The Earth of Mankind
“Write always about humanity, humanity’s life, not humanity’s death. Yes, whether it’s animals, ogres, gods, or ghosts that you present, there’s nothing more difficult to understand than humanity. That’s why there is no end to the telling of stories on this earth."
As an Indonesian, you can never call yourself a scholar if you have never read any book written by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Born in Blora in 1925, Pramoedya was one of Indonesian highly esteemed authors whose books have been translated in 42 languages. People claimed that The Earth of Mankind is one of his masterpiece. This Earth of Mankind is the first of the four books that is known as Buru Quartet. This book is a powerful story of oppression, injustice, and one young man's political, emotional, and intellectual awakening.
While writing This Earth of Mankind, Pramoedya was confined in the prison island of Buru (1969 - 1979), where prisoners did hard labor by clearing jungle with crudest tools and suffered starvation diets, beating, and even torture. In fact, much of Pramoedya's work was written under such circumstances. "I happen to be pretty productive when I am in jail," he once said. "When you are in jail, you have to spend more time with yourself."
First published in 1980, this book was banned by the regime of Soeharto as it is considered to constitute ideology of Marxisme-Leninsme. In this period of time, many copies of the first editions survived and circulated, along with editions published in Malaysia. It was returned to print in Indonesia in 2005 by the publisher Lentera Depantara, after which it had been translated in 33 languages all over the world.
Synopsis
Taken place at the end of the 19th century (1890-1899) in Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), the narrator of This Earth of Mankind is Minke, the first native Javanese boy to attend an elite Dutch colonial high school. A brilliant student, descendant of Javanese royalty and an acutely sensitive observer of the complex and dangerous world around him, Minke's life is disrupted when he is invited to live with a highly unconventional family. Here, Minke meets an extraordinary cast of characters who will force him to confront the entrenched antagonisms of a society built upon racial and gender oppression. The household is headed by Nyai Ontosoroh, a native concubine who runs the family's dairy business and her half-European children: the beautiful Annalies and the treacherous Robert. Minke falles in love with Annalies Mellema, arouses the murderous hatred of Robert Mellema, and through his relationship with Nyai, he takes the first steps on the path that will lead him to become an outspoken opponent of colonial Dutch rulers.
Minke and Nyai shared some traits. Both proud, highly educated, strong-willed individuals who refused to accept the hierarchy that parcels out freedom and power according to the amount of European blood running through one's veins. Through the story that wraps around the consciousness of these two characters and their confrontations with injustice, Pramoedya casts a striking light on the hypocrisy of the European civilization in Indonesia. Nyai, a concubine with no legal rights over her children or the business she has made successful, emanates a moral authority unmatched in the novel. While Minke, although his birth status as a native brought some limitations, was regarded as self-evident to many Europeans. Through his writings and behavior, he was regarded as the equal of anyone.
Review
When I first finished reading the book, the only thing that crossed my mind was: this is the kind of book that needs to be read at least once in a lifetime. Apart from the love stories between Minke and Annelies that envelopes the whole story, there are so much more than just a love story.
Through his writing, Pramoedya took us to dive deep and emotionally involved with each of the characters in the book. Even though the book is classified as historical fiction, the way how life was during the Dutch colonization like the ethnic segregation and the different rights received by different ethnicity were very well described.
Native Indonesians were often oppressed, poorly educated, and considered as slaves whose rights were always neglected. And Minke, who was actually part of the native Indonesian, turned out to be more proud to be part of the European civilization than his own.
This book has nothing but strong characters, from the protagonist to the antagonist. In my personal opinion, I have strong attraction to the character of Nyai Ontosoroh as a bad ass. Strong, independent, and smart, her fights to empower herself and gain her rights cannot be dismissed easily. Sold by her father at the very young age for a simple job promotion, all the characterization found in Nyai Ontosoroh can be seen as figure of feminism.
This Earth of Mankind is an unflinching portrayal of both the suffering caused by colonialism and of human dignity trambled upon. Apart from that, this is also a story of a valiant struggle for freedom. It is one of the most compelling political novels of the twentieth century and an unforgettable attempt to understand humanity in all its complexity.
This book is very suitable to anyone who loves literature and curious about the history of Indonesia during the Dutch colonization. The English language edition of This Earth of Mankind was published by Penguin in 1983. The sequels to this novel, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass, were published over the following several years by Penguin in Australia and the United Kingdom. They were launched into the United States by William Morrow, Hyperion and Penguin in the 1990s.
Dea Putri