Rampokan
Rampokan ( Javanese for tiger ) is a graphic novel by the Dutch comic artist Peter van Dongen . Against the background of the Indonesian War of Independence , she tells the story of a young Dutchman who volunteered for military service in Indonesia in 1946 for very personal reasons and then deserted . The fictional graphic novel deals mainly with real-world historical events, but also has an unreal narrative level. In terms of drawings, it is part of the Ligne claire and is colored in sepia colors . The work initially appeared in two parts; Java (1998) and Celebes (2004).
Contemporary historical context
After the Japanese imperialist army was driven out of the Indonesian archipelago by British units in 1945, Indonesians declared their country's independence from the former Dutch colonial power. However, the Netherlands did not recognize this independence and tried to enforce their claims militarily again. Because the professional units stationed in what was then the " Dutch East Indies " were insufficient, volunteers were recruited and dispatched to put down the independence movement, which was partly made up of communists.
action
The narrative begins with a sequence of images in October 1946, which introduces the context of the time: A convoy of returning Dutch settlers and loyalists is attacked by Indonesian nationalists, and from then on the violence runs through the entire story of Rampokan .
The rather apolitical protagonist Johan Knevel, a son of Dutch colonialists who died prematurely in Indonesia, wants to return to his homeland after the end of the Second World War in Europe. He is driven by the longing to track down his former native nanny Ninih, with whom he has a sentimental bond. So at the beginning he is on the troop transport "Tegelberg" on the way to Asia. On the ship it comes to degrading Äquatortaufe of known as a Communist volunteers Erik Verhagen, followed Knevel involved. In the evening there is a duel between Verhagen and Knevel, with Verhagen drowning in the sea. Knevel then takes his victim's ID. With the exception of a pushy friend who is hoping for profitable business in Indonesia, nobody noticed the unintentional act.
Knevel reaches the port of Tanjung Priok and mingles with the Dutch people there, whose life consists of boredom, commercial pleasures and black market. The author contrasts this with the uncorrupted, primeval-archaic power of Indonesian folk culture, which is not free from obscurantism . The expression of this is the Rampokan macan , which runs parallel to the plot as an aesthetic-allegorical element (the cornered Indonesian tiger breaks out). For Knevel is his crime to the growing mental stress and he has nightmares and paranoia . His search for Ninih doesn’t get anywhere, rather he is drawn into amorous entanglements and forbidden business.
Dutch punitive expeditions repeatedly set out into the hinterland and tried to stifle the smoldering conflict by using brutal violence against the civilian population, but the armed independence fighters evade direct confrontation. During one of these missions on the island of Sulawesi (Celebes) , Knevel loses his unit when a tsunami hits the coast. He is unconscious and receives help from the communist-minded Dutchman Burt Dekker and his Indonesian companions. They find Erik Verhagen's KP membership card at Knevel and therefore consider him to be like-minded. Knevel, who is now a deserter to the army, now has to pretend to be a communist. The rationalist communists, on the other hand, stand in opposition to pre-Islamic popular belief, whose supporters are portrayed by the author as the real bearers of the Indonesian independence will.
However, the author also describes the living environment of the small class of Indonesian loyalists, who associate the rule of the Dutch with an earlier period of stability and personal prosperity. The Dutch themselves live in an isolated and luxurious world, whose enjoyment is spoiled for them by the war, which is perceived as annoying. Under the pressure of smaller attacks, they allow themselves to be carried away to increasingly harsh counter-violence. The communist Dekker, who desperately hopes for the arms deliveries from Australia promised by Knevel, is now looking for the support of an ominous female medium, which seems to be able to control the will of the people and lives in a community hidden in the woods, despite his reservations.
There Knevel finally finds his now mentally deranged former nanny Ninih, but is also exposed by Dekker as an apolitical opportunist and therefore has to fear for his life. Dekker's Indonesian comrade, otherwise at a loss for any bloody act, enables the “sentimentalist living in the past” to escape. However, the village is now attacked by a Dutch commando and Knevel dies in the midst of a general blood court after his former superior personally refused to help.
The plot ends in January 1951 with a brief epilogue on a luxury ship en route to Europe in which the supposed victors - Dutch officers and their conformist Indonesian wives, their need for safety at all costs is a common theme in Rampokan - are shown in all their banality. For them, the extremely bloody war was apparently just an episode in a life marked by comfort.
expenditure
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Rampokan deel 1 Java . Amsterdam: Oog & Blik, 1998.
- Rampokan. Part: 1, Java . Translation Jan Kruse . Berlin: Avant, 2008.
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Rampokan deel 2 Celebes . Amsterdam: Oog & Blik, 2004.
- Rampokan. Part: 2, Celebes . Translation Jan Kruse. Berlin: Avant, 2008.
- Rampokan schetsboek . Amsterdam: Oog & Blik, 2005.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter van Dongen (author), Eric Verhoest (afterword, quoted from Peter Breedveld: Stripschrift 365 , published 2004), in: Peter Van Dongen: Rampokan . Éditions Dupuis, Marcinelle (Belgique) 2018, ISBN 979-1-03473101-5 , p. Book without page numbers .
- ^ Andreas Platthaus : Comic blog: Asian adventures - Peter van Dongen's ligne claire spectacle "Rampokan". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. March 23, 2009, accessed September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Christopher Alan Bayly , Tim Harper: Forgotten wars - The end of Britain's Asian Empire . 2nd Edition. Penguin Books, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-14-101738-9 , pp. 158-190 .