGACY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA -
THE DUTCH ARCHIVES
35 Hogg, Ecumenical Foundations, 93-notes 1 and 4.
36 Tendeloo, 'Dagboek van een zendeling', 220-221.
37 Reenders, De gereformeerde zending Midden-Java 1859-1931, 51 (article 7 of the instruction).
38 End, Gereformeerde zending Sumba, 385-386.
39 End, Gereformeerde zending Sumba, 385, article 19.
40 Lovettt, London Missionary Society, 155 ff.
41 School for Oriental and Asian Studies, London, London Missionary Society, inv. numbers CWM/LMS
14/05/18, 19 and 21.
42 Erfgoedcentrum Nederlands Kloosterleven, St. Agatha, Sociëteit Afrikaanse Missiën. A few examples: inv. nr.
586 (Jan Doeswijk, covering the years 1935-1951) and 587 (Toon Domensino, covering the years 1923-1939
and 1946-1951).
160
