What Historians Neglect: Language Interpretation

By Wombat | June 28th, 2006 | No Comments

Many books on the history of Indonesia recall events that occurred in the archipelago. Local and international historians with an interest in Indonesia will speak fluently about the chronology of the historical moments. However, some people had a role in history that did not seem to be important, but it was.

They were translators, who were believed to bridge the communications gap between foreigners and locals. It seems, though, that their existence has not been described in detail in any history books.

The tasks of interpreting and translating in Indonesia have a long history. Even though the task of professional interpreter or translator was not formally recognized, bilingual people might have been used to bridge the communication gap between two different languages.

Kees Groeneboer’s translated dissertation, Jalan ke Barat (Journey to the West), tells the history of the 400 years of Dutch language in Indonesia; it indicates that there was an interpreting service even before the era of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, or Dutch East India Company).

For example, he writes that the VOC had direct contact with East Indies nations in Portuguese and Malay. Both languages had been used long before the VOC as the lingua franca and also before interpreters were used formally.

This suggests that interpreters existed even then. Groeneboer puts the word “interpreter” in quotation marks to indicate that there were people who acted as interpreters but were not like today’s interpreters, who are specialized and paid.

Groeneboer, who works now as the language counselor at Dutch Cultural Center Erasmus Huis, South Jakarta, says that during the VOC era, the number of ambtenaar (government employees) functioning as translators was limited.

He added that even if the VOC employed taalambtenaar (language employees), they were usually ordinary employees who worked on a casual basis as translators.

“A majority of traders in the 17th century had to be able to speak Malay and Portuguese. Therefore, many Dutch traders would speak Malay, but that does not mean that no one acted as interpreters or translators, as that was still possible,” says Groeneboer.

(Portuguese and Malay were the major languages in trading and commerce in southeast Asia at that time.)
Groeneboer added that data showing that people worked as translators was to found in many history books, but their existence was not discussed specifically.

Even before the VOC started up, A Teew, in his book A Critical Survey of Studies on Malay and Bahasa Indonesia, says that Antonio Pigafetta produced an Italian-Malay dictionary in 1522, based on Malay spoken in the Moluccas. Continuing Teew’s analysis, the opinion of Bondan Kanumoyoso, a history lecturer who specializes in colonial history from the humanities school, University of Indonesia, was sought.

Bondan, currently a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden, says that Malay became the language that was widely spoken in the southeast Asian and Indonesian trading world until the 18th century. As we all know now, Malay developed into today’s Bahasa Indonesia. That is why Pigafetta made an effort to understand Malay and therefore took the initiative to compile a simple dictionary in order to enable people in his era to communicate with local traders.

However, compared with the era in which the Dutch Indies government took over VOC assets at the end of the 18th century, the use of interpretation services was still limited. This is because the VOC planned only to trade in the East Indies and did not the see the importance of getting involved in the culture and the language of the local people.

“When the VOC was abolished and replaced by the Dutch East Indies government in the late-18th Century, it was the time that the Dutch had to deal with the local culture and system, including language.”

Although he could not confirm who was translating from Dutch to Malay then and vice versa, Bondan confirmed that both parties might have needed interpretation services, especially because they started to deal with legal matters.

In an account of the disintegration of the state of Mataram written by M.C. Ricklefs in his book titled War, Culture and Economy in Java 1677-1726, several letters were sent from local government to VOC headquarters in Batavia. During a conflict between Amangkurat I and Trunajaya, who claimed that Mataram should be under their territory, Cornelis Speelman, the VOC director general appointed in 1678, went to Jepara at the invitation of Amangkurat I. During his stay, he received letters from both conflicting parties seeking basic military assistance in order to defend their territory.

Indeed, a person who could understand both Dutch and Javanese had to translate the letters. Or maybe Speelman had good command of both languages, which made it possible for him to translate written documents. But Ricklefs’ account also says explicitly that even before that period, communication had been established too, and this might have highlighted the need for interpretation services.

Ricklefs also mentioned that during the embarkation of Speelman in Jepara, an Edinburgh-born Scotsman, Jacob Couper, who had served in the VOC since 1663, was sent to Mataram on March 8 1677 to seek ratification of some contracts.

Couper was reputedly fluent in Javanese. From this story, there was a possibility that Couper played a role as a translator and interpreter to bridge the communication gap between the Dutch and the Javanese. This following story might offer further clues to Couper’s status.

Before Couper’s return, Speelman had to send other envoys to Mataram. Ricklef writes that Speelman sent two Javanese officials. From this text, it can be figured out that Couper might have been the only Javanese-speaking foreigner on the ship, for instead of sending other crews to Mataram, Speelman preferred these two Javanese meet the ruler.

In order not to complicate communications with the Mataram party, it was easier to send local people or a foreigner working for the VOC that spoke Javanese. It might be concluded that Couper was the only one; although he might have had a main job, he may have acted also as an interpreter.

Bondan, however, says that there was no evidence to prove that Couper could speak Malay or Javanese. “The most likely thing was that the VOC had hired a native interpreter whose name remains anonymous until now, to communicate with Amangkurat.

“It is rather difficult to imagine that VOC people like Couper could speak personally to the Amangkurat without the assistance of an interpreter, considering the importance of the information’s accuracy in the diplomatic relations between those two independent parties.”

Another way of spreading bilingual capability in the archipelago was through the nobility, Bondan says, “because the people who conducted most of the trade with the VOC mostly came from royal families,” adding that the then-king of Banten was then described as progressive and open-minded.

It is possible that such a person would have been interested in learning and speaking another language. Bondan adds that the VOC was so business-minded and did not have much interest in local culture; therefore it was possible that local people absorbed Dutch culture and language rather than the other way round.

Contrariwise, Groeneboer said it was the Dutch who absorbed more local culture because they had a higher level of education than the native people. “Universities did not exist yet in Indonesia,” he says, adding, though, that many locals could also speak Dutch.

“But for Dutch linguists who may have done the translating and interpreting, they had usually been educated at the University of Leiden or Groningen.”

As usual, the presence of interpreters or translators is “hidden”. The result of their efforts was not shown clearly in the history of the nation. It is rather tantalizing that history does not say more about their existence.

As they were closely involved in facilitating communication in the past, their important role certainly merits further study.

Handewi Soegiharto