Colonial Figures: Memories of Street Traders in the Colonial and Early Post-colonial Periods

This article explores post-colonial memories about street traders among individuals who lived in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies. It argues that these narratives romanticize the relationship between Europeans and indigenous peoples. Street vendors are also used to differentiate between periods within colonial and post-colonial history. The nostalgic representation of interracial contact between Europeans and traders is contrasted with representations of other figures such as the Japanese and the nationalist. A recurring feature of these representations is the ability of Europeans to speak with street traders and imagine what they wanted and needed. The traders are remembered as a social type that transgressed politics and represented the neutrality of the economic sphere as a place for shared communication. The article concludes that the figure of the street vendor contributes to the nostalgic reinvention of the colony but is also used in narratives to differentiate between and mark changes across the colonial and post-colonial periods

Remembrance of Dutch War Dead in Southeast Asia, 1942-1945

Recognition of the war experience in Southeast Asia in the Netherlands was not easy. The Indisch community, those who had to leave the Netherlands East Indies after decolonization, did not feel that their war experience was accepted. Following the story of one man, a former POW, this article shows how unorthodox ways of protesting were used to command respect and acknowledgement. The arena for these actions was not only the Indisch monument in the Netherlands, but also the War cemetery in Thailand. The former Dutch POW ended up in a dispute with the Australian caretaker of that cemetery over the specific location of a camp. Both men, however, were motivated by the same urge to find the exact locations of camps along the Burma railway. The story of this POW shows how important official recognition is on a personal level