Narrative
Letters of a Javanese Princess
Door duisternis tot licht
Raden Ajeng Kartini · 1911
Synopsis
Letters written in Dutch from 1899 to 1904 to Dutch friends and patrons, among them Stella Zeehandelaar, a young woman from Amsterdam, and the Abendanons. Secluded in the house of her father, regent of Jepara, the young Javanese aristocrat writes there of the culture of Java, colonialism, religion and the emancipation of women; she calls for schools for girls and speaks out against forced marriages, polygamy and seclusion. The last letters follow her marriage and her first steps as a teacher.
Context
The letters were collected and published in 1911 in The Hague by Jacques Henry Abendanon, director of education, worship and industry in the Dutch East Indies and one of their recipients; he removed the passages on colonial figures, Islam and Javanese culture. The book was translated into English in 1920 by Agnes Symmers, into Malay in 1922, and into French in 1960 by Louis-Charles Damais for UNESCO. The originals, held in Leiden, were translated in full into English in 2014 and inscribed by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Register in 2025.
Who it is for
A collection of letters, published after her death in a selected and cut edition. It is worth knowing that the seclusion of young noblewomen was then the rule in Java.
Prizes and reception
Her letters made her a figure of Indonesian feminism: national heroine in 1964, she has been celebrated every 21 April since 1946.