Ibu Maluku: The Story of Jeanne van Diejen

Rating:
Summary: A Meaty Volume
Review: It takes a long a time to get through this book -you get to read a lot for your money!
It must be a fascinating reading for those interested in how the Dutch lived in Maluku in the first half of the 20th century.
The first part of the story tells how a young Dutch couple move to North Maluku (first Mangole in the Sula Islands, then to Tobelo on Halmahera) after the First World War to establish their own plantation. This is very much a story of colonial life - information on the life of the native people of Maluku is rather scarce.
The second part describes life under the Japanese occupation - mostly as POW in camps on Ambon and in South Sulawesi. It is interesting for her rather objective description of the Japanese, who are shown to be humans after all.
In the third part, van Diejen describes how she stays on after Indonesia becomes independent, becoming a social worker. With most of the Dutch (and her plantation) now gone, she is now working with Indonesians and spends much time visiting remote regions. This is the part which contains the most interesting descriptions of Maluku and its people.